The four television rounds on the battle for the White House
In the United States electoral debates on television are regulated by law. Unlike countries like Spain, which do not make it compulsory to broadcast the election programmes of the major candidates, who are the ones who really have a chance of governing, to the viewers of the most popular media in homes. Here the rally or political act continues to be the preferred format of a political class that was too stagnant in the past and which, despite the appearance of modernity of the new actors, only presses for debates in front of the cameras when it is a question of reaching power and not maintaining it. America, as in almost everything, is a few decades ahead of us in this respect, precisely 30 years. Since 1988, the role of the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a private organisation supported by donors (How we fear donations in Europe and how important they are on the other side of the Atlantic! It is active only in electoral processes, as it is the case with political parties that are tiny entities in structure but grow when there is an election in sight to cover the candidate, be it for the presidency, the governor's post or the Senate. This Commission acts as an arbitrator in the electoral process while it is in place, and it settles any complaints from one party to the other in the same way as the Central Electoral Board would do in Spain. But judges will only intervene there if there are complaints in court.
This year there will be three presidential debates and one among the vice-presidential candidates. We could say that it will be a four-round battle, as this time the supporting actors will not be a mere complement without greater importance, something that has taken shape with the election of Kamala Harris as the ticket of Joe Biden. The Californian senator is an expert in dialectics and very tough on her opponents, there are already bets on how she will knock out Mike Pence in the televised match that will take place in early October. Debates between Trump and Biden, on the other hand, have the predictable opposite scenario: the former going on the attack, and the latter, a firm favourite in the polls, displaying his nickname of Sleepy Joe.
The format the Commission has chosen for this campaign is that of a single moderator for each debate. It will be more consistent and will not distract viewers from the underground dispute that always takes place between moderators when there is more than one, especially as they are from different competing media.
It will open the fire for a two-way debate in Cleveland, Ohio, in East Coast prime time on September 29th. A very experienced interviewer, Chris Wallace, will open the fire with his questions, which are always sharp, but extremely informative. He never asks a question that is not properly documented with facts. In 2016 he had already fought between Trump and Hillary, and on his Sunday programme on Fox News he usually receives some criticism... from the president of the United States. POTUS doesn't miss the opportunity to ironize with him on Twitter or as he did a few days ago at one of his rallies in New Hampshire, where he compared Wallace to his father, also himself a presenter, making fun of them both. The debate will be co-organised by The New York Times and will take place at Case Western Reserve University, a few blocks from the shores of Lake Erie.
The second round will be held in Miami, Florida, a traditionally Republican territory but which at this point contemplates a tight 50.2% for Biden and 47.6% voting intention for the president. It will be held on Thursday, October 15, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts not far from the American Airlines Arena where the Miami Heat basketball team plays. The moderator will be C-SPAN's Chief Policy Editor, Steve Scully, who will make his debut in such a circumstance, though in 2016 he was an alternate for one of the debates. He has been a White House information expert for decades. Trump will be playing at home, as his Mar-a-Lago holiday home in West Palm Beach is only an hour and a half from the venue, but he has by no means won the election in this state.
One week later, on Thursday, October 22, the candidates will move to Nashville, Tennessee, for the final assault just twelve days before election day. Belmont University will host the spotlights and stage, and the moderator will be Kristen Welker, NBC's White House political correspondent. She will also present a weekend programme, Today, and for the first time will moderate a face-to-face meeting between the presidential candidates. Her minute of glory has come at the decisive meeting of the campaign.
U.S. vice-presidential hopefuls Pence and Harris will meet in a single debate at the University of Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 7. Between the first two presidential rounds, the most eagerly awaited dialectical duel by the Democrats will be moderated by Susan Page of USA Today. As in all other cases, Page is a veteran journalist who is deeply knowledgeable about her craft, having interviewed nine presidents during her career. In American television, experience is a degree. This is in contrast to the electoral debates in our country, in which newcomers with few seasons of live coverage and no experience in covering political events have sometimes sneaked in.
The offices of the two candidates have already given their support to this scheme of electoral debates, and the first thing to be noticed is the absence of professionals from the big news network CNN on the staff. Its big star Anderson Cooper is not there, but neither are any of the other well-known popular faces of that channel. The certainty that Trump would veto them has led the Commission's officials to opt for other possibilities, including Fox, CNN's absolute antagonist, with which it is waging an open war that can be seen every night (dawn in Spain) by simultaneously broadcasting its primetime programmes. The commissioners were sure that Biden would not apply any veto to Chris Wallace, who, moreover, is no saint of the president's or his team's devotion despite working on his favourite channel.