Presidential Debate Commission Names Moderators For Fall Contests Between Joe Biden, Donald Trump

The Commission on Presidential Debates on Wednesday named moderators for all three debates between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden this fall. The organization also announced who will moderate the debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

The first presidential debate between Biden and Trump will take place on Sept. 29 in Cleveland, with “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace named as the moderator. A vice-presidential debate between Pence and Harris will take place on Oct. 7 in Salt Lake City, and will be moderated by USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page.

The second Biden-Trump debate will take place on Oct. 15 in Miami, and will be moderated by C-Span senior executive producer and political editor Steve Scully. The third debate will take place on Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tennessee, with the moderator being NBC News White House correspondent and “Weekend Today” show co-anchor Kristen Welker.

The choice of moderators was met with a negative reaction from the Trump campaign.

"These are not the moderators we would have recommended if the campaign had been allowed to have any input. Some can be identified as clear opponents of President 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," Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said.

The Trump campaign has previously pushed for an extra debate that would be earlier in September, but the suggestion was struck down by the commission. Trump has also bizarrely suggested that both he and Biden should take drug tests before the debates.

Biden told reporters on Wednesday that he is preparing for the debate by studying Trump’s “lies.”

“I’ve begun to prepare by going over what the president has said,” Biden said. The Democratic nominee would welcome real-time fact-checking during the debates.

Recent general election polls show Biden with a strong lead. A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Biden with a 10-point lead over Trump, 52% to 42%, while an Economist/YouGov survey showed the former vice president with an 11-point edge over the incumbent, 51% to 40%.