This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-54003441

The article has changed 13 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
US election 2020: Guide to the presidential debates US election 2020: Guide to the Trump v Biden presidential debates
(21 days later)
US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden will go head-to-head in three debates prior to the US election. We've had months of set-piece events, tightly controlled by a team of campaign staff. Well, that's about to end.
There is also one debate scheduled for their vice-presidential candidates, Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. On the debate stage, candidates are on their own and in the whole campaign, this is the moment most fraught with risk.
They are seen as being among the top political events to watch during the US election season. Plenty can go wrong, so hold on tight.
The moderators for the four debates, which typically draw large TV audiences, have now been announced. Here's your handy guide.
When are the Trump v Biden debates - and who are the moderators? When - and where - are the Trump v Biden debates?
Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace will host the first presidential debate on 29 September, in Cleveland. There are three presidential debates on the agenda:
Miami will be the host city for the second, a town-hall style debate on 15 October, moderated by C-SPAN's Steve Scully. Vice-President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris will also go head-to-head:
NBC's Kristen Welker will host the final presidential debate on 22 October in Nashville. They all take place from 21:00-22:30ET (02:00-03:30GMT), with no commercial interruptions.
The sole vice-presidential debate, between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Mike Pence, will be in Salt Lake City, Utah on 7 October, moderated by USA Today Washington Bureau chief Susan Page. What's the format for the first debate?
All of the debates are scheduled to take place from 21:00-22:30ET (02:00-03:30GMT) with no commercial interruptions. Six questions in six segments, 15 minutes each. The segments are:
The US election will be held on 3 November. Mr Trump and Mr Biden will get two minutes apiece to respond to the question initially before the back-and-forth begins.
Who is Chris Wallace? If you've got a question for the candidates, you can tell us what it is and we'll try to answer it for you. There's a form at the bottom of the page.
The first debate will be divided into six segments of approximately 15 minutes each, the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced. What should people watch out for in the first debate?
The topics will be selected by Mr Wallace, a long-time Fox News anchor known for his memorable TV interviews with Mr Trump, and will be announced one week before the debate. Donald Trump is a known quality. He seeks out and dominates in the public spotlight, and his strengths and weaknesses are familiar to most Americans. That's why the presidential debates will be much more focused on how Joe Biden performs in the spotlight.
Each segment will open with a question and the candidates will get two minutes each to respond, the CPD said. Biden's task will be to post a sure and steady performance. He needs to make Americans, at least enough of them to win in November, comfortable with the thought of him in the Oval Office. He needs to dispel concerns about his age and mental alacrity and avoid the kind of verbal stumbles that have bedeviled him in the past.
Mr Wallace, a registered Democrat, hosted the final 2016 debate between Mr Trump and Hillary Clinton and won widespread praise from commentators at the time for pressing each candidate on uncomfortable issues. Trump's job, on the other hand, will be to trip his opponent up. As Hillary Clinton and his primary opponents can attest, he is a destabilising, unpredictable presence on the stage - and if he can fluster Biden, it might sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of the Democrat's less devoted supporters. While doing so, he will also have to be prepared for Biden's counterattacks - including criticisms about how he has handled the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and the duties of the presidency.
His performance was applauded by both sides of the political spectrum for his even-handed approach and for not letting either candidate digress too wildly. It has the makings of a raucous encounter.
He said at the time that he took moderating debates "very seriously... because this is helping millions of people decide who we're going to elect as the next president." And there could be fireworks from the moderator, right?
Mr Wallace has occasionally clashed with Mr Trump during his presidency, including in an interview with him last month in which he revealed he had also taken a cognitive ability test that Mr Trump touted, and that it was "not the hardest test". The first moderator is Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has dismissed Mr Wallace as a "Mike Wallace wannabe" - in a reference to Mr Wallace's father, one of the original members of CBS 60 Minutes - and described him as "even worse" than the presenters of NBC and CBS Sunday morning programmes, networks that Mr Trump is highly critical of. A lot of people might think a Fox News anchor would give President Trump an easy ride but this is no Sean Hannity. Quite the opposite. The president has endured some of his most awkward moments sitting across from Wallace, whose command of the detail is legendary.
Who are the other moderators? An interview in July went viral when Wallace told Mr Trump he'd taken the same cognitive ability test the president touted, telling him it was "not the hardest test".
Mr Scully is the political editor of C-SPAN and also host of the call-in show Washington Journal. Mr Trump - who typically favours Fox News - has dismissed Wallace as a "wannabe" of his father, Mike Wallace, who was an original reporter with CBS 60 Minutes.
He served as the backup moderator for all the presidential debates back in 2016, and told Adweek earlier this month that one of the most important lessons he had learned from covering previous campaigns was "Don't believe the polls... remain sceptical". A registered Democrat, Wallace has said moderating debates is a serious business as it helps "millions of people decide who we're going to elect".
Kristen Welker is NBC's White House correspondent, and is a co-anchor of its show Weekend Today, which she joined as an intern back in 1997. For the second debate, we'll have C-Span's political editor Steve Scully moderating. That's a town hall format which means real people get to play a part too. Who could forget Ken Bone from 2016?
She has described being a political reporter as "frankly remarkable", adding that "every minute of everything that we're covering is history-making". Finally, NBC's White House correspondent Kristen Welker will round out the debate season.
USA Today's Susan Page has covered six White House administrations and 10 presidential elections, and written a biography of former first lady Barbara Bush. USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page will tackle the one and only vice-presidential debate.
"The debates are a crucial part of making our democracy work, and I am honoured to participate," she said after she was named as a moderator. What do supporters say is the worst thing that could happen?
How did the Trump campaign respond? We asked two voters from our panel.
The final list of moderators did not include any of those requested last month by Trump campaign aide and personal Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Trump-supporter Mike Harlow, a 30-year-old writer/YouTuber in New York City says expectations are "so incredibly low with Biden" that he fears it'll look like a stellar performance if he "is just able to speak and stand up straight".
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said in a statement that "these are not the moderators we would have recommended" and alleged that "some can be identified as clear opponents of President Trump, meaning Joe Biden will actually have a teammate on stage most of the time". Biden's showing is similarly a concern for Reem Sabha, a 24-year-old graduate student in Seattle. She says she worries the Democrat's debate performance and policy plans may not translate to actual votes.
This is not a view shared by the CPD, which has described the moderators as "experienced journalists" who bring "great professionalism to moderating". The CPD has also been clear that it makes its own decisions on moderators, no matter who campaigns recommend. "I'm concerned people will say Joe Biden doesn't have the energy to be president or he's too old to be president or he doesn't have the character or the gravitas."
Mr Murtaugh also alluded to the fact that Mr Biden has been accused of avoiding Mr Wallace's interview requests, saying: "Chris Wallace's selection ensures that Biden will finally see him face-to-face after dodging his interview requests. That is, if Biden actually shows up." But when have debates actually affected an election?
How did the Biden campaign respond? Viewership has been on the decline, but millions of Americans still regularly tune in.
A spokesman for the Biden campaign, Andrew Bates, told reporters in a statement: "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." It's both entertainment and informative - for many voters the debates help cement their candidate of choice.
What are the rules of the other debates? The first ever televised debate in 1960 pitted young Democratic Senator John F Kennedy against the sitting vice-president, Republican Richard Nixon.
The second debate to take place will be the vice-presidential debate between Vice-President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris. Mr Kennedy's team made sure he looked fresh for the close-ups, while Mr Nixon, who was recovering from an illness, donned an ill-fitting suit and was seen wiping sweat off his brow. The story goes that most of the 70 million TV viewers felt the youthful Mr Kennedy had won, while those who tuned in solely on radio thought it was the more experienced Mr Nixon.
That debate will be divided into nine segments of about 10 minutes each. Like in the first debate, each section will begin with a question, with a candidate allowed two minutes to respond followed by debate. Mr Kennedy did see a jump in the polls after the debates, even though we can't say for certain it was due to his small screen prowess.
The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, and Floridians in the audience will pose questions of the candidates, who will be allowed two minutes to answer. Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter in their 1980 debate by keeping things short and sweet.
The moderator will be allowed an additional minute to facilitate more debate. The questioners will be uncommitted voters selected by the chief scientist of analytics firm Gallup. Where Mr Carter tried to highlight policy and history, Mr Reagan used one-liners to his advantage. He responded to one of Mr Carter's lengthy criticisms by saying simply: "There you go again."
The third presidential debate will have identical rules to the first. In 2000, Democratic candidate Al Gore's debate performance against George Bush may have cost him the presidency. His sighing and eye-rolling during his Republican counterpart's responses came across as condescending to many voters (and made it into a Saturday Night Live comedy skit).
Why do the presidential debates matter? What would you ask the candidates?
Debate viewership in terms of audience share has dropped in recent years, according to the Pew Research Center, but millions of voters still regularly tune in.  If you were a debate moderator, what would you want to ask Mr Trump and Mr Biden?
The first debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was a major draw in 2016, with a reported record 84 million viewers, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. Pew Research polling also indicates that voters find the debate performances are a factor in helping them choose their preferred candidate.  Send us your questions using the form below. If you can't see the forms, you may need to view the site on a desktop.