Biden and Trump Will Get Muted Mics at Tonight's Final Presidential Debate
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The November election is quickly approaching. As people continue to register to vote and prepare to fill out their ballots, presidential debates between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden have been set to take place before Election Day.
Below, we break down all the information you need to watch the debates, including the dates, times, and moderators.
The final debate will mute Biden and Trump.
After a disastrous first debate, in which the two contenders loudly talked over both each other and the moderator, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that the microphones for both Biden and Trump will be periodically muted during the last debate.
The debate format will remain the same: Each candidate will have two minutes to answer a question uninterrupted. Thereafter, the two will be allowed to freely engage with each other for the rest of the segment. The difference this go-round: The mic of the opposing candidate will be muted during the other's two minutes.
When are the debates?
Three debates were originally scheduled to take place before the general election, as confirmed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, but the second was canceled. Each debate will start at 9 p.m. ET and run for 90 minutes with no commercial breaks.
Tuesday, September 29, at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio)
Thursday, October 22, at Belmont University (Nashville, Tennessee)
The debate originally scheduled for Thursday, October 15, at the Adrienne Arsht Center in (Miami, Florida) was canceled.
The only vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and California senator Kamala Harris took place on Wednesday, October 7, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
How can I watch?
The debates will be broadcast on major networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, MSNBC, and C-SPAN.
If you don't have TV access, you can also watch livestreams via the above networks' YouTube channels. Further streaming devices include Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Xbox One, and more.
Remember to tune in by 9 p.m. ET to catch the full debate.
Who is moderating?
The New York Times reported the moderators for each debate: Chris Wallace, anchor of Fox News Sunday, hosted the first debate; Steve Scully, the senior executive producer of C-SPAN, was supposed to host the second; and Kristen Welker, an NBC White House correspondent, will host the third.
The vice presidential debate was moderated by USA Today's Susan Page.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said in a statement, per the Times, "These are not the moderators we would have recommended if the campaign had been allowed to have any input. Some can be identified as clear opponents of President Trump, meaning Joe Biden will actually have a teammate on stage most of the time to help him excuse the radical, leftist agenda he is carrying."
Meanwhile, Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said in a statement, per BBC, "As Joe Biden has said for months—without farcical antics—he looks forward to participating in the debates set by the commission, regardless of who the independently chosen moderators are."
According to the Commission's website, moderators are selected based on three criteria: familiarity with the candidates and major issues within their campaigns, extensive experience in live broadcast news, and "an understanding that the debate should focus maximum time and attention on the candidates and their views."
What will they talk about?
For the first debate, Chris Wallace chose to focus on the Trump and Biden records, the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, race and violence in our cities, and the integrity of the election.
For the last debate, Kristen Welker chose to focus on fighting COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security, and leadership.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump answered questions in separate town halls in lieu of a second debate, following Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis.
Biden's town hall aired at 8 p.m. ET on ABC on October 15, moderated by George Stephanopoulos in Philadelphia. About 21 voters of varying political stripes asked the Democratic presidential nominee questions.
Trump's town hall also aired at 8 p.m. ET but on NBC, moderated by Today's Savannah Guthrie outside the Pérez Art Museum in Miami. About 60 voters—some who are undecided, and others who are leaning toward a particular candidate—were in attendance to ask the president questions.
The announcement follows the cancellation of the second presidential debate after an agreement could not be met over the event's format and timing.
Initially, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that the second debate, set for October 15, would change from the in-person format to a virtual town meeting with both candidates participating from separate remote locations—an adjustment made because of the COVID-19 outbreak in the White House.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump both tested positive for the coronavirus on October 1 following the diagnosis of Hope Hicks, a senior aide to the president. And since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that individuals exposed to COVID-19 quarantine for at least 14 days, questions were raised about how the rest of the presidential debates would and should go on. Further, experts say that the president could still be contagious.
As for Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, they both tested negative on October 2. The Democratic nominee again tested negative on October 6.
After news of the new format broke, Trump refused to debate virtually. "I'm not going to do a virtual debate," he told Fox Business. "I'm not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That's not what debating is all about."
The Trump campaign then requested that the date of the second date be pushed back to October 22 and the third debate to October 29. In response, Biden's campaign said it would "find an appropriate place to take questions from voters directly on Oct. 15th," and that "Trump's erratic behavior does not allow him to rewrite the calendar, and pick new dates of his choosing."
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