When President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump face off in a debate on Thursday, they will be following a tradition that began in the United States over 60 years ago.
The first televised presidential debate occurred on September 26, 1960, when US Sen. John F. Kennedy debated Vice President Richard Nixon. It was a highly viewed broadcast, with over 66 million people tuning in out of a population of about 180 million.
“I don’t think it’s overstating the fact that, on that date, politics and television changed forever,” said Bruce DuMont, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and former president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. “After that debate, it was not just what you said in a campaign that was important, but how you looked saying it.”
Kennedy went on to win the election after participating in three more debates with Nixon. There were no debates until 1976, when they became a regular part of presidential campaigns.
The Biden-Trump debate will be moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. It will be held in the network’s Atlanta studios, with no live audience — a departure from typical presidential debates.
This debate will also be the earliest in US history. General election debates have historically started in September or early October.