ABC in Focus

The eyes of an anxious nation are about to turn to ABC News.

The Disney-owned network on Tuesday will host the first — and perhaps the only — presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, live from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. With less than 60 days until the November election, and with early voting commencing soon, the weight of the moment is palpable from coast to coast.

The stakes could not be clearer as Trump loudly threatens to jail fellow Americans and stokes debunked — but damaging — conspiracy theories about the electoral system, in addition to his regular appalling and norm-breaking behavior. Indeed, as Harris and Trump meet for the debate, the future direction of the country and democracy hang in the balance.

Which is all to say that a mountain of pressure will be on moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.

Moderating is "a uniquely stressful experience and in their case, literally the entire race can hinge on it," one television anchor, who has moderated presidential debates in the past, underscored to me Monday.

The consequential primetime showdown is set to be simulcast by every major news network, in addition to being streamed across the internet. For roughly 90 minutes, America's eyes will be fixated on the ABC News stage — a rarity in the fragmented media landscape of 2024. And with the election so near, expectations are that it will out-rate the CNN debate, which took place in the summer just ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, but still drew a healthy average of 51 million viewers.

That said, when the country tuned in for that debate, it turned out to be the most consequential in modern U.S. history, with President Joe Biden performing so poorly on the CNN stage that he was forced to drop out of the race. Which is to say, anything can happen when the cameras turn on and the two candidates — who have never met each other — begin to trade barbs.

It will be up to Muir and Davis to keep the evening on track, a challenging and unenviable task they will have to perform under intense public scrutiny. While Trump generally respected the terms of the CNN debate, he has a lengthy history violating ground rules.

Like with the CNN debate, Muir and Davis will be aided in keeping order by the absence of a live audience. And, more importantly, each candidate's microphone will be muted when their rival has the floor — something the Harris campaign aggressively fought against so that a more obnoxious Trump would be showcased to the nation, but ultimately lost.

Even if Trump respects the ground rules, however, his frequent lying will pose a thorny challenge to Muir and Davis. While not feasible to fact-check every falsehood peddled in real-time, the moderators do have a responsibility to maintain some basic baseline of truth. Yes, much of the onus will fall on Harris. But placing the entire burden on her would also not be fair or wise as it could create a he-said, she-said dynamic on issues of such significance as the outcome of the 2020 election or the violence of the January 6 insurrection.

In addition to Muir and Davis, the debate will also be a significant test for newly minted ABC News chief Almin Karamehmedovic, who hasn't even been at the helm of the network for a month. Karamehmedovic will surely be eager to show his bosses back in Burbank that he is capable of executing an event of this magnitude. Debra OConnell, the Disney executive who oversees ABC News as part of her portfolio, will also certainly be judged on how the evening transpires.

Ultimately, if the moderators and network executives stay out of the limelight, they will have done their job well. As another longtime television anchor, who has also moderated presidential debates in the past, noted to me, "Success as a moderator is when he or she is not the story at the end of the night. It’s all about the candidates."

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