Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has agreed to all three debates with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Here’s a quick guide to Trump vs. Clinton, and, at least on one night, Pence vs. Kaine.
When is the first debate?
The first debate was Monday, Sept. 27. You can read our live updates post here.
The second debate was held at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., on Oct. 9. You can read our live updates post here.
According to the Commission on Presidential Debates:
“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.”
>>Read more trending stories here
The last debate is set for Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
This one will be the same format as the first one.
The vice presidential debate
The debate between Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine was held Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. You can read our live updates post here.
Who will moderate the debates?
NBC's Lester Holt moderated the first debate. The moderators for the town hall-style forum on Oct. 9 were CNN's Anderson Cooper and ABC's Martha Raddatz. The moderator for the Oct. 19 debate will be Fox News's Chris Wallace.
Some specifics
• Each debate will be held from 9 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. ET without a commercial break.
• The moderator will select the questions in advance.
• The moderator is allowed to extend the segments and ensure the candidates have equal speaking time.
Will it be only Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump debating?
Probably. However, there is something called the “Nonpartisan Candidate Selection Criteria” that lays out the rules for who may participate. According to the criteria, a candidate must be constitutionally eligible and:
• Appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College.
• Have a level of support of at least 15 percent of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recently publicly-reported results at the time of the determination.
Where do we go to watch them?
The debates will be broadcast live on C-SPAN, FOX, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, in addition to the three major networks – ABC, NBC and CBS – and other media outlets including social media.
About the Author
