With more decisions handed down at 10 00 a. M. We will begin on tonights president ial debate, the first of two scheduled between joe biden and donald trump. 130 days to go until election, it is the earliest televised debate in the history of president ial elections. It has been nearly four years since the first 40 years since the first televised debate. We would like to know if they still matter. Republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. You can also send us a text, 202 7488003. If you do, include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on social media, on x at cspanwj and facebook. Com cspan. Good thursday morning. You can start calling in now. Headlines on tonights president ial debate, this from the front page of usa today. Opportunity and risk, they write that biden is aiming to change the narrative regarding his age and donald trump will be playing offense and defense. From usa today to the wall street journal, daniel henan injure has the byline on it, and he writes, it is not even going to be two guys on barstools at your local watering hole. Debate on policy issues is what most voters would like to see, but they are unlikely to get any viewers and they will probably be disappointed if they dont get a cage match, no matter how much microphone muting cnn moderators impose, referencing the debate rules tonight. Here they are, released by cnn earlier. It is a 90minute debate with two commercial breaks throughout. There are no prompts or prewritten notes aud. Candidat will be given a pen, pad of paper, and a bottle of water. Potions will be determined by a coin flip and microphones will be muted unless it is the candidates turn to speak. There is no live studio audience and moderators will use all the tools at their disposal to enforce timing and ensure a civilized discussion and cnn is hosting that debate tonight. It begins this evening at 9 00 p. M. Eastern time and you will also be able to simulcas it on cspan2 and the free cspan mobile app. A remier, we will have a preview of the debate on cspan two, 8 00 p. M. Eastern, and also reaction and your phone calls to tonights president ial debate, 10 40 p. M. Eastern, that is happening tonight and this morning on washington journal, do president ial debate still matter . Asking you 64 years after the first president ial debate took place, back in 1960. It was Richard Nixon and john kennedy. Here is one minutes of that debate. [video clip] the Vice President has said you were naive and at times immature. On this issue, why do you think people should vote for you rather than the Vice President . The Vice President and i came to the congress together, 1946, i have been there now for 14 years, so that our experience in government is comparable. Secondly, i think the question is, what are the programs we advocate . I come out of the Democratic Party, which in this century, has produced Woodrow Wilson and harry truman, and which has sustained these programs, which i have discussed tonight. Mr. Nixon comes out of the Republican Party, nominated, and it is a fact that most of the 25 years, Republican Leadership has opposed federal aid for education, medical care for the agents, development of the tennessee valley, natural resources. I think mr. Nixon is an effective leader of this party and i hope you would grant me the same. The question is, which point of view and which party do we want to lead the United States . Mr. Nixon, would you like to comment . I have no comment. [end video clip] host john kennedy and Richard Nixon in a debate that many people in that era and aris looking back on that debate said mattered very much. Do president ial debates still matter today in 2024 . 202 7488001 for republicans. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. Having this conversation in the first 90 minutes, a reminder that the house comes in at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, so it is a two hour show. A shorter program because we will take you to the house, gavel to gavel at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. We start in pennsylvania, do debates still matter . Caller in my opinion, absolutely, president ial debates do matter. Im excited to watch tonights debate. That being said, i do have concerns. Anyone paying attention to politics the past nine years, regardless of their political stance, have to admit the Mainstream Media [indiscernible] especially cnn, but not to see some of the criticism over the years hasnt been deserved, but a lot of it was. I have no problem with media and their perspective, but i wish they would not insult viewer intelligence by claiming not to be objective when they clearly are. I truly wish it was cspan hosting the debate tonight. You are by far the only ones these days capable of moderating a truly unbiased debate between these two. Host what do you think about the changes of microphone muting and the no Live Audience . Is that a good thing . Caller i have mixed feelings, the microphone muting, i think in my opinion will benefit President Trump, not to say that some of those times in past debates were cut off of the opponent were not merited, but i feel like a lot of people, especially if they are not decided that they will vote for President Trump, i feel like that turns a lot of independents off, the constant bickering and back and forth. Host you think it will help President Trump. What do you think it means for President Biden . Caller i think the thing that would help President Trump would be negative for President Biden, but i wish there was a Live Audience because i love hearing realtime reaction. Overall, as locker as long as they do their best to be unbiased, i think it will be a good debate all around. Host the debate is on cnn at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, simulcasting it on cspan2. You can stay on cspan2 for the postdebate show, as all. Taking your phone calls this morning, do president ial debates still matter . Steve, azeri, independent. Caller as far as the debate goes, [indiscernible] people have already made up their minds. Trump is a felon. I think he ought to be disqualified just for that. We need more parties, we need a good independent party in this country, and i just think it will be a waste of time. Thank you, cspan. Host a waste of time that you will spend time watching or no . I think we lost steve. This is jack, virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would say im moderate bentley more to the republican side. [indiscernible] host i think we lost jack, so, laura, brooklyn, go ahead. Caller yes. I think the debates are necessary. I hope that joe biden talks about the conspiracy theory, especially with all of the criminal charges against donald trump, and, republicans, remember, the charges are not against you, they are against donald trump, financial fraud, insurance flood, tax fraud insurance fraud, and tax fraud in new york state, and withholding of documents that were illegal. Host laura, when you talk about the conspiracy theories, you would like them to be talked about in the debate . Caller caller caller i think the democrats and joe biden have allowed too many conspiracy theories to be out here for trump people to believe. They have not done enough to, you know, let the troops be out there. It is obvious that the maga republicans do not do Academic Research. They dont even believe in Academic Research, but those conspiracy theories cannot even be submitted in the College Essay or any kind of Academic Research report because they are lies and not true. I just wish that biden, the democrats had done more to direct people to the truth and where to look for the truth. Host that is laura in brooklyn. Asking you this morning of president ial debates still matter, it is a good bet that tens of millions of americans will be watching tonights debate. Exactly how many is up in the air, but heres a list of the mostwatched president ial debate in history. At 84 Million Viewers, itas the first debate between Hillary Clinton and donald trump back in 2016, e mostwatched president ial debate, following up in 1980, president jimmy carter and Ronald Reagan with 81 Million Viewers that year and 2020, the last time joe biden and donald trump facebook in their first debate, they received 70 million eyeballs and it fell off steeply after that, with 63 million, the fourth mostwatched of all time, president bush, will clinton, and ross perot, their second debate back in 1992, 70 Million Viewers and 70 Million Viewers in 1976, president gerald ford and jimmy carter in their first residential debate, the mostwatched in u. S. History. We will see how many eyeballs to get tonight and asking you, do the debate still matter . Alice, chicago, independent. Good morning. Caller im wondering, it seems unfair that both of the debates by liberal media shouldnt there be one liberal and one conservative . Host it is cnn and fox. Do you think foxs liberal . Caller i thought it was cnn and abc yeah, cnn and abc, are you saying 1 host yes, i apologize, and abc. Who would you trust to host the debate . Caller well, one liberal and one conservative, somebody from fox or have the people doing the interviews on the debates, have two of them, have one be liberal and one conservative. Host do the hosts matter to you . Caller oh, yes. I read not long ago when somebody was interviewing joe biden that he had been given the questions prior to the interview, and the interviewer could not go anywhere away from those questions, they had to be the exact same questions. Host where did you read that . Caller actually, i read that on the internet. I dont know if it is true, but it sounds like it would be true, given that he seems to have a little bit of dementia, and this is the kind of thing that he would like. Im wondering if that is going to happen with the debates. It definitely should be one liberal and one conservative. Host cnn tonight and abc on september 10 is the second president ial debate. The National Conventions for republicans and democrats, this debate actually coming before the candidates are officially named as the nominees at those conventions. It is the earliest president ial televised debate in history. Good morning. Caller yes, they are very important, i think. Before you came on this morning, i turned it cnn, and i can tell, it is going to be a joke tonight because they are already lying. They created videos that had been debunked in the video said, had trump on january 6 that he told the people to go to the capital and fight like help capitol and fight like hell, and that is not what trump said. Im surprised that they play that video. Host how much do you think january 6 will factor in tonights president ial debate . Caller im sure that they will bring it up, but i dont think it is going to matter to the people. If they had followed january 6 and how all of the happened and there is more yet to come on that. So im just waiting. Im excited about watching it tonight and i dont even believe that it will be the real joe biden. I think the technology is so great now that they could make a mess and a good look exactly like the person. Host susan, former President Trump would be on stage with joe biden tonight. You are saying if they used ai, wouldnt he notice . Caller would he notice . Yeah, i believe everybody is going to notice that something is not right. I mean, look at the state of the union address. You could clearly tell that biden was hopped up on something because i have watched joe biden when he has had fundraisers, and joe biden is not the kind of person. No. Host that is season in south carolina. On the issues that will be talked about tonight, the questions and subject matter, it is former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich washing in todays Washington Times calling for the American People president ial debate. A portion will clearly be the most contentious issue abortion clearly be the most contentious issue in tonights debate, only 16. 7 ranked abortion as their top issue. That top choice was inflation and rising costs, and then 21. 8 were worried about Border Security and 21 were worried about jobs and economic growth. Abortion, he writes get a lot of issue from the media. Economic issues on the border crisis matter more to most americans. It will be interesting to see if the moderators and candidates talk about establishment washington political topics or discuss what matters most to americans. That is new to gringo writing into that is Newt Gingrich writing in todays Washington Post the Supreme Court ruling on that idaho Washington Post. The Supreme Court ruling on that idaho case, and they had a brief post yesterday but it was taken down about the idaho Abortion Case. The New York Times writes that the Supreme Court seems poised to temporarily allow emergency abortions in idaho when a Womans Health is at risk, according to a copy of what appeared to be the opinion that showed up recently on their website on wednesday. Unsigned opinion is on procedural grounds, stating that the court would now not address the merits of the issue, and his spokeswoman for the court said it is a decision in the joint cases, including the idaho case, that would eventually be released by the courts. Today is another decision day, 10 00 a. M. Eastern is when we will see those opinions handed down. We will find out very quickly what opinions come today. This is mike in huntington, indiana, good morning. Independent. Caller good morning. I will tell you, i dont think it will make any difference because this country has lost its way. There is no way that we can make it better because theres no common sense. I mean, the border, for instance, how many people can they vent in a month. They should not let anybody over until they have caught up. Host thou smite in indiana. Harold and ohio, good morning. You are next. Caller yes. I got two questions for donald trump. One is, how do you plan to reduce inflation . Two, name me three things he would do in his health care plan. Host do you think you will get answers to those questions tonight . Caller no, i dont because he doesnt have one, and to reduce inflation, you have got to reduce need, so whenever supply is less than demand, you will have inflation. Donald trump does not know how to reduce inflation. He does not know how to reduce it because he is all for the big man. That is my statement. Host florida, phil is next. Caller good morning. Can you hear me ok . Host yes sir. Caller thank you. I was hoping that you could give us a little history on the change from when the league of union voters, who used to hook the debate, they were giving way to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, joining together to form a private corporation, which takes control of the president ial debates. I believe that happened after the debates in 1992, when an independent was joining the republican and the democrat ross perot, and he was getting 20 of the vote were truly concerned which helps the democrat and democrat host the president ial debate is what you are referring to . That started in 1988 was the first one. Caller oh, because i thought the league of women voters traditionally, there were like the independent nonpartisan, and this has been brought up by a number of callers this morning that as far as he was during the debates host they are not doing it this time. Theyre working directly with cnn and abc in the september 10 debate on abc, to coordinate these and come up with the rules. Caller i misspoke then, but i think the issue would like to get at is there was a time when the league of women voters were doing these debates, and there was a time when going outside of the traditional mccright Republican Party actually had an independent on the stage, and we are only drinking pepsi and coke, as they say, and you hear the term unity party uni party more and more these days, tweedledee, tweedledum, and i think more americans are feeling that way, and i was hoping that we could talk more about what it used to be. Remember, they used to be exit polls, you know, before all these questions, the vote counting and all of that, they stopped doing exit polls because that was a more realistic measure of who is actually getting the most votes. I remember one more thing, in 2000, when they had the questioning of paper ballots, you had private corporations, dominion and all of them, that was introduced, like a problem and reaction solution almost. It would nice to have somebody spend some time on when things changed. Host Pew Research Service has the history of president ial debates, thats what you originally asked about. The first debates in 1960 through 1988, that matchup between george w. Bush and michael dukakis, the candidates answered questions from a panel of journalists during the moderators job was mostly to explain and enforce ground rules and keep proceedings moving. In the 1980s, the panel format was in trouble, saying that it resembled a joint press conference more than a debate and that the Journalist Panel to too much attention away from the candidates. The league of women voters, which organized several debates through in the towel, leaving the job t