About the first US presidential debate 2016

On Monday night 9 pm ET, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump the two US presidential candidates will be face to face in their first debate.

Debate is a part of election campaigning of US presidential candidates since 1960 which is televised across the US.

Today's debate will be moderated by NBC's Lester Holt who will be moderating such a debate for the first time.

This debate will take place at Hofstra University of New York. Traditionally presidential debates are held at university with few thousands of people forming the audience.
What makes today's debate more interesting is the fact that both the candidates have certain scandals to handle. The polls have shown that both the candidates are almost neck to neck in popularity.

The election campaign of Clinton and Trump has been negative with media dubbing Republican Trump's campaign as lot of showmanship.

It is notable to know that if Hillary Clinton wins the election she will be the first woman president of the US. Hillary will have a tough time talking about the private email use when she was Secretary of State.

Trump has won his supporters and critics both thanks to his stand on immigrants. The self-confessed "outsider" Trump's strong point has been the he is not from the political circle of the US and this is what has worked best for him till date.

It will be interesting to find out how today's debate will influence the voters. Today's debate will be the highest viewed programme as it will be live-streamed and blogged live too as millions tune to their television sets to listen to the first presidential debate of 2016.

Here is what makes today's presidential debate interesting.

Hillary Clinton has taken part in mock debates with her former aide Philippe Reines acting as Trump. Trump for himself didn't hold any mock debate as part of preparation for today's debate. However, he did watch videos of Hillary Clinton.

As is usually the norm this time around there has been no written agreement that sets out the terms for the debate between the two candidates. The terms set in the past for previous debates have also included what will be the height of the podium apart from the topics for the debate and time that will be allowed to the candidates to answer questions.

Here are some of the notable comments pouring in before the big debate begins.

Mike Pence on Donald Trump's debate plan: "We'll see where it goes".

OMG Trump actually sounds like a serious candidate perhaps for the first time in this entire campaign #HillaryVsTrump - Barkha Dutt

At this stage, neither impresses me. One of the most non-appealing presidential debates I've watched in all these years. - Ashok Malik