United States presidential election debates, 2016

First presidential debate

The set of the first debate
Duration	95 minutes
Date	September 26, 2016 (2016-09-26)
Venue	Hofstra University
Location	Hempstead, New York
Participants	Hillary Clinton Donald Trump
Footage	NBC, C-SPAN, Bloomberg Politics
Moderator	Lester Holt of NBC
Transcript	Politico The Washington Post
Fact checking	FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, NPR, New York Times, Associated Press, Bloomberg Politics
Website	hofstra.edu/debate

Vice presidential debate

The debate's spin room
Duration	92 minutes
Date	October 4, 2016 (2016-10-04)
Venue	Longwood University
Location	Farmville, Virginia
Participants	Tim Kaine Mike Pence
Footage	CBS, C-SPAN, Bloomberg Politics
Moderator	Elaine Quijano of CBS
Transcript	The New York Times The Washington Post
Fact checking	Politifact, NPR, ABC News, New York Times, Associated Press
Website	debate.longwood.edu

The 2016 United States presidential election debates were a series of debates held for the 2016 U.S. presidential general election. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a bipartisan organization formed in 1987, organized three debates among the major presidential candidates. The first presidential debate for the 2016 election took place on September 26, 2016, and set the record as the most-watched debate in American history, with 84 million viewers. The only vice-presidential debate was held on October 4. The second presidential debate took place on October 9, and the final debate took place on October 19. All CPD debates occurred from approximately 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. PDT).

Only the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the Republican nominee Donald Trump met the criteria for inclusion in the debates, and thus were the only two to appear in the debates. Hillary Clinton was considered to have won all three presidential debates by an overwhelming margin in scientific opinion polls of likely voters. Despite this, Donald Trump won the presidential election (though he lost the popular vote) held on November 8.

The Commission on Presidential Debates stipulates three criteria for eligibility for the presidential debates: constitutional eligibility to serve as president, appearance on enough ballots to potentially reach 270 electoral votes, and an average at least 15% on five selected national polls. For the vice-presidential debate, the running mates of the presidential candidates qualifying for the first presidential debate will be invited. By mid-September Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein were on enough ballots to reach 270 electoral votes; however, only Clinton and Trump have reached the 15% polling threshold. As of August 2016,^[update] Johnson and Stein had polled as high as 13% and 7%, respectively, and had an average of 8.3% and 3%, respectively.