Moderator Chris Wallace has selected a list of official topics for tonight’s nationally televised presidential debate, the first of several prior to Nov. 3. Before you tune in tonight, Sept. 29 at 9 p.m. EDT, watch these FRONTLINE documentaries for context on four key subjects slated for discussion, from the coronavirus to the Supreme Court.

Trump and Biden’s Records

The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden offers interwoven investigative biographies of both men, focused on how they have responded to crises throughout their lives.

The Supreme Court

Supreme Revenge traces Sen. Mitch McConnell’s decades-long effort to shape America’s highest court, a push that has continued in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

The Virus: What Went Wrong? examines why America was so unprepared when the coronavirus pandemic hit, and how it became the country with more coronavirus deaths than any other.

Race, Policing and Violence

Policing the Police 2020 investigates efforts to reimagine policing amid a national reckoning with racism in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s killings.

And stay tuned: FRONTLINE will premiere a documentary that speaks to another slated debate topic, the integrity of the election, on Oct. 20 at 10 p.m. EDT. With Jelani Cobb and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Whose Vote Counts will dig into allegations of disenfranchisement, questions about voter fraud, and the realities of how the pandemic is swaying election turnout.

Watch tonight’s presidential debate via our colleagues at PBS NewsHour.

Patrice Taddonio, Senior Digital Writer, FRONTLINE

Email:

patrice_taddonio@wgbh.org

Twitter:

@ptaddonio