Pence-Harris Debate: Who Is The Moderator For The VP Showdown?

After Fox News anchor Chris Wallace struggled to maintain order in the first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, the attention is swinging to the moderator of the vice-presidential debate.

On Wednesday night, USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page will take center stage in the showdown in Salt Lake City between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris of California. The candidates will sit 12 feet apart and will be divided by plexiglass.

Page, 69, is a native of Wichita, Kansas, and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is married to journalist Carl Leubsdorf.

She is a longtime member of the Washington, D.C., press corps and has been covering presidential campaigns since 1980.

Page joined USA Today in 1995 after working as a White House correspondent for Newsday.

Page hosts the video series “Capital Down.” She has a direct style but is not known for being too aggressive in her questioning.

The decision to have Page moderate the debate drew some controversy after a congressional investigation revealed that in November 2018 she hosted a “Girls’ Night Out” party at her home for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, who is a protege of Pence.

The 90-minute debate is expected to be more civil than the presidential debate, as Pence and Harris have less firey personalities than Trump and Biden. However, unlike the Trump-Biden debate on Sept. 29, the topics for the vice-presidential debate have not been disclosed.

Debate moderators are named by the Commission on Presidential Debates.