Presidential debate (October 15, 2020)

2020 Presidential Election Date: November 3, 2020

Presidential candidates Donald Trump Joe Biden Howie Hawkins Jo Jorgensen

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On October 9, 2020, the Commission on Presidential Debates canceled the second of three presidential debates between President Donald Trump (R) and former Vice President Joe Biden (D). The event had been scheduled for October 15, 2020.^[1]

Following Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis, the commission announced on October 8, 2020, that the debate would be held virtually in order to protect the health and safety of the participants. The commission planned for moderator Steve Scully to conduct the town hall-style event with attendees asking questions in Miami, while the candidates participated remotely.^[2]

The Biden campaign agreed to the virtual format. Trump said in an interview that he would not participate. “I am not going to waste my time on a virtual debate,” he said.^[3]

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said, “We'll pass on this sad excuse to bail out Joe Biden and do a rally instead,” In a second statement, Stepien said the second debate should be moved to October 22 and the third moved to October 29. The Biden campaign rejected the proposal to move the third debate, saying in a statement, “We look forward to participating in the final debate, scheduled for October 22, which already is tied for the latest debate date in 40 years. Donald Trump can show up, or he can decline again. That's his choice.” ABC News also announced it would hold a town hall with Biden on October 15. ^[4]

The Trump campaign issued another statement on October 9 calling for the second debate to go forward in-person as originally planned. The commission said that it would not reconsider its decision to make the second debate virtual.^[4]

On June 23, 2020, the commission announced the second presidential debate was moving from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida. Mark Schlissel, the president of the University of Michigan, said the complexity of preparing for a safe reopening during the coronavirus pandemic made hosting the debate unfeasible.^[5][6]

Candidate selection criteria[edit]

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) used the following criteria to select candidates to participate in the 2020 general election presidential debates:^[7]

• The candidate must satisfy the constitutional eligibility requirements, including being at least 35 years old, a natural born citizen, and a resident of the United States for fourteen years.

• The candidate must appear on enough state ballots to be eligible to secure at least 270 electoral votes—a majority in the Electoral College—or more.

• The candidate must receive, on average, at least 15% support nationally in the most recent polls from five public opinion polling organizations. The CPD will use the following polls:
  • ABC/Washington Post Poll
  • CNN Poll
  • Fox News Poll
  • NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll
  • NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll

General election debates[edit]

See also: Presidential debates, 2020

The following table provides an overview of the date, location, and host in each scheduled 2020 general election debate.

Democratic presidential primary debates, 2019-2020[edit]

See also: Democratic presidential nomination, 2020

The following table provides an overview of the date, location, host, and number of participants in each scheduled 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.

History of televised presidential debates[edit]

Although the 1960 general election debate between John F. Kennedy (D) and Richard Nixon (R) is frequently cited as the first televised presidential debate, two came before it.

The first televised presidential debate took place on May 21, 1956, when an ABC affiliate in Miami broadcast a Democratic primary debate between Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver.^[8] In the general election that year, Stevenson and incumbent President Dwight Eisenhower (R) used surrogates in a televised debate on November 4, 1956. They were represented by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (D) and Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R), respectively.^[9]

The Kennedy-Nixon debates that took place four years later showed the importance of television as a visual medium, "Nixon, pale and underweight from a recent hospitalization, appeared sickly and sweaty, while Kennedy appeared calm and confident. As the story goes, those who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon had won. But those listeners were in the minority. ... Those that watched the debate on TV thought Kennedy was the clear winner. Many say Kennedy won the election that night," TIME reported on the 50th anniversary of the event.^[10]

While a handful of presidential primary debates were held between 1964 and 1972, the televised presidential debate did not become a staple of American politics until 1976.^[11]

Overview[edit]

The following chart shows the number of presidential and vice presidential debates that took place in each election cycle between 1960 and 2024.

List of presidential debates, 1960-2024[edit]

The following table shows the date, location, and moderators for each presidential debate between 1960 and 2024.^[12]

See also[edit]

• Presidential debates, 2020
• Presidential candidates, 2020
• Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
• Republican presidential nomination, 2020
• Presidential debates (2015-2016)

Footnotes[edit]

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