The second US presidential debate brought a volley of accusations between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the candidates met in St. Louis. The action and reaction is followed here by the FT DC bureau team, led by Barney Jopson, Courtney Weaver while Anna Nicolaou is reading the mood among supporters in the bar at Trump Tower.

In progress US presidential debate: Trump vs Clinton round two

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Some participant features are not available in Internet Explorer; please use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome instead. </s> Livestream and live updates from fact-checkers on Twitter during the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on October 9, 2016, in St. Louis. Watch here and on CNN at 9 p.m. ET. </s> Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will make history as they take the stage together for the first time on Monday night (Tuesday morning India time), when they meet in New York for the first of the three presidential debates. It is for the first time in US presidential history that a male and female candidate will be facing off.

Both candidates have a lot at stake and each will have different opportunities and challenges in the debates.

Here are 7 things you need to know, including some you probably didn’t know, about the US presidential debate.

IMAGE: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will face off in their first debate on Tuesday morning Indian time. Photograph: Reuters

1) Where is it happening and when?

The first debate will be held at the Hofstra University in New York’s Long Island area. Hofstra is no newcomer to the debates, having hosted them in 2008 and 2012.

The debate will air in India at 9 pm ET (6.30 am IST on Tuesday). The questions will focus on three broad themes: America’s Direction, Achieving Prosperity and Securing America.

The second debate, on October 9 at Washington University in St Louis, will be moderated by Martha Raddatz of ABC and Anderson Cooper of CNN, while the third debate will be held on October 19 at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. It will be moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News.

2) Why is the debate historic?

This will be the first time in history that a male and female candidate will face off on a presidential debate stage. And like it or not, they will be judged differently.

Gender communications research shows that men, when they are aggressive, are received positively. When women are perceived as aggressive, they are received negatively. A lot thus rides on these debates.

3) How does the debate work?

The debate, which will be moderated be NBC News’s Lester Holt, will be 90 minutes long with six 15-minute segments and shall have no commercial interruptions.

Apart from the three broad themes referred to earlier, three more questions related to news events that took place this week will also be put to the candidates.

The moderator will open each segment with a question. Each candidate will have two minutes to respond; each will then be allowed to reply to the other's response. The moderator will use the remaining time for follow-up questions.

Each broad theme will be discussed for 30 minutes.

4) How are the candidates prepping for the debate?

While Clinton has a lengthy record of meticulous preparation and formidable performances, Trump has been more unpredictable on this front. After his controversial utterances he needs to be more a sober candidate and stick to the script.

To prepare for the debate, Clinton has been holding mock debate sessions where her aide Philippe Reines essays the role of Trump.

Trump aides said their candidate, who like Clinton participated in numerous TV debates during their respective parties’ nominating races, was preparing hard for the event. His coaches have focused for weeks on training him to stay on course and not drift off the message by booking events where he is trained to stick to the teleprompter.

5) What are the stakes for the candidates?

Both Clinton and Trump enter the debate as the two most deeply unpopular presidential candidates in recent history. The temerarious Trump needs and will have a chance to show the depth and steadiness worthy of a commander-in-chief.

Clinton will have a chance to prove her honesty (some 55 per cent of American voters fail her on this count) and will also have to prove that she has fully recovered from her recent bout of pneumonia.

6) How many people will watch the debates?

Many observers believe that the size of the audience is expected to challenge the presidential debate record of 80 million who watched the 1980 debate between then president Jimmy Carter and Republican challenger Ronald Reagan.

7) What about the candidates’ running mates?

The vice presidential bets Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia and Governor Mike Pence of Indiana will have one debate at Longwood University in Virgina on October 4. That debate will be moderated by Elaine Quijano of CBS News. </s> Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, speaks during the third presidential debate at University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Wednesday for the third presidential debate. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) </s> Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will have the debate stage to themselves at Hofstra University in two weeks.

The bipartisan commission that manages the general election skirmishes said Friday that two third party candidates seeking podiums had failed the qualify for the first match.

Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was once thought to have a shot at reaching the 15 percent threshold in national polls. He came nowhere close in the surveys that were used to determine who made the cut, however, attracting a little more than half of what he would have needed - 8.4 percent.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein was even worse off at 3.2 percent.

The Commission on Presidential Debates said Friday afternoon in a statement that its 'Board determined that the polling averages called for in the third criterion are as follows: Hillary Clinton (43%), Donald Trump (40.4%), Gary Johnson (8.4%) and Jill Stein (3.2%).

'Accordingly, Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, and Donald Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, qualify to participate in the September 26 presidential debate and the October 4 vice-presidential debate, respectively. '

Those debates will take place at Hoftra, in Hempstead, New York, less than 10 miles outside the Big Apple, and Longwood, University, in Farmville, Virginia.

'No other candidates satisfied the criteria for inclusion in the September 26 and October 4 debates. The criteria will be reapplied to all candidates in advance of the second and third presidential debates,' the statement said. </s> FARMVILLE, Va. (AP) — Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine have arrived at the site of the first and only vice presidential debate.

The candidates will face off just past 9 p.m. at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Advisers for the candidates suggest there could be fireworks during the 90-minute affair, although vice presidential debates rarely change the direction of a presidential race.

Elaine Quijano of CBS News serves as the moderator.

Neither candidate is as well-known as his running mate. Pence is a first-term governor and previously served as a congressman. Kaine is former Virginia governor and now serves the state in the Senate.

Donald Trump is campaigning in Colorado, but he said he’d be “live tweeting” the debate. Hillary Clinton is at home in New York. </s> Sunday night is round two of the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump presidential debates -- it’s likely to attract a lot of attention, especially given the emergence of a decade-old tape of Trump speaking about women in surprisingly vulgar terms that have earned him the condemnation of most Republicans, even those who have supported his campaign.

The debate, which will be a town hall meeting format, will be hosted by ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s Anderson Cooper at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Both candidates squared off at the first debate on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University on Long Island in Hempstead, New York.

NBC appears to be the only major broadcast news network not airing the debate. Instead, it will be airing the NFL’s New York Giants away game against the Green Bay Packers.

Watch CBSN starting at 11a.m. ET for full coverage of the debate

The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) said half of the questions in the second debate will be posed directly by citizen participants and the other half will be “based on topics of broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources.”

Each candidate will have two minutes to respond to each question and the moderator will be able to facilitate a deeper discussion for an additional minute. Gallup is selecting uncommitted voters to participate in the town hall.

The commission determined which candidates was eligible for the second debate by averaging support among five different general election polls and it also required that each candidate must have constitutional eligibility -- like being at least 35 years of age and a natural born citizen of the U.S. Each candidate must also have his or her name appear on enough state ballots “to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority” in November’s election.

Earlier this week, the commission announced that the polling averages from the five polls for the second debate had Clinton at 44.8 percent and Trump at 40.8 percent. With Libertarian Gary Johnson at 7.4 percent support and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 2.6 percent support, they both did not qualify.

Most voters said Clinton won the first debate, according to polls. Trump also complained about his microphone at the first debate and the commission later admitted that there was an issue with his audio, which affected how he was heard in the debate hall.

While Trump suggested he would bring up Bill Clinton’s sexual history during the second debate, he told the New York Post’s Page Six that he isn’t planning to do that after all. That was, however, before the Trump tape emerged. Since then, Trump has already brought up Bill Clinton’s past twice -- “Bill Clinton has actually abused women,” he said of the former president in what was supposed to be a video apology for his own lewd words.

That vulgar tape has caused several Republican lawmakers to call for Trump to quit the presidential race, paving the way for Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, to lead the GOP ticket. On Saturday, however, Trump remained defiant about staying in the race, tweeting out that “I WILL NEVER DROP OUT OF THE RACE, WILL NEVER LET MY SUPPORTERS DOWN!”

Clinton’s campaign condemned Trump’s 2005 comments, calling them “horrific,” but has not commented further on the controversy. According to her campaign, her first remarks on Trump and the tape are planned to be early in the debate Sunday night.

The debate also comes a few days after Hurricane Matthew affected millions along the southern part of the East Coast, including in key battleground state Florida.

Trump held his own town hall event on Thursday night in New Hampshire after his advisers urged him to practice for Sunday night.

Since the first debate, The New York Times published a report that showed he posted a $916 million loss in his 1995 tax returns they obtained, which means he could have avoided paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years. Trump has said that he can’t release his returns because he’s under audit, but that doesn’t bar someone from making them public. The Trump campaign has also not provided evidence that the GOP presidential nominee is currently under audit.

→ What: Second general election presidential debate

→ Where: Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

→ When: 9 p.m. ET

→ On TV: CBS News, other broadcast/cable news channels

→ Online: CBSN, among many websites, will live-stream the event

→ CBSN will cover the debate beginning at 7 p.m. ET </s> This debate will be moderated by NBC news anchor Lester Holt for whom this will be the first time handling a presidential debate.

On Monday 9 pm (6 am IST), the two US presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, face off in their first debate. The US presidential debate is a tradition followed since 1960 to know the candidates off their campaign trails and convention halls.

This debate will be moderated by NBC news anchor Lester Holt for whom this will be the first time handling a presidential debate. The Presidential debate, which is televised across the country, takes place usually at a university with a large audience of over 1500 people. The first presidential debate of 2016 will take place at Hofstra University in New York.

This is one of the most anticipated events as the two candidates come with certain amount of baggage. There are scandals looming over both Clinton and Trump, weekly polls wavering in their predictions and back-and-forth negative campaigning.

The Republican candidate Donald Trump is known for his “showmanship”. The former TV show host has enraged the public since his announcement as candidate in 2015 by calling “Mexicans rapists and murderers”. But Trump has his fervent following as he won state after state before being somewhat reluctantly crowned as the Grand Old Party’s candidate. Trump’s claim that he’s an “outsider” (meaning someone not from the political circle of Washington DC) has been his biggest pitch working in his favour.

On the other hand, Clinton may make history by becoming the first female president of America. While Trump faces flak for his over-the-top appeal and harsh stand on immigration, what’s working against Hillary Clinton is another ball game altogether. Ghosts of her private email server during her time as secretary of state continue to haunt her. It is also one of the reasons why she’s rated “untrustworthy” by democrats.

How much of the debate will influence the voters? Will we get clarity from Trump on his policies? Will substance trump style?

If you are wondering why you’ve been hearing about the US elections, which will take place in November 2016, for more than a year now, here’s a quick lesson through the process involved.

US elections 101: How does the US elect its president?

The first-ever televised debate between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon was rated as the most-viewed TV programme then. Today, it will be televised, live-streamed, live-blogged (like this one) and live-tweeted. It may probably even be the highest-viewed programme ever and yes, that’s including Game of Thrones season finale. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party hopeful Jill Stein have failed to quality for the first planned U.S. presidential debate on Sept. 26, the Commission on Presidential Debates said on Friday.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is seen during an interview before a rally in New York, U.S., September 10, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Kauzlarich

The commission, citing the averages the various candidates have achieved in selected polls, confirmed that Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton had met the criteria.

It also said that the vice presidential running mates of the two leading candidates were the only two to qualify for the vice presidential debate set for Oct. 4.

The first presidential debate will be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York and the vice presidential debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Using the average of five national polls, Clinton scored 43 percent, Trump 40.4 percent, Johnson 8.4 percent and Stein 3.2 percent, the commission said. Selection for the debates requires at least 15 percent support.

Johnson and Stein were both constitutionally eligible and had ballot access in enough states to theoretically win an electoral college majority, but missed the polling threshold.

Stein’s campaign website said she and her running mate Ajamu Baraka will both attend the first presidential debate, and urged supporters to join them. The campaign said it might ask supporters to attempt to escort the candidates into the debate in an action that “may lead to arrest — it is possible but not definite. There will be actions you can take with us at Hofstra that do not risk arrest.”

The campaign said it is “organizing nonviolent civil resistance training for this.”

Johnson said in a statement that: “I would say I’m surprised that the CPD has chosen to exclude me from the first debate, but I’m not.”

The commission was a private organization created by the Republican and Democratic parties “for the clear purpose of taking control of the only nationally televised presidential debates voters will see,” Johnson said.

The last time a third-party candidate was allowed to participate in the televised debates was in 1992, when Ross Perot met the requirements running as an independent.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hold the second presidential debate of the 2016 U.S. presidential election at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in a "town meeting" format.