When And Where Are The 2016 Presidential Debates
Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will soon have the chance to debate face to face with three presidential debates scheduled in September and October. The debates mark the first time the pair will be sharing the stage as Election Day looms.
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The debates, organized by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), will all be 90-minutes long with varying debating formats.
According to CPD's announcement on July 19, the first debate will be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY on September 26. The debate, moderated by "NBC Nightly News" Anchor Lester Holt, will be divided into six segments in which candidates will debate topics selected by the moderator. Hofstra is no stranger to hosting presidential debates, serving as a venue for debates in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential races. According to Hofstra's website, they were initially an alternate venue for this year's debate but were asked to step in after Wright State University in Ohio stepped down, making Hofstra the first university to host three presidential debates in back-to-back election cycles.
The second debate will take place at Washington University in St. Louis, MO on October 9. This debate, moderated by Martha Raddatz of ABC's "This Week" and CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper, will take the form of a town meeting. Half the questions will come from the audience, with the other half of the questions will be posed by the moderators but created based on what the CPD calls, "Broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources."
University of Nevada-Las Vegas in Las Vegas, NV will host the third and final presidential debate on October 19. It will be formatted the same as the first debate, and will be moderated by "Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace.
Vice Presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence will also have their chance to debate on the national stage with their debate scheduled for October 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, VA, moderated by CBSN anchor and CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano.
The CPD typically grants a limited number of debate tickets to host-institutions that are traditionally distributed to current students and faculty via a lottery system. Very few tickets are usually made available to the public.
All debates will air on CBS and other broadcast and cable news networks from 9pm to 10:30pm Eastern Standard Time.