When is the next Presidential Debate?
By Buckie Wells
There are three presidential debates between Monday and the Election. America’s got one down already, so when is the next presidential debate?
Monday marks the first Presidential Debate of 2016. Basically, the purpose of the debate is to give America a distraction-free opportunity to learn about each candidate’s position on pre-selected topics. For the first debate, Lester Holt serves as moderator and chose the night’s three topics to be: America’s Direction, Achieving Prosperity, and Securing America.
The second presidential debate takes place on October 9, 2016, at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. It will air from 9-10:30 p.m. EST with no commercial breaks.
After we hear the candidate’s platforms on Monday, the next debate will have three new topics. The moderators for the second presidential debate are Martha Raddatz from ABC News and Anderson Cooper from CNN. Per the Commission on Presidential Debates, moderators have until the week prior to announce the topics.
However, there’s a specific format that the second debate will follow:
"The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which half of the questions will be posed directly by citizen participants and the other half will be posed by the moderator based on topics of broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources. The candidates will have two minutes to respond and there will be an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate further discussion. The town meeting participants will be uncommitted voters selected by the Gallup Organization."
Obviously, this debate will depart from what we see on Monday. The second debate will focus heavily on public interest and allows the audience participants to ask questions. Further, the new format almost invites the public to ask anything they want, leaving either Anderson Cooper or Martha Raddatz to police the commentary.
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Like the first debate, the second Presidential Debate of 2016 will air on most major networks. Stay tuned for more coverage and updates as we get closer to the event.