joining me now, the co-chair of the commission on presidential debates, frank fahrenkopf. mr.uch for being here. what influence did the campaigns have on the selection process? >> none at all, michael. we don't consult the campaigns. we start about six months out from the first debate to monitor those people who are on television or radio, to see what they're saying. if it's a print reporter, what they're writing. we're looking for someone who is no so biased one way or another, that they can't be a fair facilitator, a moderator of the debates. but -- and we're looking at those individuals. we're not looking at the newspapers they worked for or the television networks they work for. it's individual reporters, and whether or not they have the character and ability that we're looking for. >> what amount of discretion is now placed into the hands of the four regarding questions they can ask? >> well, a tremendous amount of discretion. the commission, and no one else but the moderator knows what, in fact, they're going to ask. we have no knowledge, we give it to them and their jou

the co-chair, frank fahrenkopf is with me. frank, thanks for coming on. >> it's a pleasure, bud. >> everything changes in politics but debates stay the same. is that something you're proud of, the consistency in four years? >> yes. this is something we've been at since 1988. this is the first debate we did in the general election cycle and we have done 30 of them. next tuesday will be the 31st presidential debate or vice presidential debate we've done over 30-plus years. yeah, we're very excited with how much we've been successful. >> did you ever think that trump or biden might skip the debate or were you always sure they were going to show up? >> well, you know, a year ago maybe i had some questions, but we've been in touch with both campaigns now for a number of months. right from the start, they indicated they're going to participate. there weren't really some of the concerns. i would say i had more concerns in 2016 than i have had in this cycle. >> wish we could take back those wasted days about the debate. here's the big