How the Biden-Trump debate will play on TV
Chris Wallace does not hold mock debates. Instead, the “Fox News Sunday” anchor and presidential debate moderator has been honing his questions at his weekend home on Chesapeake Bay, before he flies to Cleveland to take charge of the opening bout between Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.
Tonight’s debate, which airs on every major network, is likely to attract a television and livestreaming audience of close to 100 million for the kind of civic gathering increasingly rare in a polarized, pandemicstricken age.
A fragmented news media means that many voters will consume the BidenTrump clash through a preferred, possibly biased lens, be it partisan cable news stations, custom-tailored socialmedia feeds or online outlets that cater to ideological tribes.
But the few- frills format of tonight’s debate — two candidates, two lecterns, one moderator — is a break from highly produced events, like virtual conventions and overloaded primary debates, that have otherwise defined the major television moments of the 2020 presidential race.
The CommissiononPresidential Debates, a bipartisan nonprofit group, controls the look and feel of tonight’s event, which is designed to evoke a more retro era of political combat. Because of social distancing, barely 100 people are expected to attend in person. Each candidate has two minutes to respond to a question, a Tolstoyan span by rapid-fire TV news standards.
Wallace, who won rave reviews in 2016 for his stewardship
of the third debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton, is now in the catbird seat: The opening round typically attracts the largest audience of the campaign.
The Fox News anchor will also face intense scrutiny on how he handles the evening, particularly given Trump’s tendency to hurl false and baseless claims at his opponents.
“My job is to be as invisible as possible,” Wallace, who has declined outside interviews ahead of his appearance, said during a Fox News segment on Sunday. “I’mtrying to get them to engage, to focus on the key issues, to give people at home a sense of, ‘ why I want to vote for one versus the other.’”
That sink-into-the-background approach extends to fact- checking, which Wallace has regularly argued is outside the purview of a debate moderator, calling it “a step too far.”
“I do not believe it is my job to be a truth squad,” Wallace said in the run-up to his 2016 debate. “It’s up to the other person to catch them on that.”