Quote:The brutal Supreme Court nomination battle, the worst pandemic to strike the globe in a century, a national economy flattened by the coronavirus, and the protests and violence that have flared in cities across the nation this summer will be some of the major topics Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Trump will debate next week as they face off for the first time in the 2020 general election.

The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates on Tuesday announced the issues that the moderator of the first debate – "Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace – has selected as topics for the showdown.

Wallace also included the Biden and Trump records and the integrity of the election – another crucial issue considering the president for months has railed against expanded voting by mail amid the pandemic, repeatedly charging that it would lead to a “rigged election.”

The nonpartisan commission – which has organized and conducted the presidential and vice presidential general election debates for more than three decades – cautioned that the topics listed are “subject to possible changes because of news developments.”

The first debate between the former vice president and the GOP incumbent in the White House will take place Tuesday, Sept. 29, at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. The format for the first showdown calls for six 15-minute long segments – with each segment dedicated to a particular topic.

The commission explained that topics were “announced in advance in order to encourage deep discussion of the leading issues facing the country.”

Biden and Trump will debate twice more – on Oct. 15 in Nashville, Tenn., and Oct. 22 in Miami, Fla. Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Vice President Mike Pence will debate once – in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Oct. 7.

All four showdowns will start at 9 pm ET and will run for 90 minutes without any commercial interruption

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Joe has declared a lid for 9/29.

I thought the commissions usually picked the topics or am I off?

(09-22-2020 02:18 PM)fsquid Wrote:  I thought the commissions usually picked the topics or am I off?

No the moderator(s) usually provide a very broad list of general topics to the commission for general approval, and the moderator narrows that down to their personal preference from there.

(09-22-2020 02:42 PM)Eldonabe Wrote:  

(09-22-2020 02:18 PM)fsquid Wrote:  I thought the commissions usually picked the topics or am I off?

No the moderator(s) usually provide a very broad list of general topics to the commission for general approval, and the moderator narrows that down to their personal preference from there.

seems like the way the news cycle goes, they should just go in a room the weekend before like the NCAA tournament committee and hammer them out.

President Trump, given what we know about COVID 19, how should we had proceeded down to the detail in hindsight. You have 90 seconds.

Vice President Biden, what color is this blue crayon. You have 10 minutes and there are no wrong answers.