Debate moderators named and they come from ABC CNN, Fox News.
By: Jim Williams – Washington Bureau Chief of News Talk Florida
WASHINGTON – Representatives from ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox were named moderators of the upcoming presidential debates between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
The nonprofit, non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates released the list of moderators Friday.
The first presidential debate, set for Sept. 26 at New York’s Hofstra University, will be moderated by NBC Nightly anchor Lester Holt. CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz, chief global affairs correspondent and co-anchor of ABC’s “This Week,” will moderate the second debate, set for Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the third presidential debate. It is planned for Oct. 19 at University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
Elaine Quijano, anchor for CBSN and a correspondent with CBS News, will moderate the vice presidential debate, planned for Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.
Steve Scully, senior executive producer, White House and political editor for C-SPAN Networks, will be the backup moderator for all debates.
“These journalists bring extensive experience to the job of moderating, and understand the importance of using expanded time periods effectively,” said Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. and Michael D. McCurry, co-chairs of the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates. “The formats chosen for this year’s debates are designed to build on the formats introduced in 2012, which focused big blocks of time on major domestic and foreign topics. 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.”
The Sept. 26 and Oct. 19 debates, as well as the vice presidential one, will include topics selected by moderators and announced at least one week before the debate. Each candidate will be asked a question and then given two minutes to respond followed by an opportunity to reply to each other.
The Oct. 9 debate will take the form of a town hall. Half of the questions will be posed by citizen participants and the other half will come from the moderators. The candidates will have two minutes to respond and then an additional minute from the moderator for more discussion. The town meeting participants will be uncommitted voters selected by the Gallup Organization.
All debates will be run from 9-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time without commercial breaks.