First presidential debate to be held Tuesday night

The first of the 2020 presidential debates will be held Tuesday evening at Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland.

Chris Wallace of Fox News will moderate the debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Topics listed for discussion, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates, include: “The Trump and Biden Records,” “The Supreme Court,” “COVID-19,” “The Economy,” “Race and Violence in our Cities,” and “The Integrity of the Election.”

The Supreme Court will be of particular interest, coming off Saturday’s Supreme Court nomination by President Trump. The president and Republican Senate have argued the nominee should be confirmed before the election while Democrats say it should wait until after the presidential inauguration in January.

The second presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 15 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. Steve Scully of C-SPAN will moderate. And the third debate between Trump and Biden will be held Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. It will be moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News.

The one debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris will be held Oct. 7 at The University of Utah in Salt Lake City. It will be moderated by Susan Page of USA Today.

All debates will begin at 8 p.m. CST and continue without commercial interruption for 90 minutes.

Some have argued the debates should not take place this year due to COVID-19 or political reasons. We disagree on both counts. There are ample precautions in place to protect those involved, and politics should never be a reason to cancel.

Presidential debates are important in a national campaign. It allows the electorate to hear directly from the candidates, contrasting the substance of their policy positions. If anything, the debates should be expanded, possibly in the form of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, which featured seven debates between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas. But at a minimum, we should continue the tradition of three presidential and one vice presidential debates. It’s an important and necessary part of the electoral process.