The Times' bombshell report comes just before Trump & Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will share a stage for the first time Tuesday as a slate of high-stakes debates w/ the ability to shape the November contest officially kicks off. 

Six topics at play. The first debate, which will be moderated by Fox News' Chris Wallace, will run for 90 minutes & focus on six topics: 

"The Trump & Biden Records," "The Supreme Court" (more on that in a minute), "Covid-19," "The Economy," "Race & Violence in our Cities" and "The Integrity of the Election."

Biden enters the week a clear favorite. A new Quinnipiac University national poll finds Biden with a 52% to 42% lead over Trump among likely voters.

That's somewhat of a more optimistic result for Biden than the average of national polls, which has Biden's margin closer to 7 points.

Preparation. Both campaigns have been quiet about how the candidates are preparing. But as CNN's campaign team details: 

Biden's early debate preparations focused on reading briefing books and holding smaller prep sessions w/ policy aides, people familiar w/ his preparations said. He typically prefers having aides pepper him w/ questions in rapid-fire form over conducting full mock debates, those people said.

Trump, according to a source familiar w/ his debate preparations, is studying expected attacks from Biden. The focus of the preparations are a series of notecards the President is reviewing -- the front lays out an expected Biden attack while the back of the card has bullets of what Trump has done on the topic, what he will do in a second term and how to turn the attack back on the former vice president.

A debate like no other. The Tuesday evening contest will look noticeably different from past matchups due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The audience size will be drastically smaller than prior presidential debates, Frank Fahrenkopf, co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is conducting the event, told CNN.

Normally, the average in-person audience is around 900 people, w/ up to as many as 1,200 depending on the venue, according to Fahrenkopf. He estimates 60 to 70 audience members will be seated at the Case Western Reserve University.