1. What topics did the Commission on Presidential Debates choose for the final debate?

2. What topic did the Trump campaign say had been agreed upon for this debate?

3. How did the Commission respond to the campaign’s letter?

4. How did Joe Biden’s campaign respond?

5. Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien wrote Monday in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates that the debate “was always billed as the ‘Foreign Policy Debate'” as was “agreed to by both the Trump campaign and Biden campaign many months ago.”
Read the letter Mr. Sepien sent to the Commission.
Do you think he makes valid points or is unreasonable? Explain your answer.

6. Read the “Background” below the questions.
a) What do you think? Are the moderators biased in favor of Joe Biden? Explain your answer.
b) The suggestion was made that there should be 2 moderators for every presidential debate. The Republican gets to pick the moderator who asks the Democratic candidate questions and the Democrat gets to pick the moderator who asks the Republican candidate questions. What do you think?
c) Ask a parent a) and b). Compare your answers.

7. What do you think the purpose of a political debate is / should be?

QUESTIONS FOR Thursday night’s DEBATE:

• Read over all questions BEFORE watching the debate.
• While watching the debate, answer #1-5 below.

1. List a question moderator Kristen Welker asked on each of the six topics in the debate:

• Fighting COVID-19
• American Families
• Race in America
• Climate Change
• National Security
• Leadership

2. What do you think of each candidate's initial answer?

3. A debate moderator’s role is to act as a neutral participant, to hold participants to time limits and to try to keep them from straying off the topic of the questions being raised in the debate. Do you think Kristen Welker fulfilled this role? Explain your answer.

4. a) Do you think the topics chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates helped viewers understand the candidates’ positions on the issues? Explain your answer.
b) Do you think the questions asked by the moderator on each topic helped viewers understand the candidates’ positions on the issues? Explain your answer.

5. Do you think the moderator’s questions were fair to each candidate? Explain your answer.

6. a) What do you think was President Trump’s best or worst line or answer? Explain your answer.
b) What do you think was Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s best or worst line answer? Explain your answer.