The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace as the moderators for the Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton debates.
NBC’s Holt will kick things off on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University. The next event is a vice presidential debate, moderated by CBS’ Elaine Quijano on Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.
CNN’s Cooper and ABC’s Raddatz will share the stage on Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis, and Fox News’ Chris Wallace gets the final duties on Oct. 19 at University of Nevada.
“These journalists bring extensive experience to the job of moderating, and understand the importance of using expanded time periods effectively,” co-chairs of the Commission on Presidential Debates Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. and Michael McCurry said in a statement.
The co-chairs continued: “The formats chosen for this year’s debates are designed to build on the formats introduced in 2012, which focused big blocks of time on major domestic and foreign topics. We are grateful for their willingness to moderate, and confident that the public will learn more about the candidates and the issues as a result.”
The selections represent a diverse group and NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox News are all represented. MSNBC was left out, but the left-leaning network is under the same umbrella as NBC News, so things appear to be fairly even. Wallace’s inclusion will mark the first time in the network’s nearly 20-year history that a Fox News anchor has moderated a presidential debate.
Trump, who has repeatedly said he will only participate if the moderators are fair, has known issues with any of the moderators who were chosen. Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who had been rumored to be among the finalists, did not get selected so we’ll never have the opportunity to find out if Trump would have approved of his one-time enemy moderating a debate.