This year’s three presidential debates will be moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz, and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.
The vice presidential debate moderator is Elaine Quijano of CBS News.
Holt, the anchor of the NBC Nightly News, will lead the first debate, which is set to take place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, on September 26.
Cooper and Raddatz will co-moderate the second debate, which will be a town-hall style event at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri on October 9.
Wallace will moderate the third and final presidential debate at University of Nevada in Las Vegas on October 19.
The vice presidential debate, moderated by Quijano, will take place at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, on October 4.
Steve Scully, a senior executive producer and political editor at C-SPAN, will serve as backup moderator for all the debates.
The debates will all run from 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time without commercial breaks.
The news was announced Friday morning by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the bipartisan committee that has sponsored and produced all the presidential and vice presidential debates since the 1988 campaign.
“These journalists bring extensive experience to the job of moderating, and understand the importance of using expanded time periods effectively,” Commission co-chairs Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. and Michael D. McCurry said in a statement. “We are grateful for their willingness to moderate, and confident that the public will learn more about the candidates and the issues as a result.”
Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, said the campaign was “extremely grateful to the bipartisan commission for its continued work in preparation for the debates.”
“Hillary Clinton is looking forward to participating in the debates, as she believes they are an important proving ground for anyone seeking to be Commander in Chief,” he said. “Especially given that Fox has been selected to moderate a debate for the first time ever, it’s time for Donald Trump to end his debate shenanigans and formally agree to debate.”
The role of presidential debate moderator is among the most coveted assignments in political journalism, especially in this cycle when interest in the debates is likely to reach an all-time high.
The Commission had initially planned to announce moderators in late August, but held the announcement until September due in part to the unprecedented challenge of selecting individuals who were immune (or at least as immune as possible) to accusations of bias.
Source: CNN | Dylan Byers and Brian Stelter
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