The third and final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will take place on October 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The debate will be moderated by NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker.
The first presidential debate took place on September 29, after which President Trump was criticized for interrupting Biden multiple times. The second debate was supposed to take place on October 15, but was suspended because Trump refused to participate in it. Because Trump tested positive for coronavirus, the Presidential Debate Committee decided that the second debate would take place virtually, but the Trump campaign refused to participate in the debate and Trump called the idea of a virtual debate “a waste of time. ”.
The Committee on Presidential Debates has also developed new rules for the third and final debate. The 90-minute debate will be divided into 15-minute segments. At the beginning of each new topic, each candidate will have two minutes of uninterrupted time during which the opponent’s microphone will be off. The rest of the time will be for open discussion for comments by both candidates on the statements of the other during which the microphones of both candidates will not be muted. As previously done, the moderator will ensure that both speakers are given approximately the same amount of time over the course of 90 minutes.
The debate is crucial for both Trump and Biden, as although Biden has a significant advantage in national polls, the gap between him and Trump is narrowing in battle states. As the coronavirus pandemic has changed candidates’ campaign style, the debates have become even more important than ever. Both campaigns have agreed to the uninterrupted rule of two minutes for debate.
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