Clinton-Trump Debate Moderators Are Chosen

Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper, and Chris Wallace will handle them
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 2, 2016 12:05 PM CDT
Clinton-Trump Debate Moderators Are Chosen
Lester Holt will be moderating the first presidential debate on Long Island.   (Jose Luis Villegas/The Sacramento Bee via AP, Pool, File)

The Commission on Presidential Debates is tasked with finding the folks who will moderate the upcoming word wars between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as well as between their respective VP picks. And the commission has spoken, per ABC News, naming NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt as the first debate's chair on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University on Long Island. (It's "another prestigious step" for Holt since he took over the NBC evening news slot from Brian Williams, the New York Times notes.) The second Clinton-Trump matchup—following more of a town-hall format at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9—will hand co-hosting duties to ABC News' Martha Raddatz and CNN's Anderson Cooper. Fox News host Chris Wallace will take on the third debate on Oct. 19 at Las Vegas' University of Nevada.

Meanwhile, CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano will keep Tim Kaine and Mike Pence in check at the VP debate scheduled for Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. The only commission-chosen debate veteran of the group: Raddatz, who moderated the Joe Biden-Paul Ryan VP debate in 2012. The Times notes the diversity of this year's picks with "an African-American, two women, including a Filipino [Ms. Quijano], and an openly gay man." (Will Trump like the choice of moderators more than the debate schedule?)

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