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The CPD criteria for eligibility to participate in a debate is as follows: (1) participants must be constitutional eligible to become president; (2) participants must appear on enough ballots to potentially reach 270 electoral votes; and (3) candidates must have a minimum polling average of 15% in five selected national polls. Only Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump meet all three criteria so far.
The CPD debates take place at venues at university campuses around the United States. Moderators for the CPD debates were announced on September 2, 2016. Lester Holt was appointed moderator for the first debate. Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper are set to co-moderate the second debate, and Chris Wallace to moderate the third. Elaine Quijano is to moderate the vice-presidential debate.
The first debate took place on Monday, September 26, at New York's Hofstra University. It was moderated by Lester Holt of NBC News. The debate was originally scheduled to take place at Wright State University, but the venue was changed due to security and financial concerns. The debate was divided into six segments, each of approximately 15 minutes in length. The questions discussed during the 90 minutes were at the sole discretion of the moderator, and were not shared beforehand with the commission, nor with either candidate. Each candidate spoke in front of a podium. Aside from applause at the beginning and end of the debate, there was to be no audience applause allowed, but on several occasions the audience failed to honor this rule.
The segments were on the following issues: the economy and job creation, trade, the federal deficit, race relations and policing, the war on terror, the foreign policy of the United States, and each candidate's experience in the political and business realm.
According to the website FiveThirtyEight.com, a majority of respondents in every scientific poll concluded that in their opinion, Hillary Clinton performed better than Donald Trump in the debate. For example:
1. A CNN/ORC poll of those who watched the debate found that 62% thought Clinton won, while 27% thought Trump won. CNN acknowledged that the pool of persons who answered the poll leaned a bit more Democratic than the general population.
2. A poll conducted by Public Policy Polling found that 51% thought Clinton won the debate, while 40% thought Trump won.
3. A YouGov poll found that 57% of Americans thought that Clinton won the debate, while 30% declared Trump the winner.
4. A Politico/Morning Consult poll showed that 49% of likely voters thought that Clinton won the debate, while 26% thought that Trump won, and about the same percentage (25%) were undecided.
5. Echelon Insights polling showed that Clinton won the debate 48-22, and that the debate made 41% of respondents more likely to vote for Clinton while 29% were more likely to vote for Trump.
6. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 56% of Americans thought Clinton did better, while 26% thought Trump did.
7. An NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll shows that 52% of likely voters who followed the debate thought Clinton was the winner, with 21% choosing Trump and 26% saying that neither candidate won the debate.
8. A Gallup poll shows that more say Clinton than Trump did the better job, by 61% to 27%.
9. A Fox News poll shows that 61% of respondents thought that Clinton won the debate while 21% said Trump did.
10. An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 53% of respondents thought that Clinton won the debate while 18% said Trump did.
The performance of Lester Holt as moderator of the debate received mixed reactions. Holt's critics said that he did a poor job of keeping control of the debate, and that his repeated attempts to get the candidates to adhere to the time restrictions were ignored.
The debate set the record as the most-watched debate in American history, with 84 million viewers across the 13 channels that carried it live and were counted by Nielsen. It broke the previous record of 80.6 million viewers set by the debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980. These numbers do not include those who watched the debates online or who watched the debate at mass gatherings such as parties, bars, restaurants, and offices.
The candidates launched a number of attacks at one another during the debate. Clinton attacked Trump with accusations of "engaging in racist behavior", adding that "the birther lie was a very hurtful one." Clinton also accused Trump of "stiffing thousands of contractors by declaring bankruptcy" as a businessman. In her closing argument, she talked about Trump's record of sexism, stating that he had called women pigs and slobs and, in one case, called a beauty contest Miss Housekeeping "because she was Latina". Trump attacked Clinton’s suitability as president by stating, "She doesn’t have the look and she doesn’t have the stamina". He said, "I've been all over the place. You decided to stay home." In response to this comment, Clinton replied, "I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And yes I did. You know what else I did? I prepared to be president."
If you missed the debate, here is a video of the entire debate:
The Vice presidential debate will take place on Tuesday, October 4 at Virginia's Longwood University, moderated by Elaine Quijano of CBS. The debate will consist of nine segments, each 10 minutes in length. The moderator will ask an opening question and each candidate will have two minutes to respond, with the remaining time to be used for a deeper discussion of the topic.
The second presidential debate will take place on Sunday, October 9 and will be conducted in a "town meeting" format. Gallup Organization will select "uncommitted voters" to attend. Members of the public are able to create or vote for questions to be posed at the debate at Presidential Open Questions, although the moderators will have discretion on whether to accept them. Candidates will have two minutes to respond and there will be an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate further discussion. A similar format will be used for the third presidential debate, held on October 19, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada, moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News.