The United States Presidential Debates: What You Need to Know

There will be three presidential debates and a vice presidential debate before the United States’ election. All the debates will be at 9 p.m. ET. They’ll all last 90 minutes and run without commercials on networks and cable news outlets.

The first debate was held on Tuesday, September 29, at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Chris Wallace of Fox News moderated the 90-minutes debate between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The showdown was chaotic and called a “dumpster fire,” a “train wreck,” and other less print-friendly names.

The Commission on Presidential Debates said in a statement, “The debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues,”

However, specialists warn the improvements are not simply as a matter of fine-tuning the rules. 

“Debates are grounded by established rules but also political norms and traditions. Both are only as strong as the candidates’ willingness to respect them,” said Alan Schroeder, a presidential debate historian and author of the book “Presidential Debates: Risky Business On the Campaign Trail.”

“Debates really depend on the goodwill of the participants to follow some baseline agreements; that we’re going to let each other talk and let the audience hear the contrasts in the positions,” Schroeder told The Washington Post.

The two more presidential debates and one between the vice-presidential candidates yet to come will take place in/on

•  Vice presidential debate — Wednesday, October 7, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. Susan Page of USA Today will moderate it.

• Second presidential debate (a town hall) — Thursday, October 15, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. Steve Scully of C-SPAN will moderate it.

• The third presidential debate is Thursday, October 22, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Kristen Welker of NBC News will moderate it.

Topics to be discussed in the forthcoming United States debates

1. The Trump and Biden Records

2. The Supreme Court

3. Covid-19

4. The Economy

5. Race and Violence in our Cities

6. The Integrity of the Election

The above topics were released by the first moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News. He named the six general subjects and said they are subject to change based on news development.