The Presidential debates are a major component in US elections. It is a platform where the two candidates running for the presidency can debate, confront, oppose their competition while promoting their own views and campaign agenda. Not only that, it is believed to have great sway over the voters and their voting decisions.
This year, a lot has changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many citizens even appealed to call-off the elections. However, the elections are still on and with it, the political opponents are gearing up for the first presidential debate of 2020.
Democratic party’s candidate Joe Biden will be facing off against the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump today at 9 PM, September 29 (local time). However, for Indians, the debate time would be 6.30 AM on September 30.
The first debate will happen at the Samson Pavilion of Health Education Campus (HEC) of Cleveland University. Previously, Notre Dame University was supposed to host the debate, but they withdrew because of the coronavirus pandemic.
These debates are almost like your average debate competition, except for the very high stakes. Like every debate, there is a moderator to keep the discussion civil and add points to the discussion. This year’s moderator for the first Biden-Trump debate is Chris Wallace. He is an American television anchor and journalist, best known for his show Fox News Sunday. He is the son of the famous 60-Minutes anchor, Mike Wallace. The Fox News is infamously republican and known to favour Trump’s political hardliner views. This will be Wallace’s second stint as presidential moderator, as he’d played the same part in 2016 Trump-Clinton debate.
The debate itself is divided into six segments. Each segment can be around 15 minutes long. The moderator introduces a topic and each candidate gets two minutes for presentation. Following this, there is a discussion between the two candidates.
The topics will revolve around Trump and Biden’s political records, while other topics will be more current like the Supreme Court, COVID-19, Race-related violence, Economic conditions, as well as discussion about the election’s integrity.
You can watch the debate live on the New York Times website. The channels to carry the debate live are CNN, Fox News, CBS, ABC, C-SPAN, NBC and MSNBC. This, however, is only the first debate. The second debate will be on October 7 between incumbent Republican Vice-President Mike Pence and Democrat VP candidate Kamala Harris.
On October 15, Biden and Trump will debate again in Florida, while the final debate will happen in Nashville on October 22. Tuesday, November 3 is the election day for electing the new president.
Comments
0 comment