Apple Co-Hosting Tonight’s US Democratic Debate Alongside ABC News

Apple will co-host its first-ever political debate tonight in an effort to show off its growing investment in news.

According to a new Gizmodo report, the debate will feature deep integrations with Apple’s news product, which bills itself as a more curated, editorially-focused news experience than that which exists on other big tech platforms.

Users of the Apple News app can submit questions from their Mac, iPhone, iPad, or even iPod touch with the submissions handled via email, which then go directly to the ABC News Political Unit, with Apple News coverage of the whole shebang thanks to a partnership with ABC and WMUR-TV.

Apple has also built several special features to highlight coverage of the presidential election, including real-time election results data from the Associated Press, policy resource guides for readers, a guide to each presidential candidate, and a news literacy guide to help readers identify misinformation online.

“Definitely, ABC is giving the news legitimacy to Apple,” said Ken Doctor, an analyst with the site Medianomics. “It is putting Apple into the league of being a news company, and that is giving them a lot of legitimacy for a company that pays so few journalists.”

The Democrats that will be on stage for this Friday’s debate are: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Amy Klobuchar, former Vice President Joe Biden, Former mayor Pete Buttigieg, investor Tom Steyer, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

If you want to watch the Democratic debate on February 7, you will be able to livestream the event via the Apple News app itself.