Presidential debate (October 15, 2020)
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On October 9, 2020, the Commission on Presidential Debates canceled the second of three presidential debates between President Donald Trump (R) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D). The event had been scheduled for October 15, 2020.[1]
Following Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis, the commission announced on October 8, 2020, that the debate would be held virtually in order to protect the health and safety of the participants. The commission planned for moderator Steve Scully to conduct the town hall-style event with attendees asking questions in Miami, while the candidates participated remotely.[2]
The Biden campaign agreed to the virtual format. Trump said in an interview that he would not participate. “I am not going to waste my time on a virtual debate,” he said.[3]
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said, “We'll pass on this sad excuse to bail out Joe Biden and do a rally instead,” In a second statement, Stepien said the second debate should be moved to October 22 and the third moved to October 29. The Biden campaign rejected the proposal to move the third debate, saying in a statement, “We look forward to participating in the final debate, scheduled for October 22, which already is tied for the latest debate date in 40 years. Donald Trump can show up, or he can decline again. That's his choice.” ABC News also announced it would hold a town hall with Biden on October 15. [4]
The Trump campaign issued another statement on October 9 calling for the second debate to go forward in-person as originally planned. The commission said that it would not reconsider its decision to make the second debate virtual.[4]
On June 23, 2020, the commission announced the second presidential debate was moving from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida. Mark Schlissel, the president of the University of Michigan, said the complexity of preparing for a safe reopening during the coronavirus pandemic made hosting the debate unfeasible.[5][6]
Candidate selection criteria
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) used the following criteria to select candidates to participate in the 2020 general election presidential debates:[7]
- The candidate must satisfy the constitutional eligibility requirements, including being at least 35 years old, a natural born citizen, and a resident of the United States for fourteen years.
- The candidate must appear on enough state ballots to be eligible to secure at least 270 electoral votes—a majority in the Electoral College—or more.
- The candidate must receive, on average, at least 15% support nationally in the most recent polls from five public opinion polling organizations. The CPD will use the following polls:
- ABC/Washington Post Poll
- CNN Poll
- Fox News Poll
- NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll
- NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll
General election debates
- See also: Presidential debates, 2020
The following table provides an overview of the date, location, and host in each scheduled 2020 general election debate.
| 2020 general election debates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debate | Date | Location | Host | |
| First presidential debate | September 29, 2020 | Cleveland, Ohio | Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic | |
| Vice presidential debate | October 7, 2020 | Salt Lake City, Utah | University of Utah | |
| Second presidential debate | Canceled |
Miami, Florida | Adrienne Arsht Center | |
| Third presidential debate | October 22, 2020 | Nashville, Tennessee | Belmont University | |
Democratic presidential primary debates, 2019-2020
- See also: Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
The following table provides an overview of the date, location, host, and number of participants in each scheduled 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.
History of televised presidential debates
Although the 1960 general election debate between John F. Kennedy (D) and Richard Nixon (R) is frequently cited as the first televised presidential debate, two came before it.
The first televised presidential debate took place on May 21, 1956, when an ABC affiliate in Miami broadcast a Democratic primary debate between Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver.[8] In the general election that year, Stevenson and incumbent President Dwight Eisenhower (R) used surrogates in a televised debate on November 4, 1956. They were represented by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (D) and Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R), respectively.[9]
The Kennedy-Nixon debates that took place four years later showed the importance of television as a visual medium, "Nixon, pale and underweight from a recent hospitalization, appeared sickly and sweaty, while Kennedy appeared calm and confident. As the story goes, those who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon had won. But those listeners were in the minority. ... Those that watched the debate on TV thought Kennedy was the clear winner. Many say Kennedy won the election that night," TIME reported on the 50th anniversary of the event.[10]
While a handful of presidential primary debates were held between 1964 and 1972, the televised presidential debate did not become a staple of American politics until 1976.[11]
Overview
The following chart shows the number of presidential and vice presidential debates that took place in each election cycle between 1960 and 2024.
List of presidential debates, 1960-2024
The following table shows the date, location, and moderators for each presidential debate between 1960 and 2024.[12]
| Presidential debates, 1960-2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Location | Moderator |
| September 26, 1960 | Chicago, IL | Howard K. Smith, CBS News |
| October 7, 1960 | Washington, D.C. | Frank McGee, NBC |
| October 13, 1960 | Los Angeles, CA / New York, NY | Bill Shadel, ABC |
| October 21, 1960 | New York, NY | Quincy Howe, ABC News |
| September 23, 1976 | Philadelphia, PA | Edwin Newman, NBC News |
| October 6, 1976 | San Francisco, CA | Pauline Frederick, NPR |
| October 22, 1976 | Williamsburg, VA | Barbara Walters, ABC News |
| September 21, 1980 | Baltimore, MD | Bill Moyers, PBS |
| October 28, 1980 | Cleveland, OH | Howard K. Smith, ABC News |
| October 7, 1984 | Louisville, KY | Barbara Walters, ABC News |
| October 21, 1984 | Kansas City, MO | Edwin Newman, formerly NBC News |
| September 25, 1988 | Winson-Salem, N.C. | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 13, 1988 | Los Angeles, CA | Bernard Shaw, CNN |
| October 11, 1992 | St. Louis, MO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 15, 1992 | Richmond, VA | Carole Simpson, ABC |
| October 19, 1992 | East Lansing, MI | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 6, 1996 | Hartford, CT | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 16, 1996 | San Diego, CA | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 3, 2000 | Boston, MA | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 11, 2000 | Winson-Salem, N.C. | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 17, 2000 | St. Louis, MO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| September 30, 2004 | Coral Gables, FL | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 8, 2004 | St. Louis, MO | Charles Gibson, ABC |
| October 13, 2004 | Tempe, AZ | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| September 26, 2008 | Oxford, MS | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 7, 2008 | Nashville, TN | Tom Brokaw, NBC |
| October 15, 2008 | Hempstead, NY | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| October 3, 2012 | Denver, CO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 16, 2012 | Hempstead, NY | Candy Crowley, CNN |
| October 22, 2012 | Boca Raton, FL | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| September 26, 2016 | Hempstead, NY | Lester Holt, NBC |
| October 9, 2016 | St. Louis, MO | Martha Raddatz, ABC Anderson Cooper, CNN |
| October 19, 2016 | Las Vegas, NV | Chris Wallace, FOX |
| September 29, 2020 | Cleveland, OH | Chris Wallace, FOX |
| October 22, 2020 | Nashville, TN | Kristen Welker, NBC |
| June 27, 2024 | Atlanta, GA | Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, CNN |
| September 10, 2024 | Philadelphia, PA | David Muir and Linsey Davis, ABC |
See also
- Presidential debates, 2020
- Presidential candidates, 2020
- Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
- Republican presidential nomination, 2020
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
Footnotes
- ↑ CNN, "Commission cancels second debate between Trump and Biden," October 9, 2020
- ↑ Commission on Presidential Debates, "CPD Announces Second Presidential Debate Will Be Virtual," October 8, 2020
- ↑ Politico, "‘I’m not going to waste my time’: Trump says he won’t do virtual debate against Biden," October 8, 2020
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 CBS News, "2nd presidential debate in doubt after Trump objects to virtual format," October 9, 2020
- ↑ Talking Points Memo, "Presidential Debate To Be Moved To Miami After UMich Withdraws Commitment To Host," June 23, 2020
- ↑ Commission on Presidential Debates, "Statement: Second Presidential Debate," June 23, 2020
- ↑ Commission on Presidential Debates, "Commission on Presidential Debates Announces Polls to be used in 2020 Candidate Selection Criteria," August 28, 2020
- ↑ Illinois Channel, "From 1956, the First Televised Presidential Debate," June 15, 2016
- ↑ United States Senate, "The First Televised Presidential Debate," accessed June 12, 2019
- ↑ TIME, "How the Nixon-Kennedy Debate Changed the World," September 23, 2010
- ↑ Center for Politics, "Eight Decades of Debate," July 30, 2015
- ↑ Commission on Presidential Debates, "Debate History," accessed September 28, 2020
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