what do you have? >> we want to introduce you to one more student. this is natalie of the fashion institute of technology. how did an fit student get to hofstra to attend the presidential debate? >> well, i went to lawrence high school a local high school in long island and my former teacher is very into politics and i was in one of his public policy classes and he noticed i have a huge interest in politics. he got this great opportunity and he has been here before at the 2012 debate. he got this great opportunity and was natalie i am taking three students or former students they need to be 18 are you interested and i was like of course i am interest. i have a class monday evenings and told my professor i will do all my work i just really have to take this and he said go do t it is a once in a lifetime chance. here i am and really excited. >> this is a picture tweeted out. you interviewings congressman peter king. what are you been doing up there? >> they are very persistent and go up to everyone. we have been picking up on what they asked the former congress men or high executive people and ask the same questions. we love seeing young students involved. it is exciting and inspiring. >> natalie with the fashion institute of technology thanks for being with us. you can see what she is tweeting out. c-sp c-spanbts if you want to see some of her work. this is c-span.org and multitude of opportunities on this site. you can watch livestreams of every minute of the debate, spin room sights and sounds, video on demand, and you can chose which camera feed to watch the debate from and you can easily create your own video clips of your favorite debate moment. that is all at c-span.org. >> thank you, peter. you can see one of the pictures available on the website is from the very first presidential debate in 1960, 56 years ago tonight this all began and changed the way modern campaigns have been conducted. let me tell you about what is coming up. we will be showing you the pre-debate briefing. the debate begins a little past 9 p.m. eastern. 90 minutes in length and following the debate we will show you as much of the room as the candidates are in there and interacting with the audience and then opening up our phone lines for your comments around the country and an opportunity to react on twitter. you can even send us a text. there is lots of ways to be involved. this is all about you tonight, folks. we would like to hear your reaction to tonight's first presidential debate. now we will take you live to the arena at hofstra for sights and sounds for just a couple moments until this debate gets underway (inaudible) &%c1 [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] >> ladies and gentlemen, if i can ask you to take your seats, please. >> if you take your seats, we have a schedule to stick to here. >> thank you. i am janet brown, executive director of the commission on public debate. i would like to welcome you to hofstra university. this is a historic event and b evening and we are very pleased you are all here. one year ago, hofstra was asked if they would agree to serve as the 2016 backup site and 68 days ago they were activated. when you look around this campus, and you think about all the work that has been done in the last ten weeks while starting a new academic year, it is absolutely phenomenal. this is the result of a fabulous team effort. the work started two years ago and involved an extroidinary amount of team work. there are many individuals that deserve thanks and we will introduce the co-chairs. frank farencof and mike mccurry. [applause] >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen, we want to join also in welcoming you here tonight. this is a special night for hofstra university. they do a tremendous job and they are setting a record tonight. this is the third consecutive cycle where they have hosted a presidential debate and they do a marvelous, marvelous job and we have very thankful for them. [applause] >> the commission of presidential debate was formed in 1987 when paul kirk was chairman of democratic national committee and i was chairman of the republican committee. this is the 20th election we have done and we are proud all of you could be here tonight. it would not be possible foodo what we do without the marvelous people who serve on the board. some are here tonight. i want to introduce them. john griffin, managing partner of alan and company who did a marvelous job washing working with the social media platform people. congresswoman jane harmon who runs the woodrow institute. great friend of mine, i have a couple grandkids that notre dame, father john jenkins. president of university of notre dame. go irish but it hasn't good a good start. and let me say about the format. we made changes four years ago. the 90 minutes has been broken into six 15 minute segments of time. lester holt will start each of the six segments by asking a question to one of the candidates. that candidate has two minutes to answer. the other candidate has two minutes to respond and answers and for the next 10-12 minutes we want the candidates to actually talk to each other, challenge each other on the issues. the moderator is there to make sure they drill down on the issues and we get answers rather than the old two minute thing we used to see in the old debates. only lester holt knows the questions that will be asked. the commission does not know. we have no control and neither do the candidates. i have to be the public scold and by all estimations there could be as many as a hundred million people watching around the world what happens on this stage tonight. and this debate is for them. for them to observe these candidates, listen to them, to consider what their position is on the issues and see them in this atmosphere we have here. it is not -- this debate is not for us. the lucky ones who get to sit in this audience and be part of history, really. this is a very historic debate tonig tonight. there is no clapping, cheering, booing or sound. you please be quiet. let's not interfere with what the hundred million people are doing in trying to exercise their democracy by listening to the people. you will get a chance to applaud when the two candidates come out and when it is over you get a chance to applaud. please, please, follow that. it is important to u and the candidates and we don't want anything disrupting these. we have done 20 and only on one or two occasions have we had a problem. paul kirk and i started this way back in 1987. when teddy kennedy died paul was named by it governor of massachusetts to fill teddy's seat until a special election was held and he had to step down as my co-chairman but we were lucky to have this gentlemen standing to my left. he is usually on my right. mike mccurry who did such a tremendous job as spokesman for the white house for president william jefferson clinton. mike? >> thank you, frank. [applause] >> our partnership is valuable and we work well. we are a non-partisan, non-profit organization and don't get funding from the government, political parties or public entities. we rely on a number of corporations, individuals and foundations that have been really generous in allowing us to put these debates on. i would like to list the names of our 2016 national sponsors: anheuser buscher, buffet foundation, aarp, and the national governerns association. would you join me in thanking them in the work they have done? in addition to putting on these debates, we have this time around incorporated a lot of social media aspects into some of what you will see here tonight. that is about a lot of partnerships we have developed with technology and social media companies and others. i encourage you to look that and see the ways we bring these educational aspects to a wider audience through the work we do with these partners. next thing, someone might wonder what the commission on presidential debate do when it isn't a presidential campaign year. we are proud of the work we do internationally. one thing we have done is lend expertise to other countries that are interested in sponsoring debates and they learn from our staff and people we send broad to help them with their function. you will see more information about that listed in your program. and then, finally, i would join with everyone who has complimented our friends at hofstra. we could not do this in the record time it took hofstra to put it together without leadership from the president of that institution. it is my pleasure to introduce the president of hofstra university: >> thank you. i have a very simple task which is to tell you who really is responsible for this event coming off in such a short period of time. even though i get the credit and was on the radio and television shows. first, i want to welcome you on behalf of the entire hofstra community. we have 11,000 current students and more than 134,000 alumni. we could not be prouder and more delighted to welcome you to the first presidential debate leading up to the november 8th election. about the thank you. i want to thank the commission on presidential debates first and foremost. the non-partisan commission for the honor they bestowed upon hofstra for hosting three events which are critical in our nation's history. secondly, i want to compliment the staff led by janet brown as the executive director. the staff of the cpd are among the most professional and most competent people with whom i have ever worked. they are. [applause] >> thirdly, i want to thank all of my hofstra colleagues who did all the hard work. as you heard, usually you have 12 months to prepare for a debate. we had eight weeks to prepare for a debate. the way we did it was all of our people worked from early morning to late at night seven days a week for those eight weeks. you don't know their names. i don't know their names. you don't know their names, you won't know their names, but i thank them the very, very bottom of my heart. i thank government officials. the commission won't go any place where they are not welcome and it is clear that for three consecutive debates they have been welcomed here by the state of new york, but the county of nassau, by the town of hemptsted and village of hempstead. and finally, i thank the many law enforcement agencies who work so well together, coordinate coordinated and planned one of the most difficult security events in modern times. thank you, law enforcement. [applause] >> i would like to ask you to join me in especially recognizing two generous supporters who helped hofstra in significant part fund the expenses of this debate. the first i am proud to say is our debate sponsor. he is a son, he is an alumnist of the university and he is currently the vice chair for the board of trustees. join me in thanking david s mack. [applause] >> secondly, i ask you to join me in recognizing now an ex-trustee also and a graduate of hofstra and former ceo of tantone, our debate benefactor, lawrence herbert. [applause] >> by the way, larry generously endowed the herbert school of communicationism thank you, larry. so a lot has changed -- communication. -- at hofstra between the debates of 2012 and the debates of 2016. if i were to mention them i would have to go to the podium. i am willing to have dinner or lunch with everybody who wants to know what happened. i want to mention two special things. one is we jus, a few months ago, opened the peter calico school of government, public policy and international relations. that school has been generously endowed by peter s calico who is also here. would you join me in welcoming peter. [applause] >> the point of the school and peter's motivation was to ensure that hofstra university retains its status as one of the most prestigius places to study the american presidency and this is just one example of the kind of program we have. the other thing i will mention about what happened recently in the university is we are formed or created a center for entrepreneurship. and they will benefit from their own resources but also from the resources of our law school, our business school, our school of engineering and applied science, and of course our very, very successful medical school. so, while we have made changes, one thing remains constant and that is we have some of the nations very brightest, most aleristic college students in america. you cannot spend time with these young people and feel pessim pessimis -- pessimistic about the future. there are 7500 students who signed up for the seats available to hofstra students in this debate hall tonight. 7500 out of 11,000 students. and i have to say that every single student, i say this with pride, hofstra pride, every student single student with a ticket and is sitting in this debate hall who is eligible to vote has already registered to vote and promises to vote in the november 8th election. [applause] that is why we to this. i will close by emphasizing again how proud the university is to play this very small part in our nation's history. thank you. [applause] >> i am going to add one logistical thing. right at 9:00 you will hear a a lot of noise from behind you. the networks go on the air at 9:00 so you will hear their introductions. don't worry they will get quiet in 2-3 minutes and then we will go forward. thank you very much. >> there is one additional piece of housekeeping and that is if you could please turn off your cell phones or pagers. no use of cellphones or photography while this is going on. if you could do that now, that would be great. i would like you to welcome milania trump and former president bill clinton. [applause] -- melania trump and former president bill clinton. [applause] >> if you could take your seats again. thank you very much. we are grateful this evening to have as moderator, lester holt, the anchor of nbc nightly news. you can welcome him now. >> thank you, janet. good evening. nice to see every seat is filled. there was some questions whether we would have enough interest for tonight but i guess we have taken care of that. good to see you ms. trump and mr. clinton. the sound you heard was the sound of my knees buckling when frank mentioned the potential audience of a million. as you can imagine this isn't an easy job. if you can please refrain from clapping, booing and reacting in any audible way it will make my job easier and the american public will appreciate it. we really want to hear what they have to say and i am happy to be the one facilitating that. what is going to follow is an awkward moment of silence. i will give you a one-minute warning when we come on the air. thank you for being here and i hope you enjoy the debate. [applause] ... [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] on. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]