Presidential debates set, moderators announced: Fox News, NBC, CNN and ABC anchors will grill Trump and Clinton

NBC News' Lester Holt is set to moderate the first 2016 presidential debate on September 26

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published September 2, 2016 1:59PM (EDT)

  (CNN)
(CNN)

The Commission on Presidential Debates released the date of three presidential debates this fall and announced the moderators on Friday.

The bipartisan commission came to a delayed agreement on NBC's Lester Holt, Fox News’s Chris Wallace, CNN's Anderson Cooper and ABC's Martha Raddatz -- all first-time presidential debate moderators.

Holt, the anchor of the “NBC Nightly News,” will moderate the first presidential debate, scheduled for September 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

According to the CPD, the debate will be divided into six segments of about 15 minutes each on major topics to be selected by the moderator and announced at least one week before the debate.

Cooper and Raddatz will co-moderate the second debate, which will be a town-hall style event in St. Louis, Missouri on October 9. Fox News' Wallace will moderate the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 19.

Elaine Quijana of CBS News will moderate the single vice presidential debate on October 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

In the vice presidential debate, the time will be divided into nine segments with about 10 minutes of discussion on each topic, and the moderator alone will determine the questions to be asked.

The debate commission has said it will only invite candidates to the debate who score above 15 percent in five national polls as of “mid-September.”


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

MORE FROM Sophia Tesfaye