value of a presidential debate. here is how you can let us know. you can post on our social media page, our twitter pages http://twitter.com/cspanwj. the wall street journal took a .oll about tonight's debate the importance they find and watching the exchange of ideas tonight. they found amongst all voters saidparticipated that 34% the debate was extremely or quite important compared to 65 percent who said this debate was somewhat not important. when they broken down by subcategory, it was a tie of what he 9% among hispanics about the importance of the debate. among gary johnson voters, 44% said it was extremely important. 42% said iticans, was quite important. 39% to 61%.rates, 60% said it was somewhat or not important. a goes down from their. that is the idea. the value that you get from watching the debate and if you want to call and tell us if you plan to watch or the value you get from watching this debate, you can do so on the phone lines. if you support hillary clinton -- if you support donald trump -- for those third-party candidates, -- if you are undecided and want to give us -- on social, media, you can post on twitter and post on our facebook page. the conversation that continues on through this program essay spent.org -- facebook.com/c-span. those in tonight's contest saying who do you choose to handle -- would you trust to handle? donald trump saying 50% trust him. terrorism, 45% trust hillary clinton. the poll goes down from their. tonight's topic on the place valued on debates. james in spokane, washington, europe first. hey, i got something heavy for you. everything comes down to economics. just looking back at history, every time the government has ,otten involved with anything medicare, medicaid, social security, housing, finance, it has turned out to be a disaster. what i want to know from the candidates is what they are going to do about the economy, buti am not antigovernment, just the -- you can go through the list. it seems to happen 10 to 15 the druger, like with plan. you need someone competent in there and i don't think neither one of these guys is competent. i would really like to see some real economic, you know, i watch q&a and i'd really like to see some really competent congress and their. you: from a debate, if learned about aspects of the economy, it would be a value for you? there is this social justice thing in it, but how do we get this ship moving? host: richard is up next. he joins us from maryland. a donald trump supporter. we are asking about the value of tonight's debate, what do you think? would -- theay i value the debate today is i am looking for a couple of things from both candidates. number one, i am trying to see how well they candidates are going to connect with some of the major problems that we are facing in this country. being a health care provider, i am looking forward to the candidates addressing the issue and how they are going to be providing, especially i am looking into what they are going to say about obamacare. for healthp's plan for most is available people in the most economical way. highly high deductibles. so i am looking -- one of the things i am looking forward in this debate is how is he going to address the health care issue in this country? one -- is what each hillary clinton going to carry or thesame obama policy affordable care act? where she is going to make improvements? and what is donald trump going to do? he has some very strong plans that he is put forward and i am looking forward especially tuning in the health care, besides i wish both of them can really bring up some issues on the inequities, the problems they are facing, the poverty and donald trump has some ideas to bring back jobs to this country. host: that is richer in maryland. it will be hour and a half debate divided into six segments was will be showing the pictures inside and out. it will be major topics that will be decided upon by the moderator. the moderator will open each segment with a question. then after that, the candidate has two minutes to respond. then the candidates get a chance to respond to each other. hosting twosity presidential debates in the past. one back in october 2012. the debate between president obama and mitt romney and october 15, 2008 when obama debated john mccain. a third-party supporter phil and texas -- in texas learning the value of a presidential debate. caller: i don't think the debates are worth very much because not all parties have an opinion. gary johnson and jill stein who are on the ballot in all 50 states, they're not been asked to participate. people in those states are being asked to make a decision on donald trump, hillary clinton, gary johnson or jill stein. these last two are not being involved in the debates. who is going to know what they think what they parties think about? these debates are not worth very much unless all parties are heard from. i think the only standard is are they on the ballot in all 50 states in if they are, they need to be included. this is a choice that all people in the country has to make. if gary johnson -- with gary johnson not being on the stationary, will you still watch? caller: yes, absolutely. i want to see with the other two candidates have to say. i still say they should be equal time loss in this country where they have to give all of these candidates equal time. they are not doing it. i think they are breaking the law. -- set up the rules for the dispense, one of them about pulling. -- one of them about polling. gary johnson not meeting that threshold for this debate which is why he is not on the stage tonight. a profile q&a of gary johnson in the pages of usa today this morning talking about various questions and he was asked you will not be in the debate monday night, how does that affect your campaign? perotd interestingly ross was pulling at a lower level than i was. there is no way i'm going to be elected without being in the debates. he was asked are you ok with being seeing as a spoiler? and he said good. i have no idea where trump is. it is a broken compass as far as i'm concerned. being this party spoiler, great. give me the title. will your next from stan. donald trump supporter, hi there. go ahead. caller: i especially like the fact that donald trump has brought a lot of things back on the table for discussion by the people. such as borders, immigration, health care, military, all of these things that really need to be talked about -- climate change. i would like to see them talk about in the debates more. he is had to do it quite forcefully because the left has been telling us. these are all settled issues and we do not need to talk about them anymore. if you do, you get called a name. he is risk that and he is been called many names. i would have to see them talk among more in the debates. host: what do you think you will learn more about tonight and debates topics? they are believe that probably not going to go around those issues. i would like them to but i have a feeling they are not. they'll go around those issues that much until they -- listing get shop and something controversial around it. feed, sam our twitter says i want to see if hillary clinton can stand for an hour without a break. anyp will not spread positive ideas of the debate. betty is from texas. our line for those who are undecided. go ahead. yes, i have try to listen to quite a few of the candidates responses to things and talked about what they are going to do about this or that. i have not heard them speak too much about social security. since 2009, there were three years that there was no raise to social security. these people have worked all their lives and some of them have nothing but social security. some of them have some retirement. i would like to see if they could speak about social security and see what they are going to do. of --lly have some kind something to do about social security for these people have worked all of their lives. host: what you get from watching the debates? caller: i get a lot of backstabbing. they are always against each other. one of the candidates seems to have these outrageous things he is going to do, thanks that don't make any sense. ms. clinton, she seems to have this e-mail issue behind her. they bring it up all the time. i would like to see them sit down and talk about what we need about the safety of the united states, about children that need to be fed and about social security and try to get this united states back on track. if you support hillary again we are asking about the value of the debates and what you will learn from them, especially if tonight's debates -- our coverage starts at 7:30 this evening. we can get your phone calls lynn hitting up just phone calls in leading up. go to c-span.org if you want to watch online. a lot of options for you to watch online including what camera that's what kind of camera angle you choose. you can see questions that are posted and specific responses. a lot more information. at 7:30.age starting don't forget to take advantage of our radio app. if you look at it on your mobile phone and keep in touch or keep updated on what is going on during tonight's exchange. in the preparation for tonight's aspect of the debates, both key representatives from the donald trump campaign and hillary clinton campaign on talk shows. kellyanne conway on cnn talking about the debates, what she expects and hurt candidate. >> mr. trump will answer the questions as they are asked by lester holt and he is a right to defend himself against anything that ms. clinton may say in response. , ire is no plan to do that am not going to reveal what we have been doing in our conversations, but the fact is he has every right to defend himself. he is always constantly attacked. the moment he counter punches, people are just shocked. he will answer the questions as we hope. the questions go to policy. answer the questions that the american people have. they deserve and expect these candidates to be talking about the issues. agency washington post came out with a pole overnight that shows the issue that motivate americans did they want candidates to talk about the economy, terrorism, health care, immigration, national security. mr. trump is ready to have that conversation. hear next from a donald trump supporter. caller: thanks for taking my call. i'm looking forward to the debate to understand what each of the candidates are going to do about these two issues. number one, illegal immigration. isp each of the candidate going to address the huge problem of illegal immigration that the united states faces. the other question i would like the candidates to address any value for looking in this debate is national security/islamic terrorism that the united states faces. these are the two things i am going to look at as far as the debate is concerned. host: have you watched past debates and came looking for -- have youics that ever learned anything when you go looking for specific thing you are interested in learning more about? caller: i am following the two candidates and how they are addressing the issues. the reason i support trump -- by the way i am illegal immigrant who is now a proud u.s. citizen. i have served on jury. the i am finding is somehow propaganda against trump is he is anti-immigrants, not true. he stands against illegal immigration. hillary clinton seems to attract more illegal votes or whatever. i want to be very clear that trump does not stand for illegal immigration. he does support legal immigrants like myself. if you ask other legal immigrants. host: a donald trump supporter, go ahead. caller: i am looking forward to these debates. i think this could be a game changer. host: how so? caller: i think that the media parties.d both i will deceive them both perform under stress. hear from their own mouths what they like to say. host: would you say that is the value seeing them in this kind of life format when they have to talk for a certain amount of time for topic? caller: yes. they are not going to be able to appease everybody. everything that they say is not going to make everybody happy, but you know, that is the value of the debate. host: melvin is in maryland. he is supporting a third-party. good morning. caller: i just wanted to speak about america in general. we have all of these countries coming over here and these people coming over, they are giving them small business and all and the african-american's have been stepped on, pushed to the side and you wonder why you have so many problems. give us a chance you got liquor stores in our community. we don't have a chance to get a job. host: before you go to for on that, the debates and what you see in the value? caller: i have to vote for but hillary clinton, i am a democrat. i hope she speaks of some of those issues about the community we live in. we don't have the opportunity like everybody else. all we want is a job and the opportunity to get on our feet. i have worked since i was 16. i have been hurt on my job. i have lost everything i've had, i am on public housing. i'm in a bad neighborhood, i have a son that i sent to school. i am fearful that he gets hurt when he goes to school did i wish they would -- when i he goes to school. i wish they would address the issue of the economic and community. where not asking for a handout. -- host: maxine you're on. we're asking but the value of debates. caller: we learn a lot from the debates. were able to know about the candidates, to find out what they offer as far as how they can make the country better. when it comes to president obama, what turned me against him was when he went boots on the ground here i like the way donald trump says he is going to bring it to isis. host: when you say about the debates and learning things, what specifically do you look for? caller: to see how they handle the questions. to see how supportive they are as far as the questions they are asked. watched debates before, do you learn more about where the candidates stand on things? caller: absolutely. host: what have you learned in the past? caller: to see what they have to offer to the country when it comes to the character of the trustworthiness. when it comes to hillary, she is very corrupt. host: what is the value of a presidential debate, that is what we are interested in learning from you. you heard from kellyanne conway about donald trump and his preparation or tonight's debate. also on sunday show is robbie was with clinton's campaign talking about how his candidate has been preparing and plans to perform tonight. >> going into this debate, do you think it is more important or hillary clinton to sell her own vision? to paint donald trump as a threat which could in doing so feet into her issues with likability and the trustworthiness and honesty? >> i am glad you asked, because i think this is the heart. every time that hillary has had an unfiltered opportunity to talk to the american people about not just what is she going to do to make their lives better , but also how her life and this campaign is a part of a mission to help kids and families. she has done better. we are excited to have that opportunity. i'm very concerned that donald trump will be graded on a curve. just because he doesn't fly off the handle in the middle of this debate does not mean he is there to be president -- he is prepared to be president. he needs to have coherent answers. he needs to demonstrate the command of the issues. he needs to roll out specific plans about he is going to make that's about how he is going to make life better. i was surprised to hear kellyanne say -- he has a secret plan how he is going to defeat isis, he will not say what it is . he says he knows more about isis and generals. that is not a specific plan. that is not being transparent. we hope that will come out of this debate. we want this to be an opportunity for hillary to deliver her message directly to the people. she is fighting on the side. half the university is the place where the debate will take place. you are seeing the outside shot. we have shown you there is shots of the interior. the moderator's desk and that is where the debate will take place at 9:00 tonight. 15 minute segments on there is topics. an hour and a half discussion. c-span's coverage starting at 7:30. you can tune into that and analysis going into it. a chance for you to give a phone call. c-span.org where you can find more information about the debates. as well as the radio app. a lot of avenues for you to tune in to this first presidential debate. the value you get from presidential debates, the information you get from them. eric is up next. he is undecided. he is from pittsburgh. go ahead. caller: ignore the big gorilla in the rome, the national debt. although promise they make, there is no money available. host: with that in mind, what value do you get from the debate? caller: they don't mention the national debt. they ignore it. ,he only promise they make there is no money available. host: from poland took -- alecto from nantucket. caller: i was going to vote for donald trump until putin and don king and the guy from texas endorsed him. i don't understand how anybody can even think about voting for donald trump. -- ex line -- ty host: go ahead, you are still on. got one guy who was to make decent wages. you got another party who doesn't want to pay anything. what is the matter with these people? ?ost: did you learn anything caller: he doesn't even like immigrants -- host: joanne, hi. caller: i was shocked yesterday of the amount of people that said they are not going to vote. important, is very but unfortunately dr. stein and gary johnson are not able to participate, so i don't there would be only for people on the stage. we need to see what our choices are. we need to know who we can vote for and what they stand for. there are more people who are undeclared or independent leaning then both republican and democrat. if everybody looked at jill stein's website and read her platform and go online to see her speeches, because she is not getting the media attention. it is very said. even thoughid that your candidate was not a mistake, you said the debates were important. why? caller: they are important because you get to see them responding. unfortunately, i am so senecal now i find it hard to believe that either one of the candidates won't have known what the questions are before hand. dr. stein says she is going to be at hofstra. she's got a lot of supporters. she would like to get into the debate. i would like to see it happen. host: anna from ashburn, virginia. third-party supporter. caller: good morning. supporter of hillary clinton, because i cannot stand mr. trump, that he is trying to divide this country for muslims that feels islamophobia is on the rise. our children are being bullied. a lot of times i'm booked look -- i'm being looked down and mr. trump needs to understand that the muslims in the united states are organized. we are going to make a difference and we are the fabric of this country. where no different from anybody else and we are here to stay. he needs to understand that muslims have been here from slavery times and we are not newcomers. i am in united states for 27 years. . did not miss one vote guess what? i am organizing my community and all around the united states, muslims will have a vote. our imams are being shot in the cities of new york because of what mr. trump is putting out there. it is garbage and i'm sorry, i wish -- i will fight to the teeth. my children are all board here -- are all born here and we're not going anywhere. host: dean off of twitter focuses on the moderator's role saying that the moderators are not fact checking the comments, it will devolve into trump spewing garbage. at tonight's moderator lester holt of nbc news, the role he has it he writes the clinton camp once the moderators to call out candidates when they lie while trump -- never has a candidate signal as clearly as trump that he is terrified of fact checking. the notion that moderators can take themselves out of the debate is observed -- is absurd. i was we had a lincoln-doug ose the eight where the moderator was simply a timekeeper. lincoln-douglas moderator -- the debates also need to catch up with social media. tens of thousands of journalists and citizens will be checking the accuracy of what the candidates are saying. debate should not be hermetically sealed from the truth. his thoughts on the bus and post this morning. marvin from oklahoma, a supporter of hillary clinton, your next. caller: thank you. the value of the presidential elections will be directly -- host: we're talking about the value of the debate. caller: the value of that will be directly the questions they are asked. you cannot give an example to what it would mean to you until you know what they are going to ask. host: what questions would you want asked? things, like of social security and stuff like that. i am not going to be the one to get asking that? host: what question would you like asked. caller: i like to know -- i am currently disabled worker. so security from 40 years. sick with, then i got diabetes and other diseases. cannot work anymore. i did not pay any social security in the last four or five years before finally was allowed to draw disability. at that time, they said i cannot draw regular disability. after paying him for 40 years, i'm trying to live off $700 a month. tell me how that is right. caller: james is an -- host: james is in north hollywood california. 62-year-old black american, college-educated. semiretired. my feeling about why the debates are important are because he gives us a chance to see what policies that they are going to say to the public and gives a chance over the next 40 years -- four to eight years to hold them accountable. we need to know what we should hold them accountable to. would you like an example? host: sure. caller: to make sure that the laws of the lands -- laws of the land on forced. -- land and forced. a good example would be what is going on with terrorism? how that affects us. all politics is somewhat local. urban areas, there is a tendency for certain candidates to condone under the guise of terrorism local policing, treating immigrants and people of color as if they are terrorists. host: assuming you have heard both candidates speak on these topics on the campaign trail, what would you like different amongst the format that is out? what would you like to hear different as far as these topics? the debates themselves that interests you? caller: i haven't looked into the format. i think this is an important debate. i do feel all politics is somewhat local. we as the american electorate listens who are voting, this is our only way to have a chance to hold our elected candidates for president accountable. i may not have understood your question, but in terms of the format and questions, yes, it is up to the moderator to bring up these kind of things that are current events and current concerns. i understand things like the nuclear weapons and things like the monetary policy are important, but when it comes to the american people, i think we have to look at the mess issues in this debate. host: let's hear from anita in st. louis. she is undecided. caller: i'm really thinking that causes these debates will someone to have to answer questions that they won't answer in campaigns where they are just a bunch ofive us rhetoric that is in their interests. whether or not, for instance, i think that taxes are very important, because a make agenciescan do things for their business interests, that if they are not held accountable by knowing what their taxes were, it is extremely important. i am hoping that the question is asked of donald trump. for hillary, i hope they asked her questions also, but i understand that there are topics that are going to occur this evening. they need to stick to the topics . the same time, i think those taxes are so important that that me. big leverage point with i just don't think anyone who is not willing to show them is not showing the american public everything that we need to know. their headline, taking a look at tonight debate as a sporting event. ready to rumble is the piece that is written. it is an associated press piece saying thinking of donald trump as mike tyson. he's look to land on big punch. -- he is looking to land one big punch. dennis clinton is the green, firing back at critics who suggest she did not take her up on it seriously enough. if you want to crown him, you can crown him but he is -- a number of political analysts are using sports -- office versus defense, strengths and weaknesses. even how they practice sessions have been going. in 16 to the point spread yet. feel free to add your own. that is on the hawkeye newspaper , that you can find their. huntington beach cala -- beach, california. support of hillary clinton. caller: hello, i am a supporter of hillary clinton. use ago, i was hoping she would look into health care and she did. i hope she stands up to what she believes and does not cower in front of them like roadkill, because the man is a vulture. host: that is can in california. the financial times does an analysis piece about the debate all hinging on which trump will turn up. it says mrs. clinton faces a man who earned every petition for mocking his republican rivals. will she face a candidate who hillary" tod appeal? he is moderated his tone in recent weeks sparking spec elation they will take the advice of kellyanne conway who wants them to be more presidential. the trunk campaign has circulated a 30 question survey which asked respondents whether --y think mr. trump should as he attempts to broaden his appeal. what is the value in a presidential debate? want to get your thought you -- we want to get your thought from you? hofstra university and the empire state of new york is where tonight's event will take place. 9:00 is when it starts. you can learn more on our website at c-span.org. details from the debate and past debates and ways you can watch it. our coverage on c-span television will start at 7:30. barbara is next. barbara from ohio, a supporter of hillary clinton. caller: good morning. the value of this presidential debate is going to be that we will get an opportunity to see which candidate has changed their position in the past. it will be an opportunity to see which candidate, donald trump who is in the past was pro-life is suddenly against abortion. when did that change occurred? why? hillary clinton has supported shows in our life. what is she going to do in terms of providing shelters? children safety for who are in dire straits? questions regarding putin and a pardon -- any person who would hack the united states and cyberspace. and then bomb places in syria that we support. why would a person like trump against our national security? those are questions if asked it will be an opportunity for us to -- who is really playing to not just use a bunch of words but will do what they say they're going to do. who will take a strong stand and keep supporting that stand regardless? if we can't trust what you said, why will we both for you? host: jason, washington, dc. how are you? caller: after watching the republican debates where we had 17 people on the stage. it will from 17 to 12 to 10, --re is no reason why this that actually want to censor political discussion in this country. we are sitting here, there is no real discussion. , you should ballot be up to be on stage. why don't you have five debates and you go from four, to three, to two. but this idea that we are a country of just buying every country because it is fragmented. the latest quinnipiac poll shows that 44% of all the people that are not going to vote for these two jokers, because you know what? they don't trust them. they are both fundamentally dishonest. nebraska. from omaha, undecided voter. good morning. caller: hello. i think this is the year that historians are going to say the americans -- democracy ran off the rails. i tend to agree with the previous caller. there was mention of delinquent, doug ose debate. -- mention of the lincoln-douglas debate. people think what they see on the television is reality. it is not. usis whatever is directed at from the people that create the media. seles the products they want us to buy including candidates. -- sell us the products they want us to buy including the candidates. i am also sad. thank you. host: as far as debates go, do you watch them? caller: yes, i watched the debates. i saw the rebel rising that one .n on the republican side the campaign season is far too long. u.k., they limited to -- they limit it to 90 days. our, pain -- our campaign never stops here and when that feeds into the media machine, you get some howling feedback. it doesn't make any sense. host: have you ever walked away from watching them saying i learned something? fromr: i certainly learned the republican debates that we have a dangerous man running for office. some of thelearned earlier debates, gore and bush when actual issues were discussed. you are not going to see that. host: why do you think that? caller: the optics have become the peoplet and behind the scenes, these to call them the smoking -- smoky backroom no longer exists. i am afraid it does exist. they just stopped smoking. they are still running this. they concert me see what is happened here. they got a lit -- they can certainly see what has happened here. they got a loose cannon. there is no way they are going to control this other than stage a debate -- we will see. i hope i am pleasantly surprised. i don't see how it could do anything but go south from here. host: let's hear from gina and mississippi, a supporter of donald trump. where talking about debates, what you get from them? >> good morning. i would like to point out that the democrats are acting like they are so concerned about all of the issues and about what donald trump does not know. last election, they voted for a man who had no experience except he was a community advisor and he was black. and now they want to vote for the woman who they voted against. what is the real truth? why don't they be sincere? trumpublicans want donald because he is different, he is honest. he is not a politician. it is simple as that. our president that we have now has done nothing but make race relations in this country just absolutely horrible. i don't know where it is going to and. that's going to end. the debate tonight will be very interesting but whether there be any substance in it, i doubt it. host: why do you say that? caller: because what the media has turned -- it has turned into a circus really. , they are going to have a lot of responsibility and where our country and's that's where our country inns -- where our country ends. i think donald trump is sincere and he is not a politician. hillary has a horrible track record. it is unbelievable. host: let's hear from chesapeake virginia. a supporter of hillary clinton. caller: good morning. i don't think donald trump should be of a two go on stage and debate without showing his taxes. how can he be on stage without showing his taxes? most candidates that debated all showed the texas. show their taxes and how many didn't? host: why do you think that should be a requirement? it lets us know what is financials are about. if he owes china and russia, i think they have him in his pocket. that is the only reason he is running. he is not trying to be president. he is trying to -- he is saying anything wild that comes out of his mouth. he is really running because he is on his last leg. he owes everybody out of their pocket. they are saying if you run for president, then we can use you. right now, you'll me and i want my money. that is why he is running. he owes china, russia. we saw his taxes, will see how in the red he really is. twitterton drew off of takes a look at the twitter test takes a look at the debate saying debates have no value if one candidate is not able to direct a challenge the rationale offered by the other. new york times takes a look at the debate moderators. a moment of truth for the moderate is saying the gatekeeper role the news media used to play has been criticized for blessing those views. it also meant campaigns generally sparred with the confines of the same set of establishment. take a second presidential debate between ford and carter in 1976. union's on the soviet -- that he invited mr. ford to clarify his remarks so that the soviets were not dominant. the focus of the next day was on mr. ford's catastrophic -- back in 2012 and her performance at the town hall style debate. mitt romney and present obama in which he disputed mr. romney's assertion that mr. obama waited to call benghazi an act of terror. morning.ood i like to say that it is the responsibility of such a debate -- thatnt facts distracts the facts from the economy to allow the citizens of america to be a but to make an important and very quantifiable decision about who they want to represent them in this country as president. i think it is not president obama that caused -- i would like to say that hillary clinton has a lot of information pitch she has a history that is reached with -- donald trump has no information, no knowledge about this country and issues. one of which is definitely --ulations in this country definitely race relations in this country which president obama had nothing to do with. [indiscernible][indiscernible] erupted the racial tension in america. unless the president elect donald trump is post with serious questions, we will never get any answers except will dramatics from the candidate. host: debate will only be a lightning to me if the questions are well thought out an issue oriented. both candidates are forced to answer them. let's go to james in petersburg, west virginia. good morning. caller: thank you for letting me be on. me, very enthused, excuse about the debates. i really look forward to seeing them. noticed inhat i have the last two elections, and it will probably happen in this election. herary through her votes to -- to obama. who is to say that the democrats are not going to steal by putting all of these immigrants in? i am not against immigrants. i'm sure my ancestors were immigrants, but and maybe yours. the thing is they are legalizing all these people that are still trading into america and they are probably going to convince them to vote democrat so that they can steal the election one more time. why can't we stop the immigration right now? is not immigration, at least stop making them legal citizens to vote in this election? this election belongs to the true americans that have fought for this country and it died for .his country why can't they stop the immigration? i thank you for letting me on here. i'm looking forward to seeing the debate. host: would you say you're thanng for to this debate previous presidential elections in the last eight years ago becauseyes, i like that the things that are going to happen. one good thing about this election, i hope this year, this will end the obama era and his legacy. it'll end the clinton legacy. i hope and pray that all of this will be over and done with and we can get a good resident in. i hope people vote right. god bless you and thank you. caller: next this is dave a supporter of hillary clinton. caller: i appreciate your show. trump isall, donald running for the highest office in the land. to dance before the cameras on national tv and speak to the country, this was during the time they were talking about prayer and he made the statement that he did not need to talk to god. that he can make his own decisions. that is a fact, because they can be fact checked. needs to apologize to mr. obama and his family. onhas stood on national tv the cameras and said if you weeks ago that mr. obama was a citizen of the united states, case closed now what he needs to do is to apologize for that family. if you cannot have the decency to at least make an apology to that family, you know that he got a serious internal problem. thirdly, he needs to put his taxes on the table. if he was a man of another color, he would not be this far with the character that he's had, in terms of degrading people and immigrants. i think he needs to do those things. i believe if people sit by and don't demand that he put his taxes on the table, and he doesn't give the president an apology, you can see how bad this country is. host: this is shary from florida. asking about tonight's debate. do you get something from it? caller: i believe it is important. i have never been this engaged in an election. in my 49 years of life. this is really important. this could make or break either one. mudslinging, because people really -- a lot of your callers are not aware donald trump's substantive policies. he is given speeches over and over again every week for the last month and a half. hillary on the other hand, not so much. i would like to hear both of -- comparison of their policies. russia, i hope and pray rush is brought up. -- pray russia is brought up. there is no -- there has been no proof given that trump is indebted to russia. sold 20% oflary iranian into russia peter that money did not go into our economy -- into russia. that money did not going to our economy. host: can i ask a question echo -- question? caller: yes sir. host: have you watched presidential debates before? caller: >> yes. -- whoed ronald reagan else that i watch? i watched a couple of them. host: you are supportive of donald trump, that is when you interest in watching tonight's debate. have you had the same interest in watching previous residence of candidates? -- previous presidential candidates? caller: i have never been so engaged in election that this is so important. how, aet's hear from supporter of hillary clinton. caller: i am so glad you took my call. this is important to me. i listen to donald trump what about you want to bring jobs back to our country. when we listen to them saying all of the different black people and poor white people and immigrants do not have good jobs here in the united states. meanwhile he is walking around with shirts from another country, ties from another country and his suit from another state. why other people can't realize in call them out for that lying and untruthful fact. just imagine him talking about jobs. everybody's been to have a job. bringing our country back. -- then sitting up there wearing other items from other countries. how the world can he said that there called search and seizure? just automatically go around the search people and stop people for no reason. justified.y it is thank you so much for taking my call. we wish your people the best. [indiscernible] host: let's hear from monica, a supporter of donald trump, nashville, tennessee. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to say about donald trump. when he first started on this not used to was politics. he did not know that is why you have those very rough cut answers. isyou look at him now, he much more presidential, and i think, that he will do a fabulous job. he will bring jobs and straighten out -- you got people dying, officers getting shot in the head, cities eating burned to the ground -- cities getting burned to the ground. i would like to say this, the two times that i heard the tv, excitedke the us more than he did not. i am talking about obama now. host: monica, go ahead and finish your thought. clinton, as far as she is concerned, she will never turn over the things that she has destroyed. i think if everybody looks at that --let's see how they do tonight. host: that is monica calling about the presidential debate. offshore university, the side of the debate, you can watch it on c-span at 9:00. we are watching -- we are inviting you to watch the pregame show that we are calling it. phone calls,your here from analyst, and not only can you watch it on c-span, you can view it on www.c-span.org. go out of thee to away from a television, you can monitor what is going on on our c-span radio app, which is available to you as well. our program today will focus on tonight's debate and issues on it. history of presidential debate taking a look at one some the past, comparing and contrasting. that will be with alan schroeder who studies these things. he will join us next to talk about that. later on, carolyn lukensmeyer talking about the tone and rhetoric in tonight's presidential debate in what you issues areas far as concerned and you can ask her questions. she will join us later in the program. ,ofstra university, the site the david mack center, which it will take place. outside of that center, we talked to richard himelfarb. he is a professor. good morning to you. guest: good morning. it is a pleasure to be here. host: you teach courses on american politics and taking a look at the presidency. tell us about your coursework in what you are teaching students? i teach american politics and classes and congress and the presidency, and this semester, i am lucky enough to be teaching an entire on the 20 16th election. -- 2016 election. this university has dozens of programs and lots of speakers that have accompanied the debate. we have had people coming in from all over the country discussing the issues and talking about the candidate, and talking about the debate tonight. hofstra's third is a debate, we hosted 2012 and 2013. the commission decided to come here and legally put it all together. it is a really impressive effort by the entire university, people working together to host the first residential debate and a debate that may be the most watched in american history. host: professor, because you teach politics, and especially this topic, are your students engaged directly into night's advance to help them an answer education? guest: well, they are very much engaged in terms of being volunteers here. they are working with a different media, with cnn, with fox news, working in the media room, they are acting as stand ends for the candidates when they measure the length of the podia -- podium. our students are involved in every way. and fact, all the tickets that hofstra gets for the debate are used by our students. none of those tickets will go to any administrators or faculty. --irtunately, i will be will not be in the debate hall. oft: as far as the group people you are talking to, millennials, you hear about millennial anticipation in these types of events. that aspect, not only what you see from students, but what other students and their interest is in this overall. well, there is a distinction to be made between the excitement about the debate, and the level of interest in the two candidates. i find that a lot of my students are pretty disengaged in the selection. who theyked my classes are voting for a, there will be some that will both for hillary and some who will say they are going to vote for donald trump. but they are very unenthusiastic. when you asked them, they will say, i am voting against the other candidate, instead of for a candidate they are supporting. this is a lesser of two evils election. many millennials will decide to sit this one out and not participate. host: professor, what do you hope, and the end of it all, when you have done the courses and the election is over, what do you want your students to walk away with? want them to walk away with a sense that presidential elections are important, they matter, they change the course of the country. ultimately, even if you are , asatisfied with the choices responsible citizen goes to the ballot box and makes a choice, or at least, sends a message. the professor joins us from the kansas at hofstra were tonight's debate will take place. thank you very much and thank you for being on c-span. guest: it is always a pleasure. thank you. host: joining us from las vegas now to talk about tonight's debate and to give us an historical context is alan schroeder. ofis with the school journalism and teaches there at northeastern university and also the author of the book "presidential debates: risky business." thank you for joining us. involved forrisks hillary clinton and donald trump for tonight's debate? guest: it is like tv. as you well know from doing this for a living, anything can happen. you put candidates were used to be in a controlled setting, and put them in a un-choreographed situation at the presidential debate, and the aim that happens is they have no control anymore. they go in with their prepared remarks and strategies, but you don't know what the other person is going to do. it can be a little tricky in that regard. also, we know from history that there have been a lot of instances of them on the way work he did not work out very well for a particular candidate. there is a great deal of risk involved. format, for the longform discussion, when do we see that kind of format and what has been the history you referenced? guest: the format -- this is the same format that was used in 2012 between barack obama and mitt romney. that was a very disastrous debate for barack obama. the format is six segments, 15 minutes each, open-ended discussion, which gives the candidate a lot of latitude to say what they want. that is what -- that is one of the interesting thing about it. there has been a lot of focus on the moderator, but not much on the format. as far as the history and what is happened is that you have everything from the stakes -- from mistakes be made, visual problems, richard nixon sweating, george w. bush glancing at his watch. you have out gore invading the space of his opponent. over the years, there have been a lot of things, performance mistakes, visual mistakes, content mistakes that show us how risky this format could be for the participants. us ifdoes history tell mistakes can be game changers? guest: because of the high ratings anticipated for tonight, and because the race is still up in the air at this point, i take that does lend some urgency and importance to what happened tonight. you know, people argue about this because you can never really say that a particular debate won or lost an election. 1980, there was one debate between reagan and carter and that took place a week before election day. that is the latest we have ever had a debate. reagan did quite well, carter not so great. there was no time for carter to recover before people voted. think 1960, just the first time ever with kennedy and nexen, nixon was not repaired for it the way kennedy was. opportunity.that close election. hashave to think that something to do with kennedy's success. host: are just take a look at presidential debates and is here to answer your questions about the format of tonight's debate in the history of debates. these kinds of things can be game changers. him andant to talk to ask him questions, you can call us on the phone line. if you support donald trump, 202-748-8001. hillary clinton, 202-748-8000. for third party candidates, 202-748-8002. .nd undecided, 202-748-8003 was rossy tells us, it perot, what you think about not having a third-party candidate? threshold that you have to regional polls in order to be invited, that makes sense. debates are really about finalists. they are taking place in the home stretch of the election. candidates have a lot of time. our elections last for ever in the united states. there is plenty of time for outsiders to make their case and catch fire with the public and on that place upon the stage. and ross perot was a great example of that. but i think this idea of just having a lotta people on the stage, we saw that during the primaries. the republicans had 17 candidates. if you open it up to everyone, you will have so many people on the stage that people don't get to say much of anything. that is a counter argument for opening it up beyond a 15 percent threshold. host: on dynamics itself, we will see a manned -- people see a man and a woman. does that change the dynamics? guest: i think it does. we have had to situations of vice presidential debates of male versus female. part of the problem bush had was he was patronizing to geraldine ferrero and she called him out on it. in 2008, you had biden and sarah palin. joe biden was much more careful. he had a strategy of not stepping on her toes that will cause people to perceive that he was being sexist. in the case of what is happening tonight, you have one candidate, donald trump, who has said a lot of things about women that are not very pleasant. about himption already exist, so he has to be very careful at how he approaches her and not to fall into that trap of doing what he did with megyn kelly and carly fiorina, etc., etc. host: again, alan schroeder is our guest. professor at northeastern university and author of a book. ohio, a third-party supporter. you are on with our guest. go ahead. caller: there are three things i wish that could be put more emphasis on in these debates. the first when he can address directly is we need to reduce the sensationalism that comes along with these campaigns, especially the presidency, but not exclusively the presidency. i wish that was a topic for debate. know what youo think about that. one, although the department of education surely needs to be reduced, the ones being -- the one thing the federal government should the apartment is implementing well structured civics in every curriculum from the third grade through 12th grade so that this would add to getting rid of us is a holism because they will have a better appreciation of how government works by the type make it to the 12th grade. , most smalling is businesses fold within the first five years. most of those small businesses have employees of less than 100 people. and they are retail-type businesses. host: we will let our guest response. professor, go ahead. guest: that is a land point about the teaching of civics. a parted to be much more of the standard of education in public school children in america than it is now. offar as the tone, the idea sensationalism, this has been a difficult year in that regard. one of the things is you had a candidate who sort of speaks in a way that no other candidate has and used language and insult as a part of his approach to things. the tone has not been great. yes, it would be wonderful if he could get back to a higher level of engaging with each other. in -- engaging in each other's ideas, but not attacking their physical appearance or their disability. host: a supporter of hillary clinton in maryland, this is hannibal. caller: i am a supporter of hillary clinton. from bush how disastrous that can be, even though his father was not terrible. i want to ask the professor who romneyed the obama ann debate if the format of subsequent debates obama clearly won, was the same and whether the subsequent debates between mr. trump and secretary clinton will be the same as this open-ended version that we will see tonight? guest: yes, the answer is yes. this set of formats for 2016 is identical to what was done in 2012. so, you had the first and last debate or debates that had these six blocks of 50 minute open ended discussion periods, -- 15 minutes of open ended discussion periods. and so, in 2012, obama did so bad the first time out, he realized and his coaches realized they needed to work with him and get him prepared for the subsequent debates. he did much better in the town hall and in that same format and the final debate of 2012. that theuickly add people who are coaching hillary clinton right now are the same in many cases that coached obama. they have the benefit of having mentored that format before. it is a very different format from anything during the primary. the format will be really important in the way things unfold tonight. host: professor, we will show a little bit of history. octobertake you back to 22, 2012, the final debate between president obama and mitt romney. president obama tried to use humor to make a point. we will let you here and get your comments. [video clip] >> our navy is smaller now any time since 1917. they said they needed 313 ships. --285.down to 283 that is unacceptable. i want to make sure we have the ships required by our maybe. thanir force is smaller any time it was founded in 1947. we have changed the first time since fdr. ofalways had the strategy fighting to conflicts at once. now we are taking to one conflict. --maintain highest the safety of the american people, and i will not cut the budget by $1 trillion. is making our future less certain and less secure. all, sequesters is not something i propose. it will not happen. the budget we are talking about is not reducing our military spending, it is maintaining it. i think governor romney have not spent enough time looking at how the military works. navy and that be a fewer ships than we did in 1916. we also had fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. we have these things called airplane craft carriers. we have ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. the question is not a game of battleship where we are counting ships. what are our keep the ladies? when i -- what are our capabilities? will bestne how we able to meet all of our defense needs in a way that also keeps pace with our troops and make sure our veterans have the kind of support they need when they come home. that is not reflected in the kind of budget you are putting forward because it does not work. host: professor shoulder, your thoughts. guest: there is a good story about this and it refers to the comment forces and bayonets. that is what the obama administration planned. when he said horses and bayonets, his campaign was ready to go and started tweeting like mad to get that as a meme. a lot of people were commenting on it. it shows you now that social media is a place where a lot of the debate conversation takes place and the campaigns are fully aware of this. the campaigns not only have a strategy for winning the debate, but a social media strategy and that would include specific phrases and things they hope will catch on with the public. host: let's go to michigan, third-party supporter, dave. you are on with our guest. caller: yes. i have been voting since nixon-kennedy collection --election in 1960. but i will have to hold my nose this time. we have is problem that we have to nincompoops running for president. i will vote for mickey mouse, i guess. ,ost: let's go to edward houston, texas, supporter of hillary clinton. caller: good morning. -next 10d the kennedy debate, last night on c-span. and i was intrigued that nixon looked so bad. , will the wondering appearance of each candidate make a big difference to the public? guest: yes, i think it does. you know, the difference between the kennedy-nixon example and the candidates today have the benefit of all of this history and they know very well what not to do. suit thatixon wore a was a light gray. when he got to the debate said, the background of the debate set was pretty much that same shade. so he blended into the background and got lost. they were painting the debate said hours before the debate began trying to get it darker so that richard nixon would not get lost against the backdrop. that kind of a mistake would never be made today because the todidates go to such lengths think about their clothing, tie, and all that stuff. it was a much more casual thing back then. again, richard nixon was ill, he had been hospitalized, and you can see it in his face and in his posture that he was kind of suffering that night. he was not in good shape and probably should have been home in bed. it is what it is. if is -- if it is debate night, you have to be there. host: the support of hillary clinton, hi. caller: it's me again. host: sorry. it is ed in rockford, michigan, a third-party supporter. caller: good morning from michigan. i am a former democrat activist, but i am voting for the green party this year. the debates will have no affect on me. right now, hillary got a good lead in michigan. comes that it is a very close election, i might have to hold my nose reluctantly and vote for hillary. is no humor to humphrey, no fill heart. i just don't like either one of them. so, take care and vote third-party whether it is for the green party, or the libertarian party. express your frustration, and thank you very much. professor, what is the evidence that debates can sway people to choose to book for another candidate? guest: well, it does not happen that way. the debates reinforce the decision that people have already made. in mind, some of what the candidates are doing tonight is not just trying to persuade people to change their minds, but fire up and bolster the enthusiasm of their supporters. both candidates need to have their voters not just be enthusiastic, but to get out and vote on election day. there is, this year, a 15atively sizable group, percent undecided for whom the debates could be useful at arriving at an addition. -- arriving at a decision. by and large, people have made up their minds. way of become almost a infusing your voters as much as persuading people that they are to vote for you the first place. host: alan schroeder is an author. from georgia, a supporter of hillary clinton, go ahead. caller: hi, good morning. host: you were on, go ahead. caller: good morning. becauseporting hillary some of the utterances of donald trump are disgraceful. i cannot believe he is standing in that position. itn it comes to education, least startingt from middle school, students are trades to at least three that will continue through to high school. work with the business people in the communities so that at the end of high school, some of them will find a useful position. hillaryo hoping that will hold the debate at a very high standard, and not don't squalor with donald trump. guest: tone is a really important thing. during the primary debates, the republican primary debates that pretty nasty and ready ridiculous. -- nasty and pretty ridiculous. kids do watch and they are getting value, and getting information about how our system works. maybe even getting enthused about the idea politics and government. if all people are doing it on stage just slinging mud at each other, that goes away. at ae the tone will be higher level tonight than some of what we saw earlier this year. host: talk about the role of the moderator. not only in tone, but what he faces? several comets about this idea of a moderator as a fact checker. what does lester hold face tonight? guest: this has been kicked around this year as we look at the question -- of how questions are asked and the role the moderator. the moderator does not have the time or the resources in a live debate to do extensive fact checking. if it is an obvious thing that can be dispensed in an instant, sure. point out that such and such was an error. but this idea of unraveling a complicated set of circumstances and a timeline is hard to do on live tv. for mebeen interesting to read about how the moderator needs to do this and that. it is always people who have never worked in television who say that. youou worked in television, know you have a finite amount of time and have to be careful how you allocate that time. the debate needs to be about the candidates. if it becomes a squabble between the candidate and the moderator, then the people are not getting the information they need about the candidates. so, i say the moderator ought to be there to facilitate, to keep it moving and to make the rules -- and to make sure the rules are observed. there are a lot of other places where they need to fact check. and will give you a better quality of fact checking them the moderator. host: what rules are agreed upon by the parties involved, both donald trump and hillary clinton,? guest: the rules are few. it is this idea of this format that we have 15 minutes, they know what the topics are, and they know the moderator is going to be asking some questions, but moving things along. i think the rules are actually pretty loose. that is something that is interesting. doesn't favor chuck because he is loose as a performer -- does that favor trump? or does that favor clinton who is not as loose, but can deal with things in more detail and away that this increment of time would allow? it is a really interesting question, the idea of the format and rules. once thelly up to them debate is rolling down the tracks to find out what the rules will play out. host: marie is a portland, oregon. she is an undecided voter. marie, good morning. caller: i am undecided because i see this as the grand finale on the moral decay of our country. we have two candidates that have legal things pressing. doings in theonal are allowed to stand up on that stage. when debbie wasserman schultz pulled that at the dnc and still allow to step down and then run for congress anyway even though she had done something that was really fraudulent, and nobody looked at that, and said, go ahead and do your thing. where do we stand? there is no moral standing. i was in goodwell and i watch them take a man out in handcuffs because he stole a t-shirt. and these people have these massive lawsuits, yet they are allowed to run. i don't know where to go with this anymore. it is complete all decay of our whole system. host: professor, do you want to respond? guest: i would just say that this is a kind of an unusual election that way. yet to candidates who have very high disapproval ratings. trump's is a little higher than hillary's, but higher than 50%. that is quite a contrast when you go back to the last election, or the last few elections where you always have candidates who are unpopular for one reason or another with a certain segment of the population, but not to this degree. don, a supporter of donald trump. donald i want to see get in and put morals back in the families. -- i hopeesters, donald gets into bring it back to normal and put morals and are life. host: professor, we have seen protesters arrive at events. what is the likelihood that protesters could be at this debate? guest: there are always protesters at presidential debates. i think the green party candidate jill stein plans to be there and that people with her. rough nader has showed up -- ralph nader has showed up. you have the protesters against the major party candidates. it is part of the great american tradition of free speech that people feel strongly about these things and wish to get out and express those feelings. there are also a lot of security measures that protesters don't get that close to the venue, but they will certainly be there. woodland hills, california. mike, good morning. caller: good morning, gentlemen. authentic me that democracy demands more than a ballot, it demands informed choice. the so-called nonpartisan commission with 15% threshold seems to be designed to limit informed choice. the american people seem to get it. there is a poll commissioned by the usa today by the saw folk university that has a very large majority, 76% of likely voters favor the inclusion libertarian candidate gary johnson. even active military troops over gary johnson 39% donald trump and 31% over hillary clinton. i would like the professor -- i know he opposes the inclusion of gary johnson and endorses the 15% threshold, i would like for of to explain the 76% americans that think that your johnson should be included, are wrong? guest: each debate, they reevaluate who gets invited. manyry johnson, and so people are supporting gary johnson, and gary johnson is catching fire with the public, then he will be invited to the debates. he has had a lot of opportunities. i watched a townhall he did on mate and as running number of other interviews, so those opportunities exist for candidates to gratify their standing with the american public --ratify their standing with the american public. but by the time you get to the debates, you are almost at the end of the line. it is not a place to create a candidacy, it is a place for candidates who have worried established themselves. gary johnson could rise in the weight ofhis sentiment supports him and he would be included in the debates. but 15% has been the standard for a lot of years. ross perot was able to get in do what garyd johnson has not been able to do, which is really enthuse a lot of voters who were turned off by the major party candidates. host: our guest has had a history newspaper and television and teaches at northwestern university. alan schroeder joining us to talk about tonight's debate. i want to show you a clip from october 17 of 20 -- october 17 of 2000. al gore gets up and goes to george w. bush. i want to show you the quick talk about it. http://twitter.com/cspanw[video] >> it has strong bipartisan support. i want to know if bush will support? this bill? >> we need to move on. >> the differences that i can get it done. i can get something positive done on behalf of of the people. that is what the question in this campaign is about. done?u get things [laughter] i believe i can. >> what about the norwood bill? talk about the intimidation factor and the psychology involved during the debate. al gore thought he would intimidate bush and that would give him an advantage, but it does the opposite. the worst thing about it is not just that bush gives him one of these, is that the town hall audience laugh at al gore. he is really reduced to a laughingstock. interesting story, which is during the preparation, al gore was prepped to do that. he may that maneuver. his debate coaches say, you know what, don't do that? . but he did it anyway. there is a reason why you prepare and why you go through reversals. part of that is to beat out the idea that something may not work. case, he did it anyway. host: you heard a lot of stories about who was sitting in the front row. mark cuban is sitting in the front row for hillary. there was talk about gennifer flowers showing up. does that make a difference on who was there and is that part of the psychology game? guest: it is part of the psychology game, but it does not make any difference because first of all, the debaters have so much to think about. thinkingthing they are about is who was in the front row or second round. , thatnnifer flowers thing really amused me because it was a rumor in 1992 that one of the debate, they-perot were going to plant gennifer flowers in the audience and embarrass clinton. all these years, we are still talking about gennifer flowers showing up. it is a sideshow and just ridiculous. you are trying to make your opponent nervous, but it does not add up to anything. host: cnn reporting say they did not invite gennifer flowers to make that point. int call, chuck massachusetts, a supporter of hillary clinton. caller: good morning. outcome is, the damage has a ready been done by has gainedat trump so much popularity with so much of america. said, professor, donald trump claims to be slack. i was under the impression that -- trump claims to be smart. i was under the impression he went to wharton business school. but he did not. he went to wharton undergraduate school. no one remembers him at the undergraduate school. easy he misleading people by giving the impression that he is such a smart guy? you know what i am talking about. look, there is, a lot about the biographies of the candidates that needs further investigation. onre has been a lot done trump's biography. he is a harder person for the press to cover in the sense he does not have a political record. so, that thing you are talking about, i have not seen a lot of emphasis on that particularly. maybe that is something anybody who is listening would want to google and look up. -- if you have a non-politician running for office, you do have to pay attention to the rest of their that you in a way wouldn't for a traditional politician. think his personal biographical details are very relevant. host: joe is in philadelphia, pennsylvania. he is a donald trump supporter. joe, you're next. caller: hey, good morning. i was wondering if you feel that donald trump will bring up paul etta that was exposed on reddit. guest: i really have no idea what you're talking about, sorry. host: that was joe in philadelphia. infar as the bar performance, professor schroeder, what have you heard about the level of performance for both candidates, and who has the higher bar? guest: they come at it from such different places, and they come at it from different experiences. is he istage for trump a creature of reality tv. you can look at a debate and say, that is a high-stakes form of reality tv. him up on a stage, live cameras, life microphones, that is a world he has lived in and is at home in. for hillary clinton, she is not a natural. she has been on tv a lot, but she does not relish the idea with tb being a platform to put yourself across. from al be coming at it much more methodical way, and he will becoming at it from a much more intuitive way. it is a little bit of a culture clash. that will be one of the really fascinating things to watch is the kind of the nest versus mars, if you will. host: as far as communicating their command of subjects, what works best for a candidate in this kind of format? guest: you do have to know your subjects. in a format where you got a 15 minute discussion. bola -- we that a 15 minute discussion period, you better have something that makes sense and is substantive. things thatof the they practice and make sure they know what is going on in the news and make sure what the controversial hot buttons. of the day. the advantage for hillary clinton is that that this stuff she are has having been in government for so long and been around these issues, and trump does not. he has to learn all of this from scratch. be of the things we will looking at is has he bothered to learn any of this? if he wants to be the president, there is stuff you has to deal with and people need to be sure that he is capable of understanding what that is. host: let's hear from carol, a third-party supporter from key west florida caller: thank you very much for taking my call. i appreciate it. hello? are you listening? host: go ahead. candidates of the would be stronger in law and order and transparency? those are two important things. which is stronger? honesty and transparency? donald trump is very experienced and well educated and very intelligent. what do you think about that? thank you for taking my call, sir. guest: on the question of transparency, well, i mean, look, these are political candidates. that will not been transparent about releasing his tax returns, which seems like a pretty a sick thing that all -- which seems a pretty basic thing that all candidates do. i don't know how you arrived at the conclusion that he has been transparent. hillary clinton has not been upfront with showing everything either. they want you to see what they want you to see. our job is not to really except that at face value and be a little skeptical and demand things like the release of tax returns and health records. i don't think that is asking too much from people who want to be president of the united states. host: politico has a story taking a look at the first 30 minutes of a debate. talk a little bit about what history tells us as far as the sustainability of all the things you have to command during the course of these formats? guest: this question of time is really important when you think about debates. a debate is a live television show, but it is a show that unfolds over 90 minutes. for two participants on the stage who never get a bathroom break, that is a really intense rain to have to do. one of the challenges is that you have to work the clock. the first half hour, and the world of social media were things happen instantaneously, that is more important than ever because that is when the perceptions are being formed and the reporters are reading each other's reactions and the public is weighing in as well. the first half-hour is a chance to kind of sees control -- seize control and have it be in your favor. as the debate goes on, it is to figure out how do you sustain your energy? how do you keep this thing going? mistakes that have been made happen at the two thirds mark, the one hour mark. when people are getting tired of a have not.net final momentum in the home stretch. the candidates have to be very en garde about have a use the time. it is another reason why they were hers -- another reason why they rehearse and do real-time, mock debates. here is bill in new york, an undecided voter. caller: hi, mr. schroeder. i wanted to ask you about when the lead women voters used to run the debates, they set the rules and what the parties did, 10, 12 years ago, they decided they had a tizzy about how they could not control the debate? guest: this has always been a tension between the campaigns in the debate sponsors about who drives the car. when the league of women voters did the debates in the 1970's and 1980's, they ran into a lot of problems with the campaigns. there was a lot of head butting. one year, and trying to choose panelists for the debate, the league of women voters had to propose dozens of names because the campaigns kept rejecting them. i don't think it is accurate to say that the league of women voters had more cloud. the campaigns rough shot over them. over the years, the debate commission has gained in clout. each cycle, they get a little stronger. the campaigns resent that. there was an effort this year to take the debates away from the debate commission, and that was essentially to give control to the campaigns. gnosis to ms. perfect, but i think the debate commission does a very good job of standing up to the campaigns and insisting on certain formats of controlling the calendar and the locations, and choosing the moderators. than the campaigns can react. they may not like what is being put out, but they have not done what they used to back in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's, which is pushback on the sponsors and threaten, and some cases not show up. host: the commission --what history does it have with the political parties? are they still influenced by the democratic and republican parties? guest: when they were formed, it was a bipartisan commission. were the former committee chairs of the national parties. little by little, they moved away from that model and realized that they needed to be was independent commission, not affiliated with parties. that has become over the past 20 years or so, much more the structure of the debate commission. so, the big -- the debate commission is misunderstood on a lot of levels i think. havense of them is they the right reasons in my for wanting to do what they do. they are not some evil group of people trying to put one over on the american public. this is really controversial stuff. so, i understand why people have the reaction they do when it comes to the debate commission. but it is true that it started off as an outgrowth of the parties, but he realized that maybe that was not the best thing. so, over the years, they moved to a more independent model. d, in maryland, a supporter of donald trump. caller: so, basically, when you talk about fact checking and 2016, the amount of facts i can pull up on my cell phone is ridiculous. if we are talking about the u.s. presidency, i really believe that if you want people to debate and take serious, you want the u.s. public to take seriously this debate, you have to put it to the point of american idol. bowed in, fact checking live. i know three my buddies who can pull up information on practically anybody. and these are people who have more tenure. to sit there and say, oh yeah, we don't have enough time. to make the time. get the resources. it is enough money between the two candidates that they can get the resources to fact check. but the problem is the really don't want to know the facts. we just want to put on a facade. that is what we do. guest: on the fact checking theg, it is not just candidates or the moderator putting on a show for everybody. boaters have to take responsibility here, too -- voters have to take responsibility, too. i would hope that as people are watching the debates, if there is something that sounds fishy or they want to know more about, they would take the time to fact check. you can also do on your twitter feed, you can follow news organizations and other fact checkers who will be providing real-time back checks during the debate. that is a more efficient way of doing it and having a moderator try to shoehorn it in. other things to worry about as the debate unfolds. host: professor, we have a viewer off of twitter. it is asking who chooses the members of the commission? guest: there are two co-commissioners, the top whole, one is mike mccurry was one of bill clinton's press secretaries. a former headis of a national committee who has been there from the get go. there has been an executive, janet brown, who is more responsible --who is responsible for the -- i don't know how many off the top of my head commissioners, but they are invited to become commissioners and are invited by that administrative structure of the debate commission. they really try to get people from a variety of backgrounds and to try to get an even balance on political spectrum and that kind of thing. host: if you want to learn more about the commission, debates.org is the website. it has information on who was on the commission. let's hear next from steve, grand island, nebraska. a third-party supporter. caller: hi. the election of either candidate, might face congress or might force congress to rein in the president's executive power. the u.s. can survive for years of clinton or trump. it will be a long, long four years. both candidates are dangerous, but clinton will be predictable, and trump won't. guest: interesting point. this question of executive power, a lot of that is frustration with the president at the gridlock of congress. they have to temp the white house to be more proactive. host: you talk about viewership, how much will be done on devices instead of traditional television? guest: we will have a measurement of that after the fact. every election cycle, more and more people are watching it with a second screen, on tv, and on a mobile device. or exclusively on a laptop or mobile device. you can watch it on xbox. there are all sorts of ways beyond the standard television venue to really take in that debate. all of that will be factored in. also, around the world, i do a lot of lecturing outside of the united states about this stuff. i am amazed about how many people in other countries, in europe for instance, will get up in the middle of the night to watch the debate live. it is more available than they have been in our history. that is a great thing. you don't even have to watch it at the time that it is on. it will be there whenever you are ready to take a look. let's hear next from margaret. chapel hill, tennessee, a supporter of hillary clinton. caller: hi, pedro and mr. schroeder. about theth the guy league of women voters, but my question is to the two of y'all. how can you keep a straight face her that woman, bless heart, called in and said that she was going to vote for top because she wanted to get morals back in the white house? i really have to give it to you to on that one. how did you all do that? have a nice day. guest: she mentioned family values and trump has had three families. i guess he knows something about that. host: and to that question, a lot of issues for both candidates. how much of that will overshadow that over debate topics? guest: i hope not a lot. the one thing debate to do, they are not just policy discussion, it is a personality exercise. one of the great things about debate is it shows us the candidates under pressure. we don't get any other opportunity to see how they may react if they were in a tense moment as president. a debate puts them in a really awkward place. it is like a job interview because you go in for a job interview, you are on your best behavior, you know they are going to ask you all of this stuff, and you have to respond in a way that sells your candidacy, so to speak. it is a pressure cooker situation and that is good. having them side-by-side is kind of good, so people can comparison shop. does one look prepared? is the other one there for show? i think they serve a purpose that goes a little bit beyond just the positions and the policies that are being proposed here. it is a test of their personal qualities in a way that nothing else on the campaign trail is. host: good morning to alan, a supporter of hillary clinton. caller: hello. because i know the man, i was born several miles from him. we met in our teenage years and he was always surrounded by people, older people, and they were doing his bidding, so to speak. later in life, in the 1980's, when i had retired from the police department, i was at a , and i willhattan mention just his first name, bernie, and there were 60 people. this partyws up at unannounced and uninvited, but the donald. wasreason i recognized him the steering of everyone there. host: one more call. we will hear from henry, new york, supporter of hillary clinton. caller: good morning. is common is directed to the professor. if you moments ago you said, a moderator has more important things on their minds than facts and then you suggested secondary sources to check it. manhis environment, with a who stole a campaign upon this representation -- upon this reputation. . host: you are breaking up a little, but we will let our guest respond. guest: my wording may not have been perfect. i did not suggest that facts are not important, they are really, really important. to journalists need to be right on top of that stuff. if statements are being made in and away inaccurate way, all of that needs to come out. this is a tv show and the moderate has a tough job and a lot of angst to do and if you start engaging in fact checks willou got a candidate who string 20 walkers, the debate is nothing but that. the debate, it's no longer a debate between two candidates. it's a back-and-forth between a moderator and a candidate. candidates can fact check each other. the journalists who are walking should fact check all the statements the candidates are making. to put that on a moderator in a is not a realistic expectation that they are going fact check every single statement and were by every candidate in the course of 90 minutes and if they did that all the program would be. our guest teaches journalism at northeastern university. schroeder joining us on this debate day. thank you for your time. don't forget our debate coverage on c-span starting at 7:30 this evening. the debate starts at 9:00. you can watch on a variety of platforms. we will continue our discussion about tonight's debate. we will take a look at the tone and rhetoric that will be used this evening with carolyn lukensmeyer of the university of arizona. she is with the national institute of civil discourse. hofstra university in new york is where tonight's debate takes place. surroundingivity the debates tonight including our c-span bus located on the campus. that where we meet kyle kandetzki. he is the managing editor of the hofstra chronicle. good morning. guest: thanks for having me on. host: tell us about the chronicle. how have you been covering the lead up to this debate? guest: we have a couple hundred students. it's a student run newspaper. we have no direct relation to the school. we have been covering the debate wall-to-wall. last week we were able to get an op-ed straight from hillary clinton and her team. students tohe wants do during the debate to be active. we have over 50 students covering all the events on campus from the debate itself to the protests to the events being put on. it's going to be a hectic day. host: what has been the most interesting story in the lead up to the debate? a lot of the protests have been a lot of fun. yesterday we were able to get in contact with dr. jill stein. a bunch of writers and photographers were able to track her down. that was interesting. she said she's going to do kind of an open debate. she's going to be off campus and she's going to try and make her way in. there will be other groups protesting off-campus and on campus just seeing how the reaction is. if the candidates or their people will try to talk to us. the protests are going to be some of the most interesting things we get to see. some we are hearing background noises. as that from a protest? guest: i have all the broadcasters from the other channels. we are in the middle of broadcast plaza. they are getting the students involved in the broadcasts. it's just excitement for now. host: how do you cover this debate evenhandedly? does your paper take a certain political position? we do not take a specific position. we try to keep it as even as possible. we got an op-ed from hillary clinton. the trump side didn't get back to us on that. we are next issue covering things as quickly as possible. we are going to get the side of the story for clinton and trump. get student to opinions. we don't want to show any bias at all. this is a pretty liberal campus. it's up to the writers. hopefully going to keep it as even as possible. we try to keep it unbiased. after the debate is done how do you know if your paper has been successful in covering this event? guest: it might be hearing from the students around campus saying they thought it was a good effort. we also have the amount of views on the website. issue coming out tomorrow. it is such a big opportunity to get our newspaper out on campus by tomorrow morning. we are usually a weekly paper. this time it's going to be right as soon as things happen. the administration. we hear from students and they think it was well covered and an entertaining issue. that would be a success. maybe if the shelves across campus are empty that will show everyone wanted to pick it up. kyle kandetzki is the managing editor of the hofstra chronicle. thank you. you.: thank the c-span bus will be closely following the debates. there is a twitter handle you @cspanbus. our next guest joining us is carolyn lukensmeyer with the university of arizona. the executive director of the national institute for civil discourse. tell us about the institute. guest: it was created after the attempt on representative gabby in 2011.s life the community came together very quickly and said we have to make something good come out of this tragedy. we have been operating five years. we work with elected officials. we work with the public and we work with a lot of journalists. we look at the quality of civil discourse in the united states. the polling that has been done , americans really see how our civil discourse has become degraded. a lot has been led by politicians. the public itself deems to be feeling legitimated to also be more and more uncivil. are attempting in this most important presidential campaign to put a stake in the ground and say they're clearly our standards of conduct that should apply to the debaters, moderators, and audience. all of your viewers will remember the audiences in the primaries got out of hand as well. host: what are the best practices as far as civil discourse? we worked with academics, we did focus groups. they came out with five standards they want from the debaters themselves. frankly you won't be surprised. parentsot like what our tried to teach us before we went to school. show respect in your speech and behavior. answer the question the moderator is asking. really when you are distinguishing your policy position from the other candidate do it respectfully. don't engage in character degradation. take responsibility for your present and past behavior. that reflects what the public can expect from you in the future. we actually ask the debaters, the candidates and the audience to take a stand against incivility when they see it. host: what are your expectations at tonight's event will check off those five criteria? take a deepl breath. if we see a continuation of the behavior from the primaries my expectations would be very low. we hope at the institute and all the organizations supporting aarp toandards from small community organizations. we are hoping by putting a stake in the ground the candidates will make a choice to go on a better path. rhetoric is the topic with carolyn lukensmeyer. if you want to ask her a question, the numbers will be the same. support.e that you choose the line that best represents you. we will take those calls in just a moment. do you ask the debaters to sign on to these things? was there any response from the campaigns? send the standards to the candidates and their communications directors and we have not gotten a response. the standards to the moderators and senior producers and we have had them interest. host: tell us about that. guest: i loved what bob schieffer said a few days ago when he had conversations with the moderators. they know the stakes are very high. the firstly after moment when the veteran organization held a chance for hillary and trump to be one after another on stage. ae moderator's role will have very bright light shining on it. we have seen moderators themselves really understand what a unique moment this is in political history and they are looking for ways to make sure the debates do what they were intended to do. it's been very clear since 1988. purpose is clear and simple. the debates are to help all of us. learn more about these and their positions on issues so we can make the best possible decision in this very important election. host: things can get heated. expectation in this kind of format to have all of those things you would like to see as far as tone and rhetoric are concerned? guest: this is an important point. sometimes when i'm speaking people say, doesn't that just means be nice to each other? not at all. stability is about -- you can be disagreeable, you can be passionate. in terms of disagreement. without being disagreeable or attacking the character of your opponent. this is not about how we can tear each other down. this is about how we can build this country up. if you202) 748-8000 support hillary clinton. (202) 748-8001 if you support donald trump. third-party supporters (202) 748-8002. undecided (202) 748-8003. michael is in alabama. third-party supporter. go ahead. caller: good morning. talked to c-span in probably three months. there have been so many first sundays in each month where i have wanted to ask questions of the authors. anyway. it's really great to have you. i'm really honored to ask you these questions. who is it that decides that only the republicans and democratic candidates for the november general election are allowed on the debates in october and september -- why the heck haven't they allowed third-party candidates since 1980 when john anderson was -- upset the chances for president carter? and second, i aim this squarely at the primary hard-core democrat which i am almost and republican primary voters. somebody withoose the slickest silver with the slickest silver tongued oratory or the most handsome appearance or anything like that? denied as a result of that. the expertise of what's his name. love evenrson whom i though i probably wouldn't vote for him because of his views on economics. your question about the third-party debaters. 1992 was the last time a third party was on the stage. that was ross perot with bill clinton. and george h.w. bush. onwas the commission presidential debates that makes that decision and the rule has been in place for decades. candidate must hit 15% of the popular vote in polls prior to being allowed on the stage. of your second question i think you are raising something very important. it is essential that we as citizens in this country take very seriously our role in selecting our candidates. one of the tragedies of our system is too many of us take it for granted. 40% of americans usually do not vote. i think the answer to your second question is encouraging many more people to vote. host: let's hear next from nick in illinois. supporter of donald trump. caller: hello. good morning. i have a quick point. the media is consistently coming out saying that the moderator of are going-- debates to have to come all trump on his lies. that's hillary clinton job. husbandclinton and her have lied since the 90's, whenever i was born in 1994. they lied about sex. is the moderator not supposed to jump on hillary clinton when she lies? there is so much expectation for hillary clinton to think she is just this politician that is going to be outstanding to not think the moderator is only going to drop on trumpet and not hillary clinton is ridiculous. a very important point. the standards we have created for the presidential debates, the standard for the moderators treating the candidates equally by the rules and insuring each candidate has equal time to present their cases. it's an issue of who should call out the difference between a lie and a fact. this has become so central in this presidential campaign. commission on presidential debates in the next election consider a seriously fact checker actually on the stage so there is another role responsible for actually determining when lies are being told. when of the things we have done with our standards is created a scorecard which is available on the web so you and all the this this canr actually evaluate the candidates, moderators and audience lives while the debates are going on. all you have to do is go to the web. you will find a scorecard where you can make that evaluation yourself. you think the tone and rhetoric changes because there is a man and woman on the stage tonight? guest: that's a really good question. we have not seen that except in the presidential debate with geraldine ferraro. people in some camps are suggesting it may actually be worse because of the ability to of how theage society carries gender identities. my best hope is that both candidates will choose to not get into any gender differences to will actually choose follow their better angels rather than their baser instincts. patricia from wisconsin. supporter of hillary clinton. i know that hillary will be respectful of trump. but trumpet is such -- i just can't believe that the people in the united states would even vote for him. i can't believe that the republican party is for him. he lies so much. and now he's considered more honest than hillary clinton. i just can't believe that. right theyigious accept him. they respect him. what is going on in our society? how am i going to teach my granddaughter how to respect one man is when the -- this so totally ignorant and disrespectful of everybody? i would invite you to encourage your friends, neighbors to actually sign on to the website we created to do a scorecard of these candidates in the first debate. we will have a chance to see where the disrespect lies. host: susan, third-party supporter. i want to go back to this conversation and remembering when president obama gave that state of the union and i believe it was a republican from south carolina jumped up and that you lied. i think at that moment the way people talk to elected individuals just started to take a complete downturn. moste felt free to say the shamefully ugly words. when i look at this debate tonight i feel kind of sad that we are not getting -- i like jill stein and i like the viewpoints of other people. we don't get to have that opportunity. of speech.ing it's not just for men. i have watched women in our local elections talk to my husband in such a way i'm embarrassed for my gender. siteoing to go on to your because i think this is where it has to start. we have to change the way we talk to one another. host: thank you. guest: thank you. is no question that it is time for all americans to stand up and speak out against the incivility that now dominates our public discourse. than what we could and should be when we do these kinds of ad hominem attacks. when we legitimate starker instincts. thank you. you talked about the responsibilities for the candidates and the moderators. what's the responsibility of the audience when it comes to tone? guest: as all of your viewers know, we saw during the primary elections audience is getting out of hand and in some cases candidates actually encouraging them. our primary goal with the audience is to ask them to be respectful of other audience members who are for a different candidate. of the moderators and of the debaters themselves. we also ask them to refrain from creating disturbances. that is a point of these debates. for the american people to learn more about donald trump and about hillary clinton so that we can make the best possible decision when we vote. if we ask the audience members to stand against incivility when we see it happening. host: undecided voter from delaware. joseph is next. caller: i have an observation. one as a businessman. one as a lawyer. they ever get along together on even terms for either client. i went to law school. and hillary went to the lawyer school. i learned about the law and ethics and things like that. she learned about how to break the law and get away with it. and not get criminalized for it. because she wasn't charged with anything. do you understand that point? they're going to implode on each other. thank you. guest: your point about donald payne leg being a businessman's perspective and hillary's primary entry into her profession is law is athey're gh other. thank you. guest: good one. americans will have an opportunity to see how those different views of how you make meaning out of the world come to debate with one another tonight. says of you are on twitter it's not been nice so far, why start now? guest: that's a very good point. the main reason we should start now is because our children are watching. we have allowed disrespect, uncivil behavior to become legitimate. making edwards who is a former congressman from oklahoma who is on our national board said it best. it has taken us a couple decades to get to the level we are at. to once again create a social norm wears ability is what's expected will take us a long time to rebuild it and we need to start rebuilding it tonight. the university of arizona is where the national institute for civil discourse is housed. learn more about the work of the institute and what it does. tom from princeton new jersey. supporter of donald trump. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to ask your guest regarding tone and rhetoric what she thought about jill biden's -- joe biden's debate and attitude. they simply bullied the moderator with his debate with paul ryan. wasytics from candy crowley the moderator of the second debate when she allowed a blatant lie to go through while michelle obama cheered loudly in the audience once again rules.ng debate and conduct. also i think there is a palpable anger in this country as we have seen by the way bernie sanders supporters basically sabotage trump rallies. i think the tone and rhetoric is really coming from the left that has gone out of control and starting from especially president obama who has created race and class warfare. guest: i don't think there's any question. challenge about civility and respect in presidential debates has in fact existed prior to this election cycle. i also think there is no question and basically universities have researched this and put the data out that the primary process it this year's election cycle went to a level that we haven't ever seen before in presidential debates. one of the things that we counseled people who know you mostlyng to vote for when we already know who we are supporting we listen to whether it's a speech or debate. we listen for something that affirms what we already know. since you know who you are going to vote for i think you might find it interesting to listen to the debate tonight and just the if there is one point that hillary clinton makes that you are interested in. you're a hillary clinton supporter i would say exactly the same thing about listening to donald trump. that is what ability is. not wiping out the other side just because you disagree with them. to darrellll move on in long beach, california. undecided. is, i livequestion here in california and we had a million people say no to same-sex marriage called proposition eight. and some guy wearing a black robe -- a couple of them nullified that. say the democratic party and the republican party has been nothing more than a front. you have the president flying to --lywood and the republicans if you run office you get to be number one on the board. the president is nothing more than the greatest lotto winner on earth and its a shame. i think you pointed out that who sits on the supreme court is equally important as who is our president. another reason it's really americans carry out their civic responsibility and vote in this election. as tone and rhetoric, is there a time in previous election cycles where that was captured in your mind? guest: that's a great question. the first thing that comes to my mind is the other side of the coin. think at least in modern political history we have never seen the rhetoric intentionally focused at character degradation in the way it is today. going all the way back to the first kennedy nixon debate there were obviously all the important things the professor talked about before. i don't think you could find in a previous presidential debate anything like the disrespect we saw this year in the primaries. do you think those kinds of things will take center stage in tonight's debate over facts? guest: i took a deep breath. i certainly hope so. our organization and hundreds of thousands of people are doing what they can to put forward at the debate is about our choice for the next president. our organization and hundreds of this cycle has been doing unexpected popping up again and again in some ways i actually think the unexpected for tonight would be if it turned out to be really simple -- civil. host: hofstra university is where the debate takes place tonight. liz, a hear from supporter of hillary clinton. caller: good morning. to thank you for your work. i'm old school. i'm in my 60's. i really understand civility is important. somebody called earlier and said donald trump is not a politician. the man has two degrees. he understands language. my question for you is do you think he's capable of managing his tone? i personally don't. i think people have something in their heads. toi say this, it's going hurt somebody. if i say this, it's awful. he doesn't have that. that's my opinion. the other thing i wanted to say is somebody called earlier and trump probably owes china and russia. i'm going to call him the manchurian candidate. it's an interesting phenomenon. throughout the campaign and the last few weeks we have seen moments when donald trump was stay at a different level in his rhetoric and tone. i think tonight will be a good example on the part of both candidates to demonstrate their respect for the american public, the office of the presidency, and keep it at that level. host: interviewer asked on twitter, when the debates are over will you say which candidate better met your standards? guest: we are doing debate watch cityes at universities and clubs all over the country. it is the oldest institution in the public sector that stands for freedom of speech. those debate watch parties will use the standards that any of your listeners can get on the website. data andggregate the sometime tomorrow afternoon we will put out how in fact the american public evaluate the first debate. host: the information found on the website. that is what you are looking at right now. supporter richard. caller: good morning. i'm calling about the election. i'm supporting jill stein. so far to the right that she ought to be on the republican ticket really. i don't see how she can be on a democrat ticket. the debate is rigged just like the primary was. about yourtalk support for jill stein. she clearly stands for important policy positions dealing with .he environment i believe across these presidential debates both candidates will be challenged to put out their ideas and what they actually would do to deal with a significant number of environmental challenges facing not just the united states but the world. host: supporter of donald trump. hello. caller: good morning. go wildcats. president obama has really set a high standard in oratory and he has really set the bar because he is an eloquent speaker. i think what you will see tonight is that hillary clinton if she is to eloquent people will see her as more of a liar. ifald trump is bombastic and he gets too bombastic. what i encourage everybody to do tonight would be to not go to the fact checkers and make up their own minds and opinions on the issues that are important to them. will see there are contrasts in the issues and that's what i would hope everybody focuses on. there's different styles of delivering those issues. that when somebody confronts you with the problem head-on that is the best thing to do. that's why i like donald trump. i think he's genuine. your: i want to underline point that every single american citizens listening to this debate needs to pay attention to the candidates position on issues and make a choice who to vote for based on that information. and 40% of us who are eligible don't go to the polls in these cycles when we make the most important choices. please vote this year. host: a supporter of hillary clinton. caller: hello. every time i turn the tv on msnbc, cnn, they are dissing making him tond be a villain. i'm going to vote for hillary. i think they are not being fair to him. they call him a racist. hillary was a racist. she supported barry goldwater. she called young black men super predators. and the benghazi situation, they were questioning her and she said what difference does it make? it made a lot of difference to those people that lost loved ones over in benghazi. i think they are giving donald trump a bum rap. i think he's going to do well. again, i'm going to vote for hillary. is going told trump do well because he has coaches as well as whs hillary. she is not the most honest person in the group. i think they are giving donald trump a bum rap. you put your finger on something embedded in the debate standards that we put out. basically give us your position on the issues and do it respectfully. thank you. host: you have heard from carolyn lukensmeyer, executive director of the national institute for civil discourse at the university of arizona. the website is on the screen if you want to find out more information. thank you for your time. tonight's coverage of the debate on c-span begins at 7:30. you can view our coverage and the actual debate itself. segment we have talked a lot about the role of debate moderators. whether they should be fact checkers, whether they should just be a traffic cop. we want to get your sense of what the debate moderator should be, especially tonight. if you support hillary clinton, (202) 748-8000. donald trump, (202) 748-8001. third-party, (202) 748-8002. undecided, (202) 748-8003. we will pick up the topic when washington journal continues. ♪ tonight on the communicators. at&t talksist for about the issues he has worked on the future of telecommunications and why he feels the fcc has become more politicized. he is interviewed by executive senior editor at communications daily. ask compromise is now a dirty word. have groups at each extreme that seeks to prevent it and you compromise as betrayal. the art ofpromise is governance and it is necessary to solve problems. that has leached over into telecommunications. i think it is one of the reasons we are seeing this level of asarization inside the fcc well. >> watch the communicators tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. once more, we will have a government of, by and for the people. >> we are stronger together. and no matter what, remember this. love trumps hate. c-span's campaign 2016 continues on the road to the white house with the first presidential debate tonight. beginning at 7:30 with a preview of the debate. the pre-debate for the audience. at 9:00 live coverage of the debate followed by viewer reaction. the 2016 presidential debate on c-span. watch anytime on-demand on c-span.org or listen live on the free radio app. >> washington journal continues. twice before hofstra university has hosted a presidential debate. tonight will make a third time. is the view you will see plenty during the day and tonight as donald trump and hillary clinton meet in the first presidential debate at that university. of course lester holt will be the moderator for that debate. we want to hear what you think his role should be tonight. someone who continually turns back the conversation between the candidates involved in? a role of fact checker for both parties involved? if you support hillary clinton. (202) 748-8001 if you support donald trump. (202) 748-8002 third-party supporters. undecided voters. let's begin in hawaii. a supporter of hillary clinton. as far as the moderator is concerned what do you think the role of the moderator should be? caller: i do think it really matters what we think because i think if the moderator tonight tries to fact check he's going to get crucified. future i loved what your speaker just said. that we should put that in whether it is a computer thing in the corner that says what the facts are. finally the papers and the pundits are starting to say that donald trump lies. who's going to call him on it tonight? on can you call someone hateful hostility? he's inciting the country to riot. you think a third-party fact checker along with the moderator should be the format? should bethink there some kind of fact checker on the side of the computer. we do it on every website. host: let's hear from jim in illinois. undecided voter. hello. i just want to clarify several things. it was congressman joe wilson who called obama a liar. which he is. obama is a liar. was one thing that was true. the first time i heard obama speak i knew he was nothing more but a phony. a smart ass kid. the point of debate moderators, what do you think? caller: they should argue between themselves without a moderator. let them talk to each other like lincoln and douglas to. -- did. host: why do you think there's value to doing it that way? caller: the moderators are very biased and left-wing socialistic oriented. 9:00 is the start time for tonight's event. raymond from michigan. supporter of hillary clinton. the moderator in this format. what do you think it should be? the factithout checking the whole thing will turn into chaos. trump -- he will live. without fact checking it is total chaos. you go to her website. i don't have a computer. how my supposed to go to website. she wants lies publicized. it's chaos. it's going to be a joke. host: the role of the debate moderator. we encourage you to continue making calls. (202) 748-8000 if you support hillary clinton. (202) 748-8001 if you support donald trump. for third-party candidates. (202) 748-8003 if you are undecided. we have been telling you all morning about coverage of the span including what is available at the span.org. theicularly in light of debate and the first presidential debate. joining us to give us some of the details is emmanuel touhey with c-span. what happens when folks go to c-span.org as far as what they can find for tonight's debate? if you come to c-span.org at 7:30 tonight you will be able to see all the c-span has to offer in terms of resources. .his is our hub you will be able to see all the debates on this page. there is a main player just below. will be able to watch on all your digital devices the c-span radio app. first of allht -- our coverage begins with a preview program. we will throw to the hall were the debate is taking place at hofstra university. the cochairs of the commission will introduce the whole proceeding, explain what's going to happen and then they will introduce the moderator lester holt. he will introduce the spouses, the candidates go through housekeeping. at 9:00 the debate will be underway. at 9:00 on this page just above the player on your home screen, two other boxes will appear. the pool provides the coverage for all the networks. you twoasically giving choices as to how you want to watch the debate. the first is a split screen that will focus on the candidates. the second will be a split screen like you are watching any television program where you're going from shot to shot. we want you to have the choice of which one you want to watch. people like to see the reaction of the candidates being asked questions and the one that is listening. you have that choice throughout the debate. what happens as it goes on? you have questions and answers. you will be able to watch them back within a few minutes of them ending. we are going to clip each question and answer and allow you to watch the on demand. people have the ability to make clips and share them with people. absolutely. we encourage everybody to do that. it's a great source of aggregating material from the debate. it's an important role for you to be able to play and people can share their favorite moments. we are basically providing everything without commentary or interruption. after the debate is over you can watch the spin room. how the commentators are able to weigh in on what happened as the debate transpired. one of the things i mentioned when i was talking about the screens. when the debate is over we will actually show you the spin room as well. host: people want to watch what's happening today. what if they wanted to go back in time and compare and contrast the debate? anniversary is the of the very first presidential debate between richard nixon and john f. kennedy in new york in 1960. they had four debates. two of them or in new york. president ford and governor carter had debate in 76. you can look at them in reverse chronological order. now. got the 1960 debates we've got mitt romney and president from 2012. it's an important part of our video library to be able to watch a lot of archival material including the presidential debates. host: emmanuel touhey is a web editor here at c-span talking about what's available here at c-span.org. thank you so much. at role of debate moderators what they should play in tonight's first debate. that is the question. (202) 748-8000 if you support hillary clinton. (202) 748-8001 if you support donald trump. (202) 748-8002 third-party candidates. (202) 748-8003 undecided. charles in with dallas. supporter of donald trump. how are you? caller: i'm doing fine. how are you? host: i'm doing fine. what do you think about the moderator? caller: i have a solution. they have two moderators. a conservative and a liberal. that way they can't gripe. host: two moderators at every debate? caller: yes. conservative and liberal. not just liberal. conservative one on the whole debate. the others are liberal. tom is from michigan. undecided. caller: how are you doing? you -- finehank thank you. opinion is that i don't think the moderator should be a fact checker. i think a moderator should just a square sure who asks honest questions and excepts the answer. can go back into the internet and so forth. god knows you can find anything you want on the internet to favor one side or the other. i think that after the debate those spin rooms -- they do enough of the manipulating of what was actually said. i think people should just listen to what the candidates take that and decide for important andt is what they believe. and base their decisions on that. thanks very much. host: a look at the spin room. this could be the media filing room actually. there is a spin room. there is the actual debate. there is the introduction. you can watch that unfiltered on the c-span networks and their website as well. we will show you the sights and sounds of all of that as the morning goes on. tonight is the very first debate. there is the spin room filled with people. representatives from the various campaigns. october 4 the vice presidential debate. debate will the take place between the presidential candidates at washington university in st. louis. on october 19 the final presidential debate is at the university of las vegas nevada. michelle from wisconsin. supporter of hillary clinton joining us now to talk about the role of moderators. caller: i think the role of the thatator is to make sure the presidential candidates don't dance around the questions. in previous debates when they are asked questions some of them will say, thank you for asking that question but i'd like to talk about something else. then they talk about something else and they never answer the question they were asked to begin with. important thatry the moderator keep them on track as to what is being asked and everything like that. think there should be a second person off to the sidelines with a computer to do the fact checking to make sure that the presidential candidates are talking truth and not just saying what they think whether it is a liar not. i think moderators should be able to shoot straight from the hip and ask the questions and make sure those questions are answered in the way they should he answered and not being danced around or avoided. how i feel about the role of a moderator. media inbers of the the spin room and filing center at hofstra university in new york. couple thoughts on moderators. one viewer says all the moderator should do is ring the bell. another viewer saying the debate moderator is a member of the media. we depend onone viewer the medit the facts. of course they should fact check. in ohio, supporter of donald trump. good morning. caller: the moderators just need to moderate. if there is any descriptions or whatever but them hash it out between each other. let the public -- let them do their jobs. people are doing -- people are getting too lazy in this country. we don't need another lawyer. the last president we had was a lawyer and he lied we don't need another liar. host: why do you think the moderator should not be involved in the fact checking process? caller: he's just there to moderate. if somebody is lying let them argue. if it takes too long let the people figure it out. they can't rely on everybody else's word. real quick about hillary. if i was donald i wouldn't give her no disrespect at all. she disrespected half the country. we will find out november 8 about how she called us all lowlifes. we all know who the low life is. sylvia from tulsa, oklahoma. supporter killer clinton. thanks i want to say c-span for having me on the line. and talkshow located in washington, d.c. a little over the 50th time. debate has always been in my blood. i learned in high school and college. debate is. i want everybody that is calling hear.the talkshow to there was no moderator when you today. you were given a topic and there was one person to the left and another person to the right. they're still shouldn't be a moderator. you only have three topics to speak about. and you only have so much time. each person is given the floor and that topic they have to speak on. when it's the second person to , thatght in a debate topic is given to the person on the right. and they have so much time to speak. this is the only time we ever hear about the role of a moderator. i believe whatever topics that will be spoken tonight, let that person have their side to speak and so much time and then to the right let the next person, mr. trump have his topic. host: ok caller. thank you. the commission on presidential debates. lester holt will moderate tonight. america's direction, achieving prosperity, securing america. the three broad topics that will be engaged in this evening. the anchor of the nbc nightly news and will serve as moderator. gray is up next. third-party supporter. hello. caller:? hello? i am the only independent candidate and the election is not over with. bill int's hear from texas. viewer.d go ahead. good morning. caller: i am torn between hillary and trump. i like things that hillary says and i like things that trump says. , do not like previous debates i do not want to see the moderator jump in and become part of the debate. out theredoes not get and start arguing with one of the candidates over a question that was asked. i have seen that in the past and i hope the moderator does not become part of the debate where the candidates have to debate the moderator. i don't want to see that. thank you. surveying theng scene at hofstra university. both of the candidates tonight from new york as well. that is just part of what you will see as the day goes on before tonight's debate which starts at 9:00 this evening. we are taking calls about the role of the debate moderator. trump.rter of donald this is anthony. good morning. caller: good morning. debate isve is a between two people. not three people. moderator should just sit and let each one hash out what the other one says. one reason is because hillary to interactderator because she has a lot of things to hide. she has lied to the country multiple multiple times. they are saying we want to push the liar side to donald trump when she is the biggest and corrupted politician that has been in the history of our country. ok? and so we need somebody that has honesty.and ok? trustworthy. unity. we don't need anybody that needs to be a liar, liar, untrustworthy, and she also has health issues. host: ok. one more call on this topic. supporter of hillary clinton. go ahead. caller: good morning. i agree with some of the people and i disagree with most of them. i believe the moderator should ask questions pertinent to today. not yesterday, not last month. not 10 years ago. we want to know about fracking, global warming. ask the questions and keep asking until they answer. i have never seen anybody that can avoid a question as easily as trump does. he walks around it. he says believe in me. i need more of an answer than that. thank you so much. host: with that we conclude our program leaving you with images of hofstra university at the site of tonight's debate. 9:00 is when the debates start. 7:30 is our coverage on c-span. you can go to c-span.org for more information on that. another coverage where we discussed tonight's debate will come your way tomorrow. the first of several debates

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