Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden face off on Tuesday (September 29) in a televised presidential debate, part of a 60-year-old tradition marked by some of the most memorable moments of modern US political history.
The first televised debate, in 1960, pitted Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy against Republican Vice President Richard Nixon, who was recovering from a hospital visit and had a 5 o’clock shadow, having refused makeup. The 70 million viewers focused on what they saw, not what they heard. Kennedy won the election.
In 1976, the first TV debate in 16 years, Democrat Jimmy Carter faced unelected incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford. In remarks seen as a major blunder, Ford said: “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.” Carter won the election.
Another memorable moment…