Trump and Harris spar over muting debate microphones

 The debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the predominant applicants within the 2020 United States presidential election, were backed with the aid of the Commission on Presidential Debates. There had been 3 to start with planned scheduled debates. The first debate passed off on September 29, 2020. The next debate become scheduled to take region on October 15 however became later canceled due to Trump's COVID-19 prognosis and refusal to seem remotely in preference to in man or woman. As a result, 2020 had the fewest debates for the reason that 1996. The very last debate befell on October 22. Additionally, a debate between the vice presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris came about on October 7.

On October 11, 2019, the Commission on Presidential Debates CPD announced that it might host 3 presidential debates and one vice presidential debate.

In 2019, Trump claimed that the 2016 debates have been biased, and suggested that he might not take part in further CPD-hosted debates. In December 2019, Frank J. Farrenkopf Jr., the co-chairman of the CPD, met with Brad Pascale, Trump's campaign chairman, to discuss Trump's comments. Farrenkopf said "the president desired to debate, however they'd concerns about whether or not or now not to do it with the fee While Trump did no longer press the problem similarly publicly, in June 2020, he requested additional debates to the conventional three, which Biden's marketing campaign declined. At the give up of June, representatives of the Biden marketing campaign showed that that they had agreed to the original schedule.

The Trump marketing campaign submitted a request to the CPD to move the scheduled debates up inside the calendar, or to add a fourth debate in terms of mail-in balloting; the request become declined in August 2020.[10] Later that month, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi advised that Biden should bypass the debates, claiming that Trump will "in all likelihood act in a way this is beneath

the honor of the presidency. Biden replied by using stating that he would cross in advance and participate to "be a truth-checker at the ground even as debating TrumpIn order to qualify for the debates backed by using the CPD, presidential candidates needed to meet the subsequent criteria; vice-presidential candidates qualify via being the strolling mate of a qualifying presidential candidate:

Be constitutionally eligible to hold the presidency.

Appear on a enough number of ballots to have a mathematical opportunity of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College.

In theory, this indicates a candidate ought to win the election despite now not assembly this criterion and subsequently now not qualifying for the debates, as a candidate can win the election despite having a minority vote in the Electoral College. In practice, this has only came about once.

Have a degree of support of at the least 15% of the national citizens as determined with the aid of 5 countrywide public opinion polling groups decided on with the aid of the fee, using the average of those businesses' maximum recently suggested effects on the time of willpower. The five polls were chosen with the recommendation of Frank Newport of Gallup, based on how Newport and the fee perceived these criteria:

The dependable frequency of polling and pattern length utilized by the polling organisation.

The soundness of the survey method hired by means of the polling agency.

The durability and popularity of the polling company.

The five polls were:

ABC/The Washington Post Poll

CNN Poll

Fox News Poll

NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll

NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll