There will be no opening statements. President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump will each have two minutes to answer questions followed by one-minute rebuttals and responses to the rebuttals. Red lights visible to the candidates will flash when they have five seconds left, and turn solid red when time has expired. And each man's microphone will be muted when it is not his turn to speak.
The 90-minute contest in Atlanta on June 27 is circled as one of the most consequential moments on this year's campaign calendar, as Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump will outline their sharply contrasting visions for the nation, appearing together for the first time since their last debate, in October 2020. The two men are readying themselves for the debate in ways almost as different as their approaches to the presidency itself.
Mr. Trump has long preferred looser conversations, batting around themes, ideas and one-liners more informally among advisers. He held one session at the Republican National Committee headquarters this past week. Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden plainly do not like each other. The former president calls the current president the worst in American history. The current president calls his predecessor a wannabe dictator who threatens democracy itself.
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