Debates. This marks their first joint on camera performance ahead of the 2020 general election president ial debate. Many americans have studied the legendary lincolndouglas debates in 1858 which were not president ial debates but rather for a u. S. Senate seat. The candidates met facetoface seven times, and the subsequent election was won by stephen douglas, and that set the stage for abraham lincolns Successful Campaign for the presidency in 1860. 100 two years after those debates on september 20 6, 1960 at the cbs studios in chicago, senator john f. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon came together in the firstever general election president ial debate, a televise affair that change the nature of politics. Mr. Kennedy and mr. Nixon debated four times in 1960, and john f. Kennedy went on to win the presidency by a slim margin. Looking back, mr. Nixon said, i should have remembered a picture is worth a thousand words. Those debates was sponsored by the three major networks, cbs, nbc, and abc. After a break of 16 years, the general election president ial debates returned in 1976 sponsored by the league of women voters. The league continue to sponsor the debates in 1980 and 1984. In 1987, the commission on president ial debates was established to ensure for the benefit of the american electorate the general election debates between or among the leading candidates for the offices of president and Vice President of the United States are a permanent part of the electoral process. A private and independent 501 c 3 organization, the cpd indicates it does not receive any funding from the government, any political party, Political Action committee, or candidate. The commission has sponsored and produced all general election president ial debates since 1988. Dubbed the super bowl of american democracy, the first of the three 2020 general election debates plus one Vice President ial debate will kickoff four weeks from tonight on tuesday, september 29 in cleveland, ohio. There is spectacle surrounding them, the debates continue to serve a vital role in helping to educate the electorate on the choice before them in november. It is a tall order, and one that our guests are cast with overseeing. Thank you so much joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having us. We will accept questions from our online evidence. To submit a question, email headliners press. Org. In the runup to our program, our producer has received. Ore than 300 quos. Questions. So here we go. You are the dean of the cochairs and in fact cofounders. You also served as chairman. Talk about the challenges of 2020 versus what you dealt with in the past. Can you compare this to anything youve seen before . No, it is clear the coronavirus has thrown us a curve ball, as it has everyone else in every walk of life. Most of us have o live our lives now. We ave. The date and location for this years debate back in october and md had no idea that we would run into what weve run into. We originally came into some difficulties. We were supposed to start on the 29th at the university of notre dame. If you know anything about how they have approached this semester theyre set to start this semester around the first of august run through without a break until thanksgiving and then send the kids home knowing going home in the interim. We were going to come with the debate of between 3,000 to 5,000 reporters around the world didnt fit into the situation. So were very fortunate that they stepped up. We have the same sort of problem at michigan and thats why the town hall meeting has been moved from michigan down to miami. And now we are also working th the Cleveland Clinic with regard to social distancing, candidates, staff, audience and so forth. So its a different world that were walking into but we think were as prepared as we can be under the circumstances. A few important luminaries before we enter a deep dive into 2020 with our member questions. Frank, talk about the differences between the primary debates. We saw this spring and the general election president ial debates. I know all of us on the Commission Board run into this all the time, because it is hard for a most americans to see how different they are. The primary. Debates are fundament requestly put on bit networks. They have advertisements, they in many ways want the crowd to clap and make noise and so forth and have advertisements that stop debates going forward. We go 90 minutes without any breaks no advertisements no ads. Well be out on stage prior asking the audience please be quiet theres no clapping no whistling so forth. I always tell them there will be somewhere between 50 to 150 Million People watching and its unfair for you to interfere with what theyre saying and weve been very fortunate. Weve done 30 debates since 1988 and theres only been once or twice that theres been that, thats it. We think were as ready and well be but theres nothing like the hard debates or anything in any way shape or form. Dorothy, you said it is ok for me to call you dot, and i will. Youre a longtime journalist, newspaper reporter, editor in charlotte, louisville, washington,. And later publisher in florida. You qualify for a National Press club membership. You also served as president of the league of women voters during the period of time that the organization sponsored the president ial debate. I would like you to talk to us a bit about the candidate Selection Process for the debates. That has been one of the continuing debates among those who also would prefer to be a contender in the debates. We probably face more legal challenges. Through that and more personal interest through the croitia that were used. But the basic reason is you cant have everybody who files to rub for president in a debate. We talk about thousands who file declarations of candidacy. So to get it down to true debate there has to be some limitation on as the league put it and thou the commission puts it voter support to demonstrate that they have a significant opportunity to end up on the winning side in the election. And thats been a problem and always will be i suspect. I cant think any way it would not be the commission now adopted the criteria that the league of women voters used developed from its earliest years beginning in 1976 which were difficult thats why i see the commission and league as partners because the league tried a lot of things that didnt work and a bunch of things that did and we can all pick up on those that really did work. But that you put your finger on the one that really the most bothersome every debate year. Based on the number of questions we got onthat subject. We will have an opportunity to talk more about that. Lets move over to the moderators as we cover a lot. They allowed them to have a veto over anyone suggested to be the moderater or in the panel. Who asked the questions. They study it had question how can we do a better job . Both independently came to the conclusion that there should be created a new separate entity that exists for one purpose to ensure that the general election debates are held every four years. At that time i was the chairman of the Republican National committee. We have gether and one all 30 debates since 1988. We have taken the position that we cant allow the candidates to pick the moderators so we spend a great deal of time particularly over the last year before the doe bait looking at those people who are on television or what theyre writing to try to find someone who can strike the balance of fairness that were looking for and realizing that your job as a moderater of a president ial debate is much different than a journalist interviewing a candidate. If a journalist is interviewing a candidate and asks a candidate a question and give an answer Something Different than they said a week later the journalist is going to say youre changing your position. Thats not the job of a moderater of president ial debate. It is the job to facilitate interchange between the candidates to have that debate. So you want the other candidate if he or she is up on whats going on to say wait a minute you changed your position. So thats the very important distinction and so we worked very hard and we will be announcing this debate moderater this week. I would only add that the commission has grown with experience and changed with experience. In terms of the criteria for candidate who appear on stage there was 2 and 96 criteria we later saw, starting in 2000 which was more transparent and certainly less subjective. Also too when the moderators the commission learned that it was probably best to have a single moderater for each debate because that changed the focus to the moderators rather than always on the stage the candidates themselves. So youll probably see four moderators one for the Vice President tial debate and three for the president ial debate which we think focuses attention more on the candidates than on the moderators themselves. The other dink also starting with the first debate in i the was 2012 we had happened to be jim and we followed this now the moderators in the first and last debate will happen this year will divide 90 minutes into six 15minute segments and will allowance three or four days before the debate what each segment will concentrate on one could be health care, law and order and the candidates know in advance. What happens is the moderater at the beginning of the 15 minutes will ask a question and then the moderater has the ability to drill down and get to where they are in the issue rather than having them up there with their one or two minute dite tribe that theyve worked out during the campaign. So thats a big difference along with the difference that ken noted of going to a single moderater rather than a panel of reporters. Pandemic. The it sounds like there are no changes to date in the formats of the debates for this year as a result of the pandemic. Im curious as to whether that is still fluid at all just as a result of what we dont know might happen. Its very, very clear with regard to the town Hall Meetings for those people who have seen the town hall meeting in the past you know we have 50 or 100 people somewhere in there around in bleachers almost like a theater in the round and theyre sitting with candidates and moderators in the middle where they ask the questions. Its clear with social distancing and other protocols were not going to be able to do that. That is fluid something were going to have to listen as to how many people we can have its part of that group of citizens selected to be on the stage and what the distancing is. So its very clear there that we are going to have some changes to what weve done in the past. With regard to the other debate with the candidates on the stage theyre always more than six feet apart historically with the moderater in the middle but again the Cleveland Clinic were going to look to them and whatever the state protocols were going into different states, states have different protocols and we have to comply but at this point the only significant difference i think that we set is going to e with that town hall meeting. And i would sad the size of the audience will be considerably smaller. Longtime are the former president of the National Democratic institute a Nongovernmental Organization dedicated to advancing Democracy Worldwide and your work in american politics goes back to 1972 when you served on the National Staff of George Mcgoverns campaign. People may not realize the global reach of the president ial debates as well as the global outreach of the commission on president ial debates. Talk to us a bit about the work thats being done internationally particularly among emerging democracies. As important as the debates have been in the United States and really has become a permanent feature of our electoral process, debates have become have had even a greater impact overseas in new and eye merging democracies particularly in countries in post conflict political environments and the debates have played a very, very Important Role in the transition process for three reasons. Number one it has leveled the Playing Field in countries where there has been a dom fant political party. Secondly, it helps focus the candidates on how was the Public Policy issues ratser than personality. And three it has lowered the Campaign Rhetoric often at political rallies because citizens see the two or more major candidates vying for office shaking hands i assume now in the covid period its going to be elbow bumps but they see the candidates shaking hands and it promotes stability in the campaign process. And it has had a huge impact in these situations and it has influenced the way people behave and the way people vote. And as a result of the work that the commission has done in cooperation with the national mocratic institute, we together jointly have helped organize more than 400 debates in 50 countries around the world. Saturday theres now a coalition of debate organizers debate countries called international that help each other in terms of organizing debate. So last year during the debate in tunisia where virtually all of the 7 million plus registered voters watched the debates on television there was not only the commission and ndi that was assisting that effort but it was also debate organizers from chile, mexico and jamaica that were also engaged in and assisting. So now in this international each other. Helps you said promoting civility in the campaign process. Is that an issue here now with what the rest of the world sees in our own debates . And ill expand that to the primary debates too because those were pretty raucous. Alk about that a little bit. I think frank made mention earlier because the audience were actual participants in the debate i think it contributes to an environment that is more in the primary. Im talking about primary debates because they were actual participants in the debate in terms of their approval or disapproval of what the candidates were saying and because you had up to 16 primary s in the debate it is it resulted in a more raucous process i think. And because you had many more moderators as well. I think i cannot predict that but in the past the president ial debates have been a little more dignified in that regard because the audience are not a participant in the process. There is traditionally only one moderater and it has i think people will see the thing that these debates ln quite different than the primaries. Did you want to add anything . Totally agree. You can see that civility yes, i think that is an issue. But our general election debates both the leagues and comcommissions have put a great emphasis on that so the audience can hear and not just in the room but on the broadcast opportunity. So its really important. Its really important that we keep an emphasis on that. I think what has happened is ome years ago i was at Harvard Kennedy school and my section was like with students was entitled how can we restore coment which is one of my favorite words. Comety. Y, coment back in washington. And i think really what has happened in the last tep years or so the American People for a number of reasons have lost a great deal of confidence in many institutions, whether banks, whether im a catholic, the catholic church. Go on and on before there was a lot of comety. And then i think the biggest thing as far as i know k12 has not focused on civics and the history of this country and what led us to be what we are today in k12. Talk to kids they dont know the history of and they dont know what their responsibilities are as citizens. So theres a lot of thing that is have come to a head. Now, what youre seeing in the streets and in politicians of today its tough and i dont expect if its just the two men that were now taub ugh about former Vice President biden and President Trump on the stage. Remember if theres nothing to say there wont be somebody fells. Talked a little bit about the qualifications. There are other qualifications. Number one the constitutional requirement. You must be 35 years of age, you must have been born in the United States. We got into it a little bit when mccain and president obama were running against each other. We got as many complaints at the commission about the senator as we did obama whether or not he should qualify for having been born but as you know john mccain was born in panama on a naval base where his father was a an admiral so it was determined he met the requirements. You must be on enough ballots to conceiveably get 270 electoral votes so thousand people will run for president , i should have checked how many have already signed up. So thats where the 15 rule came in. Dorothy and her folks at the league said in order to qualify to be invited to participate the week before each debate you must have reached 15 on an average of five leading polls and in fact in 1980 most people dont remember there was a Third Party Candidate John Anderson of illinois, a commap that the first debate he was like 17 i think 1. And the league of women voters extended an invitation to him to participate. He said he would. They gave an invitation to governor reagan and they did it to president carter and carter said hell no i wont go. He didnt go. I was at that first debate back then held in baltimore and it was just Ronald Reagan and John Anderson. Anderson fell below the 15 rule for the next debate and only had one debate between then president carter and Ronald Reagan. The point here is that there is no law that requires president or candidate for president to debate. As you in the introduction indicated we went 16 years between 1960 and 76 before there were any. Lyndon johnson befused to debate. Nixon refused. It wasnt until ford and carter had their debate that we got back on track. Back to the original question, its undeniable, over hat politics the last decade or mo have had vast polarization that seeps into the debates. But hopefully between the moderators and the format it will hopefully see less o of that in the general election debates than they did in the primary. Ok. Thank you all. Lets get to some of these questions that have come in. Number of questions. Before you, let me emphasize that we struggled with that 15 which was an indication it had to be obviously independent judgments of the voters who participated in those poles. Thats the only way we could figure out how to determine on an objective basis, because they were referred to us by the National Experts on voters interest and support. It was difficult. We never say that was perfect. We debated that for years. I know it comes up again. I chair the criteria for candidacy this year and we went through the same thing and that probably will always be with us. Maybe not always but its going to be an issue for a long time. Its going to come up right now with the next few questions. Here we go. A question from stacy blunt. Should the chosen polls, abc, washington post, cnn, nbc, wall street journal, fox news and npr be required to mention by name instead of other every candidate on the ballot in every state in every one of their polls . Impossible. Thats what i think. When i look at the number of persons who have filed preapplication you know application for being on ballot, it would be impossible. It would not be we would not have debates. All right. Let me move to a question from julian roberts. How feasible it is for Third Party Requirements to meet . Would you be willing to consider alternative Access Requirements like Ballot Access . Well we do have Ballot Access. You have to be on the ballot in enough states to have a reasonable chance of being elected. That is a Ballot Access criteria. Heres a question for michael. This november americans will see at least four options for president on their ballots in each state. Joe biden as the Democratic Party nominee, donald trump as the Republican Party nominee, Howie Hawkins as the Green Party Nominee and Joe Jorgenson as the Libertarian Party nominee. Why are Joe Jorgenson and Howard Hawkins not allowed in the president ial debates . Do you have any plan ons changing that decision . First, i think its important that you point out that theyre going to be on the ballot. And thats because those parties have worked very hard over the years, theyve gone out to each state and each state has their own requirement of getting on the ballot. Some states may be petitions signed by 50,000 or 50,000 or 100,000. Everyone is different and those two parties over the last number of years have been very aggressive and gone out in fact in the last cycle in 2016 the libertarians and the greens were significant players. I think the libertarians may have gotten as high at one point as 9 in the polls. They were in a lot of the polls. I think they only got 4 of the vote and the greens got up to 4 and ended up with 2 or 3. So in order for a Third Party Independent person they have to go out and that requirement to be on enough state ballots to conceiveably get 270 electoral votes. You just cant pick and choose out of the 200 people who were running whether or not they should be on the stage. And sometimes if you do if you saw in 1980 since theres no requirement if you want to get it down to having those people who really have as dot said a real chance to be the president of the United States, its got to be someone who has a week before the debate at least enough ground swell to make it clear that theyre going to have a shot. The month before an election i think the commission does not see its role as trying to create candidates but rather to respond to what the citizenry and what the electorate has demonstrated in terms of support. So what you have on stage with a threshhold are viable candidates that meet certain criteria. And i think the commission has tried to be fair. The commission has set criteria to be inclusive but at the same time limited to all those who would be viable candidates. And thats why the threshhold i think has been instituted in 2020 and i think it has worked well so far. I would add that in every cycle that the commission has been doing the debates except 2008 we have been sued and many, many suits have gone through the federal courts, federal Elections Commission challenges to the 15 rule that were somehow being unfair and so forth weve been successful in all of those suits up to this time knock on wood and i think right now there are no suits filed out there. But so weve been challenged and as he said we do our best to try to be fair to the candidates but also fair to the American People. So were not clogging the stage like you see with the primary debates talking about youve got 15, 16 people on the stage or 10 people on the stage and each candidate if lucky gets two or three minutes. So we want to make sure that the American People will see the candidates who really have a substantial opportunity to win the presidency and make their jument based on that. One other point in that regard and that is that the republican nominee of the democratic nominee dont automatically pass and get automatic invitations. They too have to pass the threshhold and the criteria established by the commission. So this is not about favoring two Political Parties but rather establishing criteria for all candidates running. Thank you. You alluded a little earlier to moderater challenges to statements that are made and we have a factchecking question from dana m. Hardy. According to your website exit poll data for many years has shown that voters cite debates more than any single factor in considering how to cast their ballot. In order to help ensure that our electorate make voting decisions based on Accurate Information would the Commission Consider implementing a realtime fact check system during all of the president ial and Vice President tial debates and the example that dana hardy gives is perhaps by scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Absolutely not. From my perspective theres a lot of Fact Checkers and the minute the debate is over you can go on any network pick up your paper the next morning and theyll be there. So it is not our job to be the fact checker. It is our job to put on the debates with candidates to be fair, balanced not take side and let the American People make the decision. So i think that with regard to someone else suggested that, it wasnt tom freedman. Someone wrote an op ed said the last ten minutes ought tom Fact Checkers coming out and saying he didnt tell the truth. Thats not the role of the debate. Also too in tom column he advocate that had the candidates themselves choose the Fact Checkers. If the last time that the candidates choose the moderators and rejected over 100 you can imagine the debate over the Fact Checkers. So in practical terms it would be virtually impossible and so ultimately it would have to be the role of the media that plays the Important Role as Fact Checkers. Thank you. We were talking about the selection of the moderators earlier. This is a question from christian. In the history of the president ial debates there has never been a latino moderater. Latinos are the largest ethnic voting block in this election. Will you commit to having a latino moderater for the debates this year . Are any in conversation . Well, i dont want to answer that other than to say that one of the most difficult things we do is in selecting our moderators to find diversity in the media. Whether youre talking about television stations and those people in positions of power and im not only talking about hispanics but blacks and asians, who are there, women for a long time we saw that some years ago but we do our best in our Selection Process to make sure we have diversity. And i think the announcement this year which will come hopefully by the end of the week there will be diversity. I cant indicate that were going to be perfect with every group that theyre going to be happy but i think youre going to see diversity. A question from bob. Theres some noise from both sides about the number and schedule of the debate. Speaker pelosi said Vice President biden should not debate donald trump and President Trump has said the debate should start earlier in the calendar and there should be more. Do we assume that they will stay as they are right as you have scheduled them . We indicated to both candidates that should they want an additional debate or should they want to move one of the debates that they should jointly adepree to that and come to the commission and we would consider it. The Trump Campaign has suggested on a number of occasions, i got a letter i think we got a letter the day before yesterday from Rudy Giuliani wanting to move the debate earlier in september because of the absentee ballots going out and voting by mail. Weve spent a lot of time looking at the issue of voting by mail and absentee ballots and an analysis was done great detail in 2016. It wasnt the coronavirus and we understand thats different. But the first debate in 2016 was about the same time, two days earlier maybe have been 29th. Th rather than the oint 006 of voters had vode by mail even though some states they had their ballot. By the time we got to the Vice President debate it was up a tiny bit. So the experts who look at this say there are two types of voters when youre talking about mailin ballots. Those who get the ballot and they open it and mark it right away put a stamp on it and send it out the same day. Those people are following politics on a regular basis they understand the issues they may be members of the parties involved and nothing is going to change their mind. But the majority of voters wait until about the last two weeks to send in their ballots. Having a ballot in your hand doesnt mean youre going to vote right away. So we felt that at this point in time where the debates are remember we announced these back in october of last year long before coronavirus and thats why we said if the two candidates cant agree they want to move one or force debate to make it the first we would consider it. We didnt agree we would do it but we would consider it. So we spent a lot of time on it. We have a followup question. It concerns whether candidates can bring notes with them to the debates. Whats the current status of that . Go ahead. We did not at the league allow the decision im not aware thats but i think that has changed. No. On the platform or on their podium there will be a pad of paper and a pen. To take notes. But not to bring notes. In fact i go back to 1992 and i remember ross perot standing there with his hands on his hips and frank what is this i cant bring out my charts and graphs. Because if you remember back in 92 he had charts and graphs. So no theyre not allowed to bring out any notes. Is there some advantages to allowing them to have notes . Do you get other requests for that other than from ross perot . I dont recall. Ross was joking. He accepted the rule. But weve never tolt best of my knowledge has anyone complained about that rule. Theyve understood it and all lived with it and performed appropriately. A much more general question. But i think an important one. What in your view is a successful debate . What are the characteristics and the outcomes that youre looking for . If i may pose that to each of you. Well, i think we will learn after the debate how successful they are and to step back a ittle bit it is dined as a Civic Education instrument for people voting and for people who are young who have yet to vote and you will see on College Campuses where the debates take place. They use the debates as a Civic Education tool to do this not only at the College Level but at high school and below. There are programs for kindergarten through 12th grade that take place all around the country under the debate watch initiative that the commission is engaged with. So i think looking at the debates and if people feel that the debates were valuable in terms of making their selection or understanding Public Policy issues i think we will consider that to be a success. And thus far close to two thirds of those who have watched the debates either through Live Streaming or through television have seen the debates as having a real value in terms of their choice for president of the United States. The polls that have taken place afterwards i think will demonstrate the value. It will prove to be of value. Whatever you just said, which i totally agree with. But im really bothered by the fact that Civics Education has dropped almost disappeared in our Public School systems and everything i see about debates encourages Civic Education. Because i think really missing in an american democracy these days i want us to make sure that we make civic participation, civic understanding a genuine central part of what the debate process is all about. Thats why we actually changed the format away from that moderater and panel report. A reporter number one had thought long and hard about his or her question to show how tough they are, show how smart they are to impress their colleagues and so forth. Under the old format that person would ask one of the candidates the question, that candidate would have two minutes to answer the other candidate would have one minute to come back and then 0 second surrebautle then it was time to go to the next reporter the second panelist. Well maybe they didnt answer the question. Neither one of them answered the question. So reporter number two was not going to waste his or her question by following up on reporter number ones question so there was no drilling down. Thats why now by dividing the 90 minutes 15 minute segments, the moderator has the ability to drill down and get away from twominute answers and get some real substance to educate the public on where candidates stand. I would add that the debates here are watched globally. What somebody told me, except for it is one of the most watched Television Shows globally. Dozens and dozens of country turn to the commission into the Democratic Institute and watch debates as a permanent political feature of their it has impact globally as well as for the american electorate. Im sure you would like everyone to watch the debates for 90 minutes and Pay Attention and listen and watch. Lets talk in that vein about social media. Give us your views of the pros and cons of social media and how social Media Channels are best used in terms of the debates. Do you have questions for the candidate . Those are then transferred to the moderators. We do not give them any instructions. And so that information is getting from social media to the moderators and they make the determination as to what questions theyre going ask. I think our view of social media and the media has changed over the years. A point in time where people had a dystopian view of the internet, that it would provide people, ordinary citizens an opportunity to speak. Ruth to power who helped in egypt trigger the egyptian revolution said social media was a liberating vehicle to speak truth to power. Now the challenges is who will speak truth to social media . [laughter] it is a doubleedged sword. We have seen the darker side of social media both in the u. S. And globally. On balance, it is here. It is a permanent feature of the way people communicate and we hope the debates will be an event that allows people to share Accurate Information. Michael dot, i saw you shaking your head before. Would you like to comment . Dorothy i am not a social media fan. I am one of those ken would describe as one of those in the beginning who thought this would be a fresh new approach to provide citizen education. It has not turned out that way. I should have known. I dont know what to say other than i am just going to drop it. I am really not a fan. I do not participate. I am on zoom right now. [laughter] whatever. Michael thank you. We are down to the last 10 minutes for our conversation. I would love to take a look back at 2016 and have each of you offer some reflections on what went right, what did you determine needs improvement . There were a number of surprises along the way in 2016. Frank, do you want to start . Frank what happened in 2016, which had never happened before it is we had a mechanical failure. In the first president ial debate in 2016, if you were in the debate hall, you noticed coming from donald trump, his voice was modulating. One moment it would be high, the next it would be low. If you watched on television, you didnt notice because there are several microphone systems. When a microphone is causing you trouble, it interferes with you and we acknowledged because donald complained rightfully afterwards and we indicated that it was something that was beyond our control. We did not do it intentionally. That was really the only technical thing. There were other things that happened in the st. Louis debate, the town hall debate, the Trump Campaign wanted to put out on the stage and in the family box, three women who allegedly accused former president clinton of improper approaches, which i had to cut off at the pass because it would interfere with the integrity of the debate but overall we were pleased with the way the debates went. We thought donald trump and Hillary Clinton did a good job. They did their homework. They were not the most enjoyable from the standpoint of great harmony on stage, but i think the issues were illustrated clearly enough for the American People to make a decision. Dorothy i want to congratulate frank. I remember so clearly sitting in that hall when we understood Rudy Giuliani had invited the women involved on previous charges against the husband of one of the contenders to sit facing her in the family box and i had people all around me saying what in the world is going on . I said frank will take care of it. He did. I knew he would. Those things are going to continue to happen and that is really unfortunate. I dont have anything to add. I thought they turned out quite well. In fact, better than i had anticipated. I would only add that i have worked with the commission overseas for the past 30 years, so i am the new kid on the block in terms of being a Commission Member and cochair of the commission, but there are a lot of moving parts to these debates. It is a very complex process. Technically and politically. I have been enormously impressed, not only with the Commission Members, but particularly with the staff and janet brown. They come with a lot of experience and expertise and run this very professionally and have usually been trusted by all sides, all participants in the process and i anticipate that that will happen this year. We have a wonderful producer, mark slutsky who has to work with all the parties and their principals. He does a remarkable job along with the staff. In high demand around the world as well. They are at their busiest now, i will tell you that. Dorothy a real savior for us. We have a lot of folks with a lot of issues. Some of which are a lot more serious than most of them are, but we are well stocked with good talent. Michael lets take the last few minutes here i would like to touch on the role of journalists in this process. Your mission is to educate the electorate. What do you see as the role for journalists and are there any stories you would like to see covered that are being missed out there . Ken, can we start with you . Ken well, i will tell you, i think to some degree and i do not want to sound too parochial, i think the work of the commission itself has been misunderstood by a lot of people in terms of decisionmaking processes made by the commission. The role of the commission, the composition of the commission. This is not a group of people seeking to perpetuate a particular political process. What we are trying to do is make the political process a better political process to inform the american electorate. One of the things i have always wanted to see is journalists looking at the work of the commission and learning more about the commission since its establishment in 1988. The federal Election Commission designates that there are only two legitimate sponsors of the debate into that is the media. That is what you see in the primary debates individual networks who are hosting. Or a nonprofit organization. The benefit of the commission has been that we utilize the white house pool, so we make available the debates to everybody, not just a particular network or a particular media outlets. The work of the commission has been extraordinary. I would like to see more attention being paid to the excellent work the commission does. Since i joined it a little over a year ago, i have been enormously impressed with the integrity, transparency, and the professionalism of the commission. Frank there have been a lot of changes in journalism. You know it. I think back to when Walter Cronkite was doing the evening news. In the middle of a show, a gentleman with a double breasted suit and silver hair came forward and underneath his picture it said opinion. And he gave his opinion, his view of what the news was. That distinction between news and opinion does not exist anymore. It used to be that the opinion page of every newspaper was one thing and the news part was something else. That has all melted together. I remember when the Network Morning shows were viewed as entertainment and there was no news. That has all melted. So journalism and news has changed. I do not know where it is going, but i see a lot of polls showing the confidence of the American People has gone down significantly. That is concerning. A free press is important to make everything we are working in democracy effective. Ken we tend to listen to people we agree with and i think that has been an unfortunate development. Dorothy my professional life was as a print journalist and that is how i discovered politics from a nonpartisan point of view because we really did at that time put a lot of emphasis on that. Earlier in this broadcast, i made some derogatory comments about social media in general. It is not a good situation for this kind of a conversation, and i would suggest that the demise of the newspaper business again, i am biased i will admit because i came out of journalism and newspaper and the demise of local journalism print products has been devastating to all of the things we have been talking about. How we can tend to work with us with this and make sure that Civic Education is still practiced and promoted by journalism, that would certainly make me a lot happier. Michael i would be remiss if i did not rebut for a moment the fact that there is a lot of very fine journalism across america. Dorothy absolutely. I cannot agree with you more. Michael and there may be a homogenization of what good journalists abhor and that is an homogenization of accurate journalism and commentary and opinion, but there is plenty of a very fine journalism still being conducted in this country. Dorothy agreed, but their outlets are still dropping. Michael that is a whole other program i think because they are dropping for reasons as well and it has to do with who owns it. Hopefully with the announcement this week of who the moderators are, they will be considered fine journalists. Michael let me ask each of you to talk to the viewers now, particularly the younger people in our audience, perhaps some of whom will vote for the first time. Why is it important to watch the general election president ial debates this year . Dot, why dont you start . Dorothy i have grandchildren of that age who are asking me nana but theblah, overriding reason is they need to make sure they know what democracy is about. Elections, especially like the ones coming up, are an essential part of what a democratic government is all about. I see that eroding a bit. I hope i am wrong. But i encourage them not to sit there for the 90 minutes may be, but expose them to what this is all about and expose them to democracy. Michael ken . Traditionally in the United States, only 50 of registered voters in the u. S. Vote in a president ial election. That is an extremely low number. I hope more young people would watch the debates, watch all 90 minutes of the debates and hopefully that will lead to their engagement in the process. Because you do not want to leave that to other people. We have seen in other elections that every vote counts, and the more people who watch the debate, the more people will participate, and the more people will vote, and those votes will be more informed as a result of the debates. Frank i would go back to the word i used earlier, one of my favorite words comity. I would ask all young people, particularly if it is the first time theyre going to vote, to go to a dictionary and look up comity. And the ability to agree or disagree. It is something very important that we have lost in this country. On College Campuses, if you disagree with what the majority says, you are in trouble. We are a 5050 country. We are badly divided and until we get back to respecting each other and each others ability to differ on certain issues, we are going to be in difficulty as a democracy. I would focus on that. How do we get back to comity . That should be the goal of everybody. Michael thank you. That will be our last word this afternoon. Our thanks to the cochairs of the commission on president ial debates frank, dot, and ken. We are pleased to send you mugs , our National Press club mug. You will get a fresh one, not the one ive been drinking from. We will send those to you, as well as our sincere hope you can join us in person in the near future. Great good luck to you and thank you for joining us today. Our thanks to our producer lindsay underwood, janet brown, of the commission on president ial debates for helping to make todays program happen, and to our terrific National Press club team here at the broadcast operations center. We thank our members and guests for your good questions and joining us. Be well, stay safe, have a good day. President bidens record is a shameful rollcall of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime. [applause] he has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history. Hasur current president failed in his most basic duty to the nation. Americaailed to protect , and my fellow americans, that is unforgivable. The first president ial debate between President Trump and former Vice President joe biden is tuesday, september 29, at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Watch live coverage on cspan, Live Streaming and ondemand at cspan. Org, or listen live on the cspan radio app free. About the news that came out yesterday about the Unemployment Rate dropping adding and the economy for thellion jobs American Workers in july. The to give us context, have with us this morning had a long, the economic correspondent with the washington post. Good morning. Guest good to be here. Host take us through this latest job report. Was this considered a good job report, a fair job report, a bad job report . Give us some context on what we heard yesterday. Guest great question. Overall it was a good job support. Certainly every job we can bring back right now after we lost 22 million in the spring is welcome. Figure wasllion better than anybody had forecast. This is a big asterisk to report, and that is a quarter of those jobs added back for temporary jobs. Wererticular, 238,000 census worker jobs. Those jobs are not going to last. Those of those people who have been knocking on your door, asking questions about the census 2020. Those jobs will be gone in the a few more weeks. Certainly in the business sector, over 100,000 jobs were added that our temp jobs. Those going to last . We hope so, but probably not. That was the big asterisk in this report. Host which sectors of our economy fared the best in july . In getting those jobs back . Which ones were they and why did they do better than others . Guest great question. So, the biggest job gain was those census workers. Part of the government sector we were just talking about. Werether two big gainers retail jobs, 249,000. And the hospitality sector that is your restaurants and hotels. 174 thousand jobs in that sector. What is important is to step back and look at the bigger picture. Yes, those two areas at a lot of jobs in august, however if you look at all of the job losses that have happened since march, most, atill down the quarter of jobs are still gone in the hospitality sector. We all can walk around our own neighborhoods and see those restaurants are not back at full capacity. A lot of bars are not open. Coffee shops, these sorts of things. That is where the pain is still most pronounced, even though some of those jobs are coming back. The figure i keep in my head about 50 of jobs have come back that we lost. Is that a class half full or a glass halfempty story . Different politicians are spending it differently, we still got a long way to go. Host i dont know if you can answer this questions from the numbers we got this today, the jobs that were gained, are these jobs that people are these jobs that people got back . Jobs they were working already or are these people moving to new jobs, jobs they did not hold before the pandemic . Host its a great question guest thats a great question. We dont have as much intel on that as we would like. We do know is some of the jobs were people returning to jobs they had held before. I tweeted this out yesterday. The most alarming thing to me in this report is we got confirmation that permanent job losses are rising. That is the really nasty scarring, where a lot of people at the beginning of this pandemic, about 80 of people who lost their job. They would be rehired quickly. But they would be rehired by the summer. Over,e are, the summer is only half the jobs are back. The people who are now being told that they are permanently off, thereeir is is no chance of them coming back, has reason has risen to 3 million. That is the permanent scarring we have to be careful about. Host can we tell from this job report whether the government stimulus programs past earlier earliering passed this spring boosted job creation we saw in july . Guest in august, yeah. Host in august, sorry. Guest there is no doubt that the government stimulus programs helped. We would be in a worse situation without them. There is different studies that have come up with different numbers, exactly how many jobs were saved by things like the Paycheck Protection Program that helped a lot of Small Businesses keep their employees. Those numbers vary, but everybody comes to the same conclusion that that extra stimulus money was a huge help. Question is, a lot of that money is now gone. A lot of those Program Loans and grants are now used. They are over. Of course, those unemployment by august 1, so we have gone a month without it now. A lot of fear is that the job gains we have been seeing that were pretty strong this summer, they just going to stall . They have already been slowing. July was slower than june. August was slower than july. We certainly dont want to fizzle out or have a backtrack here. Host we would like to thank heather long for coming in for us this morning and walking us through the august up, charlie cook Discusses Campaign 2020, and then a former Deputy Assistant deputy of defense in the Trump Administration talks about a new report on chinas military buildup. Watch cspans washington eastern live at 7 00 on sunday morning. And be sure to watch monday morning as we feature a campaign 2020 discussion on north carolina, florida, ohio, wisconsin, pennsylvania, and arizona. U. S. E state department and officials discussed combating plastic in oceans. They outlined bipartisan efforts to room reduce Marine Debris and improve waste management. Which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] good afternoon. Hello, senator leahy. Sorry i am late. That weday has arrived
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