Washington Bureau Chief of USA Today Susan Page is confident about how she chose to moderate the first vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Wednesday night.
Page told The Washington Post, “I felt good about how it went. I felt it was a relatively civil debate, and one that was focused on issues that mattered to voters.”
She received criticism following the debate for not being able to stop Harris and Pence from interrupting each other and for not asking follow up questions when they refused to answer questions.
Page defended her approach to moderating the debate during an interview with CNN’s John Berman.
“I think the goal of the moderator is to try, in my view, ask a narrow question in the hope of getting an answer. That was often less successful than I’d hope,” Page said.
She added, “And then let the candidates take it over and debate among themselves. It is a debate among them that I was trying to facilitate. People criticize me for that and fair enough, different approaches I guess, but that was the approach that I took.”
Check out her remarks below:
USA Today’s @SusanPage says the goal of her approach to moderating the VP debate was to “ask a narrow question in the hope of getting an answer.”
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) October 8, 2020
“That was often less successful than I hoped… It is a debate among them that I was trying to facilitate.” pic.twitter.com/iCXERdfgXW
Berman asked Page what lessons she took from how Fox News’ Chris Wallace moderated the first presidential debate.
She told Berman it made her a little more “aggressive,” and she opted to speak longer, in the beginning, to lay out the exact rules both campaigns agreed to.
Page explained she did her best to make sure both candidates had adequate time to speak.
“In the first 15 minutes or so, Mike Pence spoke much more often. He was really racking up more minutes than Kamala Harris,” Page said, adding, “In that case, I tried to adjust things to make sure that she had equal time and that required a little more activity on my part than I anticipated taking.”
During the debate, Page grew frustrated with the candidates and reminded them she was not the one who made the rules, as IJR previously reported.
“I did not create the rules for tonight. Your campaign’s agreed to the rules for tonight’s debate with the Commission on Presidential Debates. I’m here to enforce them,” Page said.