Presidential Debate Moderators Are Set, With Lester Holt for the First
By JOHN KOBLIN and ALEXANDER BURNS
SEPT. 2, 2016
nytimes.com
Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace have been selected to moderate this year’s presidential debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Friday.
Mr. Holt, the anchor of the “NBC Nightly News,” will moderate the first debate on Sept. 26; Ms. Raddatz of ABC and Mr. Cooper of CNN will moderate the town hall debate on Oct. 9; and Mr. Wallace of Fox News will handle the final debate on Oct. 19.
All are first-time presidential debate moderators.
Additionally, the CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano will moderate the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 4.
For Mr. Holt, the assignment is another prestigious step in his rise since succeeding Brian Williams on NBC’s evening news show 18 months ago. And Mr. Wallace will become the first Fox News anchor to host a presidential debate.
The selections also make for a considerably more diverse slate than in previous election cycles, with an African-American, two women, including a Filipino-American (Ms. Quijano), and an openly gay man.
As it did four years ago, Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster, protested the absence of a Hispanic moderator. In a letter to the commission, Randy Falco, chief executive of Univision Communications, said the omission was “an abdication of your responsibility to represent and reflect one of the largest and most influential communities in the U.S.’’
The debates may be the best remaining opportunity for both candidates to reshape the 2016 race — and for Donald J. Trump, who is trailing in the polls, to gain ground against Hillary Clinton.
Debates have allowed challengers and relative political newcomers to reach out to reluctant voters, providing reassurance about their qualifications. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton helped put to rest questions about their preparedness for the presidency in confident debate exchanges, and George W. Bush defied the caricature of himself as a lightweight by holding his own against Al Gore.
Even Mitt Romney, who ultimately lost to Mr. Obama, shook up the 2012 race late in the season by routing the president in their first debate.
Mr. Trump, facing significant skepticism among voters about his character and temperament, will be aiming for a similarly forceful performance. But Mrs. Clinton is one of the most practiced debaters in modern politics, after two campaigns for the Senate and the presidency, and she is perceived to have a considerable advantage.
While presidential debates provide visibility for the moderators, they can have pitfalls.
Even in relatively normal election cycles, moderators are under intense scrutiny from the candidates — and their surrogates — who will freely point out any hint of bias. Questions perceived as either too soft or too hard-hitting can earn a day’s worth of headlines.
In 2012, after Candy Crowley of CNN fact-checked Mr. Romney and corrected him during a debate with Mr. Obama, she was criticized by Republicans for behavior that they claimed overstepped the bounds of a moderator.
And in this election cycle, Mr. Trump has made sport of attacking moderators, particularly Megyn Kelly of Fox News. Last year, when she asked him a pointed question about his feelings toward women, Mr. Trump pursued a deeply personal months long crusade against her, denouncing her as unfair and “sick.”
He went on to boycott a Fox News debate because of her involvement, but he eventually returned to the Fox debate stage. Mr. Trump and Ms. Kelly apparently reached a détente in May of this year, when he appeared on her prime-time special.
Mr. Trump, though, was not alone in his displeasure during the parties’ primary races. After a debate on CNBC in October 2015, Republican candidates criticized the moderators, saying they were biased and unfair, which drove the news cycle for days.
But even if the moderator job can draw heavy fire, it offers a prestigious stage that can burnish a reputation. All three presidential debate moderators in the last election — Jim Lehrer, Bob Schieffer and Candy Crowley — have left regular television work, providing an open door for a new round of hosts.
The Commission on Presidential Debates has long worked in secrecy, and network executives said for months that they were unsure which journalists would be chosen. Openly campaigning for the job is frowned upon, though it occurs, and Mr. Trump has said in recent months that the debate schedule is rigged because two of the debates are scheduled against football games that are traditionally big ratings draws.
Presidential debates, though, draw enormous ratings themselves, far greater than the 21 million average for Sunday Night Football games, the highest rated regular programming in television. The first presidential debate in the 2012 election drew around 70 million viewers.
And despite the controversy — or maybe because of it — the debate platform has gained significant attention in this election cycle.
Ratings records have been set going back to August 2015: The first Republican debate attracted 24 million viewers, the highest rated nonsports cable event in history. Democratic debates similarly broke viewing records for the party.
The first presidential debate this fall will be held at Hofstra University on Long Island, the second in St. Louis and the final one in Las Vegas. The vice-presidential debate will be held at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. |
