Trump-Clinton Presidential Debates Schedule And Moderators Announced
The moderators for this year's presidential debates have been announced by the Commission on Presidential Debates on Friday. They include Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace.
Holt, the anchor for NBC "Nightly News," will moderate the first debate on September 26.
Together, Raddatz of ABC and Cooper of CNN will moderate the town hall, set to take place on October 9.
Wallace, the first Fox News anchor to moderate a presidential election, will handle the last debate on October 19.
This will be the first presidential debate for all moderators.
Elaine Quijano, a CBS News correspondent, will moderate the vice-presidential debate on October 4.
The moderators are much more diverse than they have been in the past, including an African-American, two women, a gay man and a Filipino-American.
Hillary Clinton, with two campaigns for the Senate and the presidency, is expected to have the advantage over Donald J. Trump.
Although, there are always surprises. George W. Bush certainly held his own against Al Gore and Mitt Romney arguably won the first debate of 2012 against President Obama.
That was, you know, before the whole "binders full of women" fiasco.
Trump has often been known to go after moderators, namely Megyn Kelly of Fox News. Moderators, in turn, have to be the epitome of unbiased, in 2012 Candy Crowley of CNN fact-checked Romney and enraged Republicans.
Trump also believes that the dates of the debates are rigged by the Commission on Presidential Debates, seeing as how two are scheduled the same night as football games, which will steal a lot of the audience. Interception!
However, Trump proves to have no trouble pulling in ratings on his own (or making ridiculously-worded hats).
The first Republican debate drew 24 million viewers, while an average night of "Sunday Night Football" boasts only 21 million. The debate was the highest rated non-sports cable event in history.
The first presidential debate will be held at Hofstra University on Long Island, the second in St. Louis and the final debate, fittingly enough, will be in Las Vegas. We'll see who gets lucky in these debates in the weeks to come.
Citations: Presidential Debate Moderators Are Set, With Lester Holt for the First (New York Times)
