Presidential debate (October 22, 2020)
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The Commission on Presidential Debates held the final presidential debate on October 22, 2020, between President Donald Trump (R) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D).
The debate was 90 minutes without commercial breaks. It was divided into six, 15-minute segments on the following topics selected by moderator, NBC News' Kristen Welker.[1][2]
- Fighting COVID-19
- American families
- Race in America
- Climate change
- National security
- Leadership
The commission announced on October 19 that each candidate's microphone would be muted during the other candidate's two-minute opening remarks for each of the six segments. During the rest of the debate, the microphones would be on for open discussion. Both campaigns agreed to the rule.[3][4]
To qualify, a candidate had to meet certain constitutional, ballot access, and polling requirements. Click here to learn more about them.
Joe Biden (D) |
Donald Trump (R) |
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Debate overview
Video and transcript
By the numbers
Candidate highlights
The candidates discussed the coronavirus pandemic, election interference, foreign conflicts of interest, China, North Korea, healthcare, economic stimulus, immigration, race, and climate change.
This section includes highlights for each presidential candidate. The following paraphrased statements were compiled from the transcript of the debate.
Joe Biden said Trump did not take responsibility for the 220,000 deaths caused by the coronavirus in the United States or have a plan to safely reopen the economy and schools. He said his healthcare plan, Bidencare, would be Obamacare with a public option. Biden said Trump’s family separation policy violated the nation’s values. Biden called climate change an existential threat. He said the country needed to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy over time.
Donald Trump said a coronavirus vaccine would be available sooner than what his officials projected. He said schools and businesses needed to reopen. Trump said Biden failed to address immigration and criminal justice reform while he was vice president. He also said that Biden and his family received money from foreign countries. Trump said his tax and regulatory policy would help rebuild the economy. He said success would unify the country.
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:[5]
- 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.[6] 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.[7]
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.[8]
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.[9]
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.[10]
| 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
- ↑ Washington Post, "What to know about the 2020 presidential debates," August 14, 2020
- ↑ Commission on Presidential Debates, "Moderator Announces Topics for Oct. 22 Presidential Debate," October 16, 2020
- ↑ Politico, "Debate commission to cut the mics at Trump-Biden showdown," October 19, 2020
- ↑ NPR, "Debate Commission To Mute Candidates' Mics At Start Of Each Segment," October 19, 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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