Final Presidential Debate Moderator Kristen Welker: What to Know

With less than two weeks to go until the Nov. 3 presidential election, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are set to take the debate floor one last time on Thursday evening in what is expected to be a fiery battle between the two parties. Taking on the role of moderator for the second and final event is Kristen Welker, a White House correspondent for NBC News and a co-anchor for Weekend Today on the same network.

For those unaware of who Welker is was prior to her selection as debate moderator, the 44-year-old Philadelphia native attended Harvard University and interned at serval media networks, including a position with Today. From 2005 on, she has maintained a job with NBC, first taking on a role with NBC 10 in her home city. She took over her current beat covering politics on Capitol Hill in 2011. In September, Welker received an honor from the Washington Women in Journalism Awards for Outstanding Journalism in Broadcast Television.

In terms of her background in handling debates, she previously served as one of four moderators at the 2019 Democratic primary debate. She will be stepping into her biggest role yet when she gets between Trump and Biden. Through the first debate and the vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Sen. Kamara Harris, both Chris Wallace and Susan Page have come under scrutiny for letting the two sides talk over one another and not stepping in. One advantage Welker will have over her predecessors is each candidate will be muted while the other gets two minutes to state their first remarks to the posed question.

While Welker will surely be heading into the event looking to make a good impression among viewers, she’s already caught the attention of Trump. On Thursday morning, Trump called out Welker with a tweet. Starting off by calling out CBS and 60 Minutes for the alleged interview that he walked out on, Trump then said that Welker is “far worse” at her job than Lesley Stahl.

The debate will air across all the major networks at 9 p.m. ET and will serve as the last opportunity for each candidate to speak in front of the entire country before the Nov. 3 election.