Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center To Host Presidential Debate

MIAMI, FL — Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts has been selected to host the second presidential debate after the University of Michigan bowed out amid concerns over the coronavirus.

The Commission on Presidential Debates made the announcement Tuesday for the debate scheduled to take place on Oct. 15 at the Crisler Center on the University of Michigan's athletics campus.

“Given the scale and complexity of the work we are undertaking to help assure a safe and healthy fall for our students, faculty and staff and limited visitors, and in consideration of the public health guidelines in our state as well as advice from our own experts, we feel it is not feasible for us to safely host the presidential debate as planned," University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel said in a letter to debate officials.

The change in venue came one day after Florida surpassed the 100,000 mark for confirmed coronavirus cases in the state and less than two weeks after the Republican National Committee moved its nominating convention from Charlotte, North Carolina to Jacksonville based on the Tar Heel State's refusal to meet demands for the event over the state's coronavirus restrictions.

Schlissel called hosting a presidential debate “a tremendous opportunity for our university community to contribute to one of the most important features of our democracy — the open exchange of ideas — while setting an example of civic engagement and shining a light on the outstanding academic strengths of our institution.”

The Adrienne Arsht Center in downtown Miami was the site of a two-night debate spectacle last June when the venue hosted the Democrat Party's first presidential debates of the 2020 election.

That event was memorable for several reasons: The large field of 20 candidates that had to be spread out over two nights, a technical glitch with the microphones that forced a hastily called commercial break and a lackluster performance by the now presumptive Democrat nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden.

NBC late night funnyman Jimmy Fallon later hinted that Vladimir Putin may have had a hand in the debate's technical snafu.

"It's too easy," Fallon said in a Russian accent at the time.

The other two presidential debates are scheduled to take place on Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and on Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville. The sole vice presidential debate will take place on Oct. 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Each debate will be 90 minutes in length and will run from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. eastern without commercial breaks. The debates will be broadcast by the White House pool networks.

There will be a single moderator for each of the debates who will be selected by the non-profit, non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates. The organization has sponsored and produced all general election presidential debates since 1987. The moderators will be announced in September.

The first and third debates will be divided into six, 15-minute segments. The topics for the six segments will be selected and announced by each moderator at least one week before each debate. A similar format was used during the 2012 and 2016 campaigns.

The Miami debate will differ in that the questions will be posed by citizens from the Miami area in a town hall format.

The vice presidential debate will be divided into nine segments of 10 minutes each.

For more information and to learn about DebateWatch2020, visit www.debates.org.