2024 First Presidential Debate

A filmmaker is granted unprecedented access to a political candidate and his family as he runs for President.

A retrospective on the great election battles of the past in the United States: the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the first ever to be televised; the Republican campaign of 1972, which proved to be the starting point for the Watergate scandal; and the electoral strategy of Barack Obama in 2008, the first election to fully exploit the potential of the Internet.

Over one thousand people have been charged with storming the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, as part of a widely televised insurrection attempt. Approximately 15% of them worked as police or military personnel. This staggering statistic begs an important question: how can a service member who took an oath to protect the country’s democracy do something that puts that very democracy in jeopardy?

The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States took place on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, on the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It was the 59th inauguration and marked the commencement of the single term of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president.

A documentary exploring Lev Parnas' involvement in the Trump-Ukraine scandal that resulted in the former president's impeachment, detailing Parnas' unexpected entanglement with Trump and Giuliani, leading to his incarceration.

From the filmmakers of the critically-acclaimed blockbuster #UNFIT: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DONALD TRUMP, which grossed over $2.5 million, has been viewed by millions, and was nominated for the IDA Documentary Awards Video Source Award Director, producer, and writer Dan Partland and producer Art Horan are back with #UNTRUTH: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TRUMPISM examines the psychology of “Trumpism” and the authoritarian strain that it seeded in the American political landscape.

The first presidential debate between Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama took place on Friday, September 26, 2008, at University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. The debate was moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS. Although the debate was originally planned to focus on foreign policy and national security, Lehrer did devote the first half of the debate due to the ongoing 2008 financial crisis, a portion of the debate focused on economic issues.

The second presidential debate between Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama took place on Tuesday, October 7, 2008, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The debate was moderated by Tom Brokaw of NBC.

The third and final presidential debate between Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama took place on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, in the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. The debate was moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS. The focus was on domestic policy and the economy.

The only vice presidential debate between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden took place on Thursday, October 3, 2008, at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The debate was moderated by Gwen Ifill of PBS. It was the first such debate to feature a female candidate since the 1984 vice presidential debate. The debate was watched by about 70 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the most-watched vice presidential debate in history. It was only the second presidential or vice presidential debate to surpass 70 million viewers, the first being the 1980 presidential debate between Governor Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter, which drew nearly 81 million viewers.

According to the memorandum of understanding agreed to by both campaigns prior to the debate, and announced to the public prior to the start, both candidates would have no opening statement. There were six 15-minute segments, with the moderator introducing a topic and giving one candidate two minutes, the other candidate two minutes, and approximately 8 minutes and 45 seconds of facilitated discussion between the two candidates, with both candidates receiving approximately equal time. However, due to candidate responses extending beyond the limit, the last few segments were markedly shorter. Both candidates spoke in front of a lectern. Other than applause at the beginning and end of the debate, there was no audience participation.

CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) motion picture of the first presidential debate between Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon from CBS studios, Chicago, Illinois. During the debate, Senator Kennedy states, "I don't believe in big government, but I believe in effective governmental action." Each candidate makes an opening statement of eight minutes and a closing statement of three minutes.

The second presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy took place on Friday, October 7, 1960, at the WRC-TV studios in Washington, D.C.. Questions were related to internal American matters, foreign relations, economy, etc.

The third presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy took place on Thursday, October 13, 1960, were held virtually at the ABC studios in Los Angeles, California (for Nixon) and New York City, New York (for Kennedy). The debate was moderated by Bill Shadel of ABC with Frank McGee, Charles Van Fremd, Douglass Cater and Roscoe Drummond as panelists. To ensure fairness, the journalists (who were in Los Angeles) and Nixon were placed in separate studios. All participants addressed the camera directly, with Kennedy and Nixon both situated without aides in studios that Shadel described as "identical in every detail." A major topic of the debate was whether military force should be used to prevent Quemoy and Matsu, two island archipelagos off the Chinese coast, from falling under Communist control

The fourth and final presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy took place on Friday, October 21, 1960, at the ABC studios in New York City, New York. The debate was moderated by Quincy Howe of ABC with Frank Singiser, John Edwards, Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor as panelists. Questions were related to Foreign affairs.

The first presidential debate between President Gerald Ford and former Governor Jimmy Carter took place on Thursday, September 23, 1976, in the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The debate was moderated by Edwin Newman of NBC moderated the debate with a panel consisting of Elizabeth Drew, Frank Reynolds and James Gannon posed the questions to each candidate. This was the first presidential debate in 16 years. Eighty-one minutes into the broadcast of the 90 minute debate, the sound was lost and the debate was paused for 27 minutes before the problem was fixed and the debate could resume.

The second presidential debate between President Gerald Ford and former Governor Jimmy Carter took place on Wednesday, October 6, 1976, at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California. The debate was moderated by Pauline Frederick of NPR, who posed the questions for each candidate. The debate is infamous for President Ford's gaffe, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration."

The third and final presidential debate between President Gerald Ford and former Governor Jimmy Carter took place on Friday, October 22, 1976, in the Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The debate was moderated by Barbara Walters of ABC, who posed the questions for each candidate.

The first presidential debate took place on Sunday, September 21, 1980, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The three invitees were Carter, Anderson and Reagan, though Carter refused to attend due to the presence of Anderson. Following a strong performance by Reagan, Anderson's poll numbers began to drop. Consequently, Anderson would not be invited to the second debate.

The second presidential debate took place on Tuesday, October 28, 1980, at the Music Hall in Cleveland, Ohio. Carter and Reagan were the only invitees. Reagan's most notable moments include using the phrase "There you go again" and asking whether or not Americans were better off than they were four years ago. CNN attempted to include Anderson from the Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. CNN's Daniel Schorr read the same questions to Anderson. They then aired Anderson's live responses along with tape delay of Carter and Reagan's responses, despite technical difficulties.