Presidential debate organizers make adjustments to meet pandemic challenges

Like many of the big public events planned for 2020, this year’s presidential debates have been forced to meet the historic challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

That’s according to the co-chairs of the Commission on Presidential Debates, all three of whom discussed what Americans can expect this year at a virtual National Press Club Headliners Newsmaker Sept. 1.

“It’s very, very clear that the coronavirus has thrown us a curveball, as it has almost everyone else in every walk of life,” commission co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. said. “It’s a different world that we’re walking into, but we’re as prepared as we can be given the circumstances.”

To date, these adjustments have included changing the debate’s venues. Although the first was initially scheduled to take place on Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame, the college withdrew due to the complexities surrounding COVID-19.

Now, the first debate will take place at the Health Education Campus shared by Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, the latter of which has been integral in helping the commission move forward with the three presidential and single vice-presidential debates.

“We’re really going to have to listen to the Cleveland Clinic,” Fahrenkopf said.  “We’re going to have some changes to what we’ve done in the past.”

For starters, that will include following the social distancing guidelines laid out by the clinic. 

“The size of the audience will be considerably smaller than it has been in the past,” co-chair Kenneth Wollack said. 

Format for town hall debate 'fluid'

But that takes a backseat to what will likely be a larger overhaul for one format that viewers have come to expect: the town hall debate. 

Traditionally, the second debate has included dozens of spectators seated in bleachers, with a select few stepping up to present their questions to the candidates. 

This year, the commission will have to figure out a responsible way to get that same atmosphere across to television viewers. 

That plan is still “fluid,” Fahrenkopf said.

But for everything that will look and feel different this year, co-chair Dorothy Ridings was quick to point out that there will be plenty of things that will remain the same, not the least of which is the controversy that pops up every four years over who will and who will not be allowed to participate on stage.

“You can’t have everyone who runs for president in a debate,” Ridings said. “We’re talking about thousands of people who’ve filed candidacy declarations.”

Ridings is the former head of the League of Women Voters, the organization that hosted the debates before the commission formally took over in 1988. Following in the league’s footsteps, the commission laid out an ever-evolving series of guidelines over who can and cannot appear at the events. 

The commission only invites candidates polling at least 15%, which excludes almost all third-party candidates.

“That’s been a problem and always will be,” Ridings said, noting that the commission has faced plenty of unsuccessful lawsuits since that rule went into place in 1980.

Fact-checking left to media

The co-chairs also emphasized that this year’s debates will ignore demands for live, on-camera fact-checking.

Fahrenkopf stressed that it should be left to the press. 

“It’s not our job to be the fact-checker,” Fahrenkopf said. “It’s our job to put on the debate with the candidates, be fair, balanced, and not take sides and then let the American people make a decision.”

The day after the Club Newsmaker, the co-chairs announced the moderators for each debate.