Biden and Trump canceled the debate commission. What does this mean for voters? | US Election News 2024

Again and again he reached for his handkerchief, dabbing a face that glowed under the hot lights of the television.

Richard Nixon left America's first televised presidential debate in 1960 facing a barrage of criticism: His performance was too sly, too sweaty. After that race, he and the other presidential candidates would refuse to participate in another debate for the next 16 years.

But in the 1980s, an organization was created to push Republicans and Democrats to participate: the Commission on Presidential Debates. He would orchestrate the debates of the next three decades.

That streak ended this year, when the candidates took matters into their own hands. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump bypassed the commission for the first time in their history, instead negotiating with television networks to host the proceedings.

On Thursday night, as the two candidates face off, viewers may not notice a major difference in the format. But behind the scenes, experts say there has been a shift in power from outside management to control of candidates.

Senator John F. Kennedy debated Vice President Richard Nixon four times on television in 1960. [John F Kennedy Library Foundation and US National Archives/Reuters, handout]
A story of change of control

However, the televised debates have changed hands several times over their decades-long history.

In 1960, when Nixon participated in the first televised debates with John F. Kennedy, the eventual winner of that year's race, the television studios were in charge and there was no audience.

It all started with the television networks, says Alan Schroeder, professor emeritus of journalism at Northeastern University and author of a book on the history of presidential debates. They took turns broadcasting the debates, and this was the only time this was done.

But after 1960, public debates stopped. It wasn't until 1976 that they took over, largely under the auspices of the League of Women Voters, a nonprofit organization that grew out of the women's suffrage movement.

But they had a hard time negotiating with the candidates, Schroeder said. The candidates were very demanding and made it very difficult for the sponsors.

This paved the way for the emergence of a new entity. In 1987, the two major political parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans, announced the joint creation of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

It was envisioned as a bipartisan body to host debates. But even then, critics questioned whether the change would give more power to major party candidates.

“I think they're trying to steal the debates from American voters,” Nancy Neuman, then president of the League of Women Voters, told the New York Times after the announcement.

The commission also marked a shift from nonpartisan to bipartisan leadership, raising concerns that third-party candidates would be excluded from debates.

It took control of the presidential debates precisely because the League was independent, precisely because this women's organization had the courage to stand up to the candidates that the major parties had nominated, George Farah, the author of No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates, told the Guardian in 2012.

Protesters demonstrate outside the CNN offices in Burbank, California, June 21, after third-party candidate Robert F Kennedy failed to make the cut in the first presidential debate. [Mike Blake/Reuters]
How Trump Changed the Game

But the Commission has historically positioned itself as a proxy for the American people.

In an interview last month with The Daily Show, commission co-founder and co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf said the group's role is to be at the center of public concern.

This characterization has also been called into question, especially since a new, unconventional candidate began to reshape the political sphere: Trump.

The power shift began in 2016, when then-candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off. Their first matchup was the most-watched debate in the event's history, drawing 84 million viewers.

But Trump denounced the debates as biased and suggested he might ignore them in the future.

He reiterated these criticisms in 2020, when he was up for re-election as incumbent president. The first debate that year was chaotic. Trump repeatedly interrupted candidate Joe Biden, leading the Democrat to say, “Will you shut up, man?” »

Four years ago, these debates were a disaster, said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. She described the 2020 debates as a turning point and an embarrassment.

It was out of control. The format was out of control, Kamarck said. The commission really could no longer keep control of this matter.

This election cycle threatens to repeat itself: Trump and Biden are expected to be their parties' respective nominees again, and last November the commission released its usual schedule of debate dates.

But then the campaigns began pushing for more oversight. Trump’s team, in particular, called the commission’s timing unacceptable. It argued that the debates should take place before early voting begins in September.

The presidential debate committee schedule does not begin until after millions of Americans have already voted, the Trump campaign said in a statement.

He also warned: “We are committed to making this happen with or without the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Pundits described Joe Biden and Donald Trump's previous 2020 debates as chaotic. [File: Morry Gash/Reuters, pool]
Debate on their own terms

Finally, in May, Biden announced that he had accepted a debate invitation from CNN and challenged Trump to do the same. Trump accepted. The commission was shut out of the process entirely.

But Kamarck said the public exchanges were the result of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the rival campaigns. Biden's team, for example, has called for third-party candidates to be excluded and no public involvement.

The two political campaigns negotiated with each other and presented the debate format to television networks, Kamarck said. CNN didn't start this, it just put it together.

Kamarck pointed out that Trump's opposition to the originally planned debates was likely a deciding factor.

“It was mostly Trump,” Kamarck said. “At first, he didn’t want to debate, and then I think he realized it was a little too close not to debate. And because he’s a narcissist, he decides, ‘Well, once they see me, they’ll like me.’”

Yet participating in debates carries risks. Unlike rallies, advertisements or social media posts, debates are not something candidates can choreograph, Schroeder said.

“It's something that's completely out of their control. So I think the campaigns and the candidates have always thought that they would prefer not to have debates, period, or to have them on their own terms,” ​​he said.

Schroeder added that candidates may perceive, rightly or wrongly, that there is an advantage to dealing with the television networks, as opposed to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

They wanted to be able to make their own deals, make their own decisions about things like the format and who would ask the questions, he said. I guess they're probably making life difficult for CNN.

The first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle will take place on June 27, a historically early date. [Megan Varner/Reuters]
What does this change mean for voters?

Thursday night's CNN debate will not feature a studio audience and candidates' microphones will be muted when it is not their turn to speak, under conditions agreed in advance by both campaigns.

But Kamarck noted that the commission also chose to mute the candidates' microphones during the second debate of 2020. According to her, there will not be much significantly different.

Your average voter won't know the difference between something that was negotiated by the commission and between the candidates, she said.

But the changes could still have an effect on public perception, as Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, explains. She participated in a debate reform task force that offered recommendations to both campaigns.

His group suggested that a live studio audience should not be part of the debate structure: after all, audience reactions can prejudge the response of viewers at home.

Previously, the financial model of the Commission on Presidential Debates was one of the reasons a live audience was invited to the debates, according to Jamieson. Universities would bid to host the debates, and major sponsors and financial donors could have access to seats in the audience.

The process by which the commission organized and funded the debates was problematic because the public could not be counted on to remain silent throughout the debate, Jamieson said.

The added problem is that you've seen candidates try to game the system by placing people in the audience who might embarrass the opposing candidate.

CNN's financial model, on the other hand, does not rely on donations. As a for-profit company, it relies instead on advertising and subscriptions.

“The debates were never seen as a way to make money, and unfortunately this is a big money-making opportunity for CNN,” Schroeder said. “I’m sure they’ll charge a lot more than their usual rates for advertising because the audience will be much, much larger. So I think that’s problematic.”

The same goes for any broadcaster, he added. They're businesses, they're organizations that make money. And I think their goal is not necessarily to enlighten voters, but to have a good television show. That's a big difference.

Even though the debates are back in the hands of the television networks, Schroeder notes that the media environment has completely changed since 1960. Social media has increased the pressure on the candidates.

Now you get real-time reactions, and people are reacting to the debate as it's happening and posting their reactions, he said.

Now, millions of eyes are on them, waiting for a misstep, a mistake, an insult, or a moment that can ignite social media and direct media coverage.

But Jamieson is optimistic about the changes happening behind the scenes.

They are returning to the traditional, studio format that began [televised] presidential debates in 1960, Jamieson said. It worked well in 1960. It should work well again.

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