2016 Second Presidential Debate

A filmmaker is granted unprecedented access to a political candidate and his family as he runs for President.

A retrospective on the great election battles of the past in the United States: the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the first ever to be televised; the Republican campaign of 1972, which proved to be the starting point for the Watergate scandal; and the electoral strategy of Barack Obama in 2008, the first election to fully exploit the potential of the Internet.

Over one thousand people have been charged with storming the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, as part of a widely televised insurrection attempt. Approximately 15% of them worked as police or military personnel. This staggering statistic begs an important question: how can a service member who took an oath to protect the country’s democracy do something that puts that very democracy in jeopardy?

From the filmmakers of the critically-acclaimed blockbuster #UNFIT: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DONALD TRUMP, which grossed over $2.5 million, has been viewed by millions, and was nominated for the IDA Documentary Awards Video Source Award Director, producer, and writer Dan Partland and producer Art Horan are back with #UNTRUTH: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TRUMPISM examines the psychology of “Trumpism” and the authoritarian strain that it seeded in the American political landscape.

The first presidential debate between Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama took place on Friday, September 26, 2008, at University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. The debate was moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS. Although the debate was originally planned to focus on foreign policy and national security, Lehrer did devote the first half of the debate due to the ongoing 2008 financial crisis, a portion of the debate focused on economic issues.

The second presidential debate between Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama took place on Tuesday, October 7, 2008, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The debate was moderated by Tom Brokaw of NBC.

The third and final presidential debate between Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama took place on Wednesday, October 15, 2008, in the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. The debate was moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS. The focus was on domestic policy and the economy.

According to the memorandum of understanding agreed to by both campaigns prior to the debate, and announced to the public prior to the start, both candidates would have no opening statement. There were six 15-minute segments, with the moderator introducing a topic and giving one candidate two minutes, the other candidate two minutes, and approximately 8 minutes and 45 seconds of facilitated discussion between the two candidates, with both candidates receiving approximately equal time. However, due to candidate responses extending beyond the limit, the last few segments were markedly shorter. Both candidates spoke in front of a lectern. Other than applause at the beginning and end of the debate, there was no audience participation.

CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) motion picture of the first presidential debate between Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon from CBS studios, Chicago, Illinois. During the debate, Senator Kennedy states, "I don't believe in big government, but I believe in effective governmental action." Each candidate makes an opening statement of eight minutes and a closing statement of three minutes.

The second presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy took place on Friday, October 7, 1960, at the WRC-TV studios in Washington, D.C.. Questions were related to internal American matters, foreign relations, economy, etc.

The third presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy took place on Thursday, October 13, 1960, were held virtually at the ABC studios in Los Angeles, California (for Nixon) and New York City, New York (for Kennedy). The debate was moderated by Bill Shadel of ABC with Frank McGee, Charles Van Fremd, Douglass Cater and Roscoe Drummond as panelists. To ensure fairness, the journalists (who were in Los Angeles) and Nixon were placed in separate studios. All participants addressed the camera directly, with Kennedy and Nixon both situated without aides in studios that Shadel described as "identical in every detail." A major topic of the debate was whether military force should be used to prevent Quemoy and Matsu, two island archipelagos off the Chinese coast, from falling under Communist control