Tonight, and we expect a large assume those debates even increase in their viewership where a lot of the political campaigning conventions, other forms of political communication, has waned over the past several years. Not so with debates. We actually set a record four years ago. Brought theey largest crowd, but that first debate was almost 82 Million Viewers. The alltime record. Most of those viewers tuning in, what we have learned, as high as 90 plus percent of those are there to cheer on their candidate and to root for the candidate that they already are committed to. Typically a small slice of viewers and voters who have not been following the race very closely, who are uncommitted, and what we found that small slice, they use the debates to make a candidate choice, a voting commitment. That number, typically in our studies, has been anywhere from 2 to 4 , never more than 5 . And yet, in terms of a race where the dynamic is affected, particularly bad around states, that slice of debate viewership can make a difference. Certainly important first debate. And itct high viewership can be consequential, i think, in the outcome of the election. Host so you have probably heard critics of debates overall. One of them is the new york timesf how one votes. Well, certainly, and i think it is true, for many of those folks, pundits and Media Campaign operatives, even a callers aref your following politics very closely. Again, when we see that 80 million plus, they have the potential, and they do reach those individuals that havent been following politics, havent been following the campaign so closely. For those individuals, unlike many others, we will be hearing a lot of the same issues, a lot of the same arguments, we expect that in debates. But for some voters, this is the time for them to size up the candidates. Campaigntime in the that we see them together, facetoface, and in terms of what voters to go away from the debates, our Research Shows that this is the moment that they point to a source of information, whatever at the most useful. That is attributed to the fact that we see the debate and it is the case that this is the form of Campaign Communication that is least controlled by the candidates. Unlike ads, unlike rallies, speeches, Party Conventions that are produced by the parties, the candidates are there without notes, without teleprompters, again, not knowing the specific questions that will be put to them, and because of that, i think that is the reason that voters point to the debate message and when they see the candidates meet at the debates, as a reliable form of communication, where do they feel they are getting the truth, if you will, of what we hear from the authentic candidates . For all of those reasons, again, we will be hearing, and throughout the three debates, we will likely hear some of the same arguments, some of the same lines we have heard from the candidates, particularly those following politics very closely. This is new information, and this is information that we have found that they claim is very useful to them. Host Mitchell Mckinney joining us for this conversation. Ask them questions, for those of you who support joe biden and kamala harris, 202 7488000. If you support President Trump and mike pence, 202 7488001. If youre undecided at this point or you support other parties, 202 7488002. Do debateskinney, end up being a make or break typically for the candidates involved . Guest you know, we certainly point back to some of those memorable moments in debates that are played over and over again that can have, i think, a very powerful impact on our perception of the candidates. In terms of the make or break, we have had debate series from the very beginning, for example, 1960, a very close election. Certainly Richard Nixon claims that his performance in those first kennedynixon debates just didnt match up to the performance of john kennedy. Fact, that was one of the main reasons why debates went on hiatus for a bit. Richard nixon was a candidate in 68 and refused to debate. We finally had debates resume again in 1976. Theres another debate series where some blunders by gerald i thinkthe 1976 debate influenced the perception of his knowledge and performance as president. We can look at other moments and make some assessments. If the dynamics of the race are set, and that it will needs of the race close enough going into the debate series, are there enough undecided voters, if we look at some of those battleground states, where we know the race is won or lost, are there enough undecided voters that it may be influenced by the debate to have an outcome . There are a number of those historic moments that we point to and claim that they were influential in the eventual outcome of the race. Host we can go back to 1960 if you want, but you said, Richard Nixon and john kennedy. The topic, the issue of civil rights. You can see that on our website at cspan. Org. We will show you a bit of it. What we will show you, apologies for that, lets take effect back to 1992, richmond, virginia. George h. W. Bush facing off against president clinton, the topic of the economy coming up. A question addressed to bush about how the economy has impacted. Everybody is affected by the debt because of the tremendous interest that goes into paying on that debt, everything is more expensive. Everything comes out of your pocket in my pocket. I think in terms of the recession, of course you feel it when youre president of united its, thats why im trying to do something about it. Investing more, that are indicate better education system. You know people who lost their jobs and lost their homes. Well, ive been governor of a small state for 12 years. Ill tell you how that has affected me. Every year, congress and the president signed laws that make us do more things and give us less money to do it with. Ive seen people in my state, middleclass people, their taxes have gone up and their services have gone down while the wealthy have gotten tax cuts. I have seen what has happened in the last four years of my state when people lose their jobs. There is a good chance i will know them by their names. When a factory closes, i know the people who ran it. And ive been out here for 13 months meeting and meeting just like this ever since october. With people like you all over america, people that have lost their jobs, lost their livelihoods, lost their health insurance. What i want you to understand is the National Debt is not the sovereign, is because we have not grown not the only problem. It is because we have had 12 years of trickledown economics. We have gone from first to 12th in the world and wages. Most people are working harder for less money than they were making 10 years ago. It is because we are in the grip of a failing Economic Series and this decision you are about to make, that will be about what kind of Economic Series you want. Host professor, two approaches from the two candidates, expand on that. Guest you know, a very good clip to illustrate, one, one of the innovations i would point you in terms of the structure of our president ial debates, the institution of the town hall debate that began in 1992. Has Debate Commission continued, i was fortunate to be a part of the Research Team developing that town hall debate, the structure of the town hall debate. Actually, that was run about as a way to more directly engaged citizens in the debate process. 1960 as we continue for quite a long time for decades, the panel of journalists who were in charge of the debate, quite often we would see the sparring between the candidates and the journalists who were asking questions of the candidates. Now, weve gone to the single moderator, we may talk about that structure as perhaps an improvement in terms of a more focused discussion of issues. But the goal of the town hall debate is to more directly engaged citizens in that debate, and certainly points to the fact ,hat we now see citizens viewers of debates pointing to that debate as one of the most beneficial forms of debate, president ial debate for them. In some ways, telling us that they are able to get a better sense of the candidates ability to understand the concerns of the american voter. Whether or not a candidate is able to relate to citizens. They see that enacted on the debate stage. I think what that change is really, what that requires is a different dynamic in our candidates. Certainly, those more formal ofates, we expect sparring the candidates backandforth, attacks, aggression, conflict. Not so, necessarily, in the town hall debate. The dynamic there is understanding the concern of the voters, addressing the concerns that the voters raised in the town hall debate, and to demonstrate that ability. Weve seen some of our , thedential candidates clip you play, george h. W. Bush. Famously in that debate, checking his watch a few times throughout the debate. Other candidates throughout this debates performances not illustrating that ability with citizens. That is an interesting innovation or change in the ways in which we structure our president ial debates today. Host you mentioned the moderator. What is the ideal role of a moderator . Certainly, you get a lot of criticism, and a lot of pushback from the candidates, from the campaign, from other journalists in terms of suggesting how the moderator should handle the role from the Debate Commissions standpoint. They select moderators who are that in charge of these debates. Now, in the structure of debate, the 90 minute debate, we will have six segments. , the sixators identify topics that each 15 minute segment will focus on, and then the moderator is in complete charge, is the only one who knows the specific questions that will be asked of the candidates relating to each of those six topics. The candidates dont know the questions, the commission, they dont know the questions. And then i think it comes to another sticking point, another point of debate for the moderators who have been in charge of the president ial debates. Back, toity to push question, to follow up. Now we refer to it as Fact Checking the claims, the statements made by the candidates. Agree or haveould come to the conclusion that the moderators, these journalists are there to do more than just timekeeping. Again, they are in control of setting the agenda for that debate discussion to the extent that the candidates will address questions and topics raised by the moderator. But i think also, to follow up. We have had a number of moments in president ial debate history where it is in the followup by a journalist, we can go back to and it wasd ford, clear in terms of his understanding of communist control of east european countries, it was in the followup or a journalist said wait a minute, mr. President , i want to make sure i hear what youre saying. And there are other moments, too, where it is clear that the role insts active pressing the candidates have led to revealing moments that tell us something about her candidates and their president s knowledge and abilities. That topic where we see a lot of criticism and assessment of the role of our journalists. Are the fair to both candidates in terms of the questions put to them, within that fairness question, did a fact check, did a followup . Again, most of this vast 80 Million Viewers are partisans, rooting for their candidate. They are going to be looking very carefully at the conduct of the moderator. Host mary in fort walton beach, florida, a supporter of joe biden. Thank you for rating. You are on. Caller mr. Mckinney has answered a great many of my questions about moderators, i would go a little bit further. Onward, hem 1960 would see the moderator actually sitting on the stage with the candidate. Now, he barely see them unless the cameras shipped. But also, another question which is pertinent to me and very important, the behavior of those two candidates. Justn, i watch mr. Trump stomp around the stage and try to distract from the other candidate who is taking seriously. Is that anything that the moderator could intervene with or comment about . Thank you. You know, this question of the journalist, the moderators, who should be in charge, it really has been an issue throughout the history of president ial debates. Led to thes, it creation of the commission on president ial debates up until it was after the 1984 case, the league of women voters with the National Organization that planned and executed our president ial debates. Thats during that period candidates would go back and forth with the league and particularly on the question of which journalist would be selected to question the candidates and finally, the lead came to a point where they said we are just getting this up, we no longer want to be part of this. We cant work with the candidates. Year,he commission, each they announced the moderators, and weve seen where the candidates have accepted. Someinly, there is often sparring, a bit of back and forth. I believe the trunk campaign released a list of journalists that they would like to see in charge, none of those were selected to be moderators. That question is perennial throughout our debate history in terms of who would be in charge of the debate. To the question of the candidates behavior on the debate stage, i would add to the callers observations in terms of, i think she was referring to the town hall debate and some of the behavior of walking or stage, oneound the of the things that we know, again, it was history breaking viewership in the 2016 clintonite entropic debate. Another record that was broken is our analysis of all president ial debates from their forward, those were the most conflicting debates in the history of president ial debates in terms of the amount of tax, the type of attacks. We often will analyze the attack , it is an issue attack, is a personal character attack, we even interestingly added a new category with namecalling and opponent, ofnes the drafting and namecalling. Much of that was directed from donald trump to Hillary Clinton, although there was the tax going back and forth. And then as the caller mentioned, we saw in the town hall debate, that was another difference in 2016. There were several differences in that debate series. Typically, the town hall debate is the least conflictual of all of the president ial debates, and ive argued before, i think one of the advantages, that is where we see the candidates focus less on attacking one another, on that town hall debate stage, and focusing their attention more on the questions for the citizens. We are watching to see, do they address those questions . We expect them to spar with the journalists, but quite often with the citizens, we are watching to see, are they addressing the questions, are they respecting the citizens . In 2016, there was a great deal of candidates a candidate back and forth and attacks. Even with the citizens. That was a bit of an outlier as a debate, something of an outlier for a president ial debate. Host patrick am a supporter of President Trump, good morning. Caller yes. The one thing that i hope that this moderator does is keep both of these candidates on track as far as talking about the records and their achievements and the facts. If the Democratic Party is the party of feelings, not facts. They like narratives, and they tend to use inflammatory words in situations like a debate, instead of talking about facts and achievements. That has to be curbed. , i try too people have the same kinds of debates in my life. Somebody will go oh, i hate trunk. Lets talk about it, what is it that you dont like . He is a liar. Give me an example. I dont know, i dont have any of those. He is just a liar. ,hat is because the narratives they deal in emotions, they dont deal in facts. Host ok, thank you. Mr. Mckinney . Again,well, certainly, in the series that will begin tonight, for a lot about the need for Fact Checking. And who will do the Fact Checking . ,he journalists, the moderators will the moderators step in and attempt to correct claims made that are not supported with facts or reality . Often, i point to the back and forth between the candidates. One of the first lines of Fact Checking of claims that cannot are that when a candidate makes a claim, when one makes a claim that cant be supported, does the opponent call that out . Now, certainly, weve also seen that if one spend their entire time cleaning up this fact theking, it really takes opponent off message in terms of what they are trying to achieve in addressing the issues. Ability to fact check, who will fact check, we might also talk about social media in debates, this sort of instant Fact Checking. To ability of social media influence our understanding of the debates because that has become an important part of the debate message, the debate dialogue. One lasting note that comes to mind, i found this interesting, wetudy several years ago, think about the type of fact that candidates use in debates. An analysis of several years, several series of president ial debates shows that the candidate who spends the 90 minutes spewing the greatest number of fact and statistics is typically seen as the loser of the debate, that is not the way case entirely or necessarily as opposed to the use of narratives, the use of personal anecdotes. Clip,ard in the earlier bill clinton talking about people he knew in his home state who lost their jobs to illustrate a point about jobs and the economy. Quite oftenates entirely briefed with full briefing books of all the facts and figures, they may not be the most effective message strategy for a candidate in a debate. Host lets take you back to october of 2012, obama debating mitt romney. The topic was paid equity for women when the series took place. Have got to enforce the laws which is what we are doing and weve also got to make , we that every walk of life do not tolerate discrimination. That has been one of the hallmarks of my administration. Im going to continue to push on this issue for the next four years. Senator romney, capacity for women . Important topic and one which i learned a great deal about, particularly as i was serving as governor of my state because i had a chance to pull together a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men. And i went to my staff and i said how come all the people men . These jobs are all and they said these are all the people of qualifications. And i said, can we find some women that are also qualified . And so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds they could be to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of womens groups and said can you help us find folks . Hole binders full of women. Host you mentioned social media, what happened after this event . Interestingis an moment, i think, in the history of the president ial debates. Not just because we remember that statement that then became a gaff. Continue,ill try to we are having connection issues slightly with the university of missouri. We are talking with Mitchell Mckinney on the topic of president ial debates and getting a sense of history and the impact. You can continue on with your calls and we will take them as far as our guest is concerned. Well send them to him when he comes back. Lets go to new york, undecided voter, michael, youre not on directly with the guest, but talk about the impacts and your interest in them. Caller impacts of debates. Caller i traditionally identify moderate a monitor republican. I think the basis are established. As a moderate, i dont find myself in that base. I tend to look at these town halls and debates as the opportunity for the candidates to make me take my side and am i going to stay with my party or do i break ranks and it is something i have done before. The two candidates, are they going to continue to hammer the same points or are they finally going to reach out to the large percentage of independents and moderate who do not the two candidates do not represent either of us. Are they going to bring us in will they continue leaving us outside . I am wondering are we picking the lesser of two evils or do we make a vote for an independent candidate. I was wondering if the guest was able to come back and answer this, if he expects that to happen. Thank you very much and thank you cspan. Host we will put that to the side and when the guest comes back, we will address that question directly. We will hear from miles in paterson, new jersey. A supporter of joe biden. Go ahead. Caller i am a democrat but i will vote republican if they prove they are the better person. It does not matter to me, but if you can prove you are the best person for the job, you have my vote. , the guy the debate throwing the questions host you mean Chris Wallace . Caller right. Fair one. Would be a i believe the guy who will be asking the questions should have all the answers to the questions by Fact Checking. If you Say Something to the president , he says, we have the best economy but you do not factcheck it, everybody believes what he says instead of putting the proof out there. They talk about joe biden being old. If that is the case, everybody on the Supreme Court should be kicked off because if we keep talking about how old people cannot do this and that, we have Senior Citizens voting all day so i hope it turns out to be a fair one. Host that is miles in paterson, new jersey. Professor mckinney the previous caller talked about being undecided and the ability of the candidates to address his needs. What does history tell us about that . Again, i would go back and remind us of the reach of the debates and a large audience for these debates. It is one of the few campaign together,at brings us that unites us. Im specifically referring to , theartisan, the dems republicans, the liberals, the conservatives. That ability to reach beyond with this large audience. Certainly a candidates message may be designed for their base but also for expanding that and as your to the concerns caller mentioned in terms of still being undecided, independent, and wanting to hear a message that is not just a Party Message that he has heard over and over. Debates bring that audience together and the candidates ability to do that. Illinois, plainfield, a supporter of President Trump. Hello. Caller hi, there. Host go ahead. Caller i have been voting for 40 years. Except for Ronald Reagan, republican or democrat, they all promised they had a good game but they were not so good on followthrough so i will vote for trump you regardless of the debate. This i can say. I have family members who are strong democrats. I know which way they are going to vote. I tried to get this across, but they feel the way that they do so they are going to vote for biden no matter what. I can say this, the problem with many is, and this is why i dont care about what he says, i care about what they do. Obama had a silver tongue. Oh he was so persuasive. But the followthrough was not what people had expected. Black the Pit Community here in chicago, when he went to washington, he forgot about them. When you talk to them in the downtown and innercity. Host that is janet in plainville, illinois. Mr. Mckinney, talk about president obama. Firstd he do on the debate and what happened after that . I will use that concept of the followthrough and take it to the debate stage. Particularly for an incumbent president seeking reelection, the overarching question in those debates, again, despite the specific issues that a moderator they ask or the question, the overarching issue is typically framed around the performance of the president in office. Do they deserve four more years and an examination of their performance in office. We have seen a number of incumbent president s take the debate stage. We mentioned barack obama in his 2012 debate. Particularly in that first debate. It has become what i call the curse of the incumbent president s first debate. Barack obamas first debate against mitt romney was widely panned as barack obama was off his game, was not prepared, did not show up ready to debate. We could go back to Ronald Reagans reelection in 1984 and his first debate with Walter Mondale which led to, in the second debate, and i think one of your callers also raised the age issue. Certainly Ronald Reagan in that second debate in 1984 was asked explicitly was he too old to continue being president and much of that was prompted by reagans first debate performance. There is something and there are other incumbent president s taking the debate stage in their initial debates where there performance with scenics was seen as lackluster. There was something to whether or not an incumbent president is out of practice. They do not go to the long primary as their opponents do. Joe biden had 12 primary debates. Perhaps they are out of practice of being challenged, of being questioned as they are on the debate stage with their opponents. It will be interesting to see them in tonights debate. This incumbent president takes the debate stage and his performance. Host lets take you back to 1984, president Ronald Reagan debating Walter Mondale. [video clip] want to raise an issue that has been working out there in National Security turned terms. You are already the oldest president in history and some of your staff say you are tired after your most recent encounter with mr. Mondale. I recall that president kennedy had to go for days on end with very little sleep during the cuban missile crisis. Is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances . Not at all. I want you to know that also i will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience. Even Mitchell Mckinney, Walter Mondale laughed at it. Guest i think that he laughed. We saw that. It really defused the moment and gave the win in that moment to Ronald Reagan in addressing that issue. As i said, that question really was brought about and necessitated a stock ronald on ronald based reagans performance. One of your callers raised the issue, will the age question be put to joe biden. It is interesting, we can go back through the history of president ial debates. In they first question very first kennedynixon debate was an age question. It was framed and put to john kennedy that his opponent had john kennedy was too young and inexperienced to be our president. We saw the Ronald Reagan age question. There are other moments i can think of for example, in the Vice President to debate, that question was framed around his poor academic record. The question of candidates fitness for office. Are they too young, too old, are they capable of handling the office, that has been one of the most common types of questions put to our president ial candidates in debate. Are they qualified to hold this office . As your caller raise, if the age issue resurrects itself in the debate in this series. Host lets hear from dallas, texas. Sherry is a supporter of joe biden. Caller yes. Can you hear me . Host you are on, go ahead. Caller i am definitely going for biden and harris because i trust them. Trump, i do not trust at all. He lied about the coronavirus. In cahootsut being with russia. He lied about his taxes. We still dont know all the information behind his taxes. Trump is not care about anybody but himself. Does not care about anybody but himself. He has but the whole world in danger with the coronavirus and he refused to tell us at the time that he knew and he is still denying it now as well as he is asking us to send our kids son to school when his own is not going to school. Host how does that relate to tonights debate . When iti think that comes to being honest, we need someone honest, we need someone we can trust. If trump is going to live to us that if somebody we cannot trust. Host that is sherry from dallas, texas. Mr. Mckinney, if you wanted to take anything from that . Guest what i heard in the callers comments reflect as i said earlier the large number of those tuning in to really be confirmed in their vote choice. We have talked about, do debates matter, they change minds, do the affect the outcomes of elections. Another outcomes of debates the outcome is the reinforcement effect of debates. That largeo know is numbers of viewers become more energized in terms of supporting their candidate and also a mobilization effect. Debate viewers are more likely to vote. This energizing and motivation affect really in terms of engaging more citizens in the political process. So that notion that debates really play to partisans and reinforce, i think there are benefits in terms of the energizing and mobilization effect as many folks will be tuning in to hear and to be reinforced in their decision. Host one Vice President of debate this cycle. This debate be different from other Vice President to debates . Guest the Vice President ial debates have been interesting. We started Vice President ial debates in 1976. We did not have a Vice President ial debate in 1980 where we had only one debate that included the incumbent president and the challenger, Ronald Reagan, jimmy carter and Ronald Reagan. Whenhen we started the we restarted the Vice President ial debate in 1984, it had a great interest. We might use that as an example. Joe biden holds the record for participating in the highest watched Vice President ial debate in history. That was his debate with sarah palin. Another interesting sort of historical moment that occurred that cycle, that is the only time that a Vice President ial debate drew more viewers than the top of the ticket president ial debate. There was great interest in that biden debate. Much of it was prompted by folks tuning and wanting to see sarah palin. We can talk about the effect of Entertainment Media and other influences on the debate moment. There was a lot of that going on that year as it drew interest to sarah palins debate performance. Viceect that the president ial debate in this series with particularly the theusion of kamala harris, first woman of color on a major bety ticket, there will great interest in this Vice President ial debate. We also finetune in terms of ial the Vice President debates matter, much of them focused on those candidates defending their running mate and attacking the top of the ticket. As opposed to the two Vice President s examining their own issue, positions or records. That tends to be the hallmark of Vice President ial debates. We tend to have fewer viewers. I think this upcoming Vice President ial debates might be one of the exceptions. Host from pennsylvania, a supporter of President Trump, richard, you are on with Mitchell Mckinney. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have one question and a comment. , earlier in your discussion, you mentioned that President Trump submit a list of journalists that he would like to have as a moderator, but you did not mention anything about biden. Did joe biden submit a list of people and was Chris Wallace one of those people . My comment is that democrats like to talk about cheating and lying a lot. But we know that in trumps debate with Hillary Clinton, they cheated. Advance a question and was fed that question. Nothing was said of that. Democrats do not like to have the spotlight held on them and they are quick to turn it the other way. Thank you. Certainly i am not aware and i do not think that it happened and i believe it would be reported. The list was released publicly and Chris Wallace was not on the was, by the way, he selected from fox news to be the moderator for tonight. And so i do not believe that the Biden Campaign generated such a list of desired or approved journalists for these debates. Host lets go to texas. Ron, supporter of joe biden, you are next up. Good morning. Caller hello, good morning. Host go ahead. Caller rules and coram of the of a debate um why was donald trump allowed to walk around and stop hillary in the last debate . How come nobody stop that behavior . Will covid help . Will there be a big yellow circle around him where he cannot move . Host ron from texas. That debate, again, a reference to the town hall debate, where the candidates have typically had greater leeway, they are not tied to a the image actually that we recall of trump standing behind Hillary Clinton, the stalking image, that got replayed in terms of saturday night live spoofs and replaying of that moment looking negative standing behind his democratic opponent. Those moments occurred where Hillary Clinton would take advantage of when she was being asked a question by a citizen to walk off the stage walk across the stage and to address that citizen nonverbally and verbally, to listen to the question. Those are the moments where we saw the president frequently falling or standing behind following or standing behind. As i said earlier, that debate requires a different dynamic. From that differently debate in terms of the candidates demeanor, how they respond to the citizens, how they respond to each other. Some covide are rules that have been put in place for these debates. Candidates, the enter the stage and they shake hands. They greet one another. That will not be happening in this debate due to social distancing and covid rules. In the town hall debates, citizens will be socially distanced. Whether or not there will be put in place stricter rules to keep the candidates from each other, that may be the case. I think that that would be driven more by the necessities of the pandemic rather than we are trying to keep the candidates from stalking one another. That impression emerged, much of it from social media and Entertainment Media spoofing that town hall debate four years ago. From 2016,er moment candidate donald trump and Hillary Clinton this time at the podium. The topic was debating on issues when this took place. [video clip] secretary clinton, same question because at this point Social Security and medicare are going to run out in the trust fund or want to run out of money. Consider a president grand bargain that includes both tax increases and benefit cuts to try to save both programs . Record as saying that we need to put more money into Social Security trust fund. That is part of my commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy. My Social Security payroll contribution will go up as will donalds assuming he gets out of it cant figure out how to get out of it. Such a nasty woman. Host professor, was the reaction to that what was the reaction to that . Guest the outliers that we found in that 20 debate series, most conflictual. 2016 debate series. There we had the attack going on issues of Social Security and compare the two candidate positions. We also saw interruptions and namecalling. Of tauntinglevel and namecalling and interrupting of opponents. Frequently the issues raised of how can we better control actually, there are some folks that critique these as somehow not true debates and if somehow we would only remove everyone and just let the candidates debate one another. I am not sure that would be the best approach. We might end up in this freeforall brawl where candidates are speaking over one another, trying to hold a filibuster. Another issue, suggestion that has been made, should the producers, should the commission turn off the mics of the candidates when they are not speaking. That idea has been floated as a way to somehow limit interruptions, the kind of behavior we just saw in that clip. Florida, ajudy in supporter of President Trump. Go ahead. I want torst of all, say that i did work as a journalist for a number of years and when i started out, i applied to the university of missouri graduate school of journalism among other schools and when i found out what i found out was that your school had a Mission Statement that you were involved in social activism instead of journalism. I already had a degree in psychology and i ended up with a journalism. Ee in i went to work as a journalist for a number of years. The point is it is so incestuous house 98 of journalists are working for the democrats. In fact, they seem to be the propaganda arm for the democrat party. Embarrassing that you are no longer journalists anymore. They throw softball questions for mr. Biden. He gets away with everything. That he hasows severe dementia. Host do you have a question about the debate specifically . Caller yes. Going to allowe President Trump to question his dementia . Host that is judy in florida. If you want to take anything from that. Guest we are very proud of our journalism and students here who are very engaged. In terms of Chris Wallace allowing the president to question joe biden, if we look back four years ago, the president on a number of andsions questioned attacked Hillary Clinton. I am sure if the president wishes to raise the issue of joe bidens age, he has done it before the debate. He may well do it during the debate. We will see if that occurs. Host here is, from nebraska, a supporter of joe biden, danny, hello. Caller good morning. Cspan fort to thank this wonderful and unique program. I am a 74yearold veteran with a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology and 20 years of practice. Litigate for or against anybody, i would simply like to comment that the idea of even calling these street fights debates is laughable. It is a word that is now construed with meaning more like a cop trying to deal with a Domestic Violence situation where both parties are present at the same time. I really appreciate your on a couple of callers ago talking about something that occurred to me a couple of years ago. Why dont they put some 21yearold kid in charge of the microphones and make him handle the switch on and switch off nicely . I would love to see a return to of debates. N even a 10 minute psa on what a to beroper debate conducted rather than the street fights that we will probably see tonight. And i will watch it. I will probably even recorded for posterity. If you can address that. Should we try to return to something more proper and traditional or are we just going to see this expand to where it becomes a ninja strongarm contest. Host and you so much for the question. We will let our guest respond thank you so much for the question. Guest with this matter of the best format, what are the techniques that can be used. The folks criticized president ial debates as not true debates, it is typically from the perspective that there is not sufficient clash or direct interaction between the candidates. , asn we see the criticism your callers have raised, and i think rightly so in several instances of the interruptions, the growing, the talking backandforth where really that type of direct interaction between the candidates is not. Ery conducive are turnednot mics off, i think it comes down to we cannot force the candidates to behave in a certain way. Debate. Ave a lot of those moments when they are not, we have seen some of those in clips and your callers have we are going to leave washington journal, the u. S. House is about to gavel and, part of the 41 your commitment to bring you live gaveltogavel coverage of the house. On the agenda today, resolution on the peaceful transfer of power after the president ial election, live house coverage at cspan. The speaker pro tempore the ouse will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk speakers rooms, washington, d. C. September 29, 2020. I hereby appoint Emanuel Cleaver to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. Chaplain conroy let us pray