USA Today’s Susan Page to moderate VP debate in Salt Lake City
Sep 2, 2020, 4:10 PM
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden receives a briefing from education leaders and experts in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has announced that Susan Page will moderate the vice presidential debate on Oct. 7 in Salt Lake City with Vice President Mike Pence and Democrat Kamala Harris.
The commission also announced that representatives from Fox News, C-SPAN and NBC will moderate the upcoming debates between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
According to the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, the moderators will be:
—Chris Wallace of Fox News for the debate Sept. 29 in Cleveland.
—Steve Scully of C-SPAN for the “town meeting” debate Oct. 15 in Miami.
—NBC’s Kristen Welker for the debate Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The commission makes its moderator selection independently of the candidates.
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Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have said they will attend the scheduled debates, which are meant to offer voters an opportunity to see the contrast between the candidates on live television.
“I’m looking forward to debating the president and I’m going to lay out as clearly as I can my vision for the county,” Biden said
President Trump’s team complained that the moderators were not those “we would have recommended if the campaign had been allowed to have any input,” said campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh. “Some can be identified as clear opponents of Mr. Trump, meaning Joe Biden will actually have a teammate on stage most of the time to help him excuse the radical, leftist agenda he is carrying.”
Murtaugh noted that Biden, who has not sat recently for an interview with Wallace, will not go face to face with the tough interviewer. Wallace was widely praised for a tough interview with the president earlier this summer.
Pres. Trump’s team has tried to pressure the commission to move up the debates, citing increased use of early and absentee voting because of the coronavirus.
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AP writer Will Weissert contributed from Wilmington, Delaware.
