She steered the Trump-Biden duel in the right direction: NBC presenter Kristen Welker had the TV debate between the opponents under control.
US President Donald Trump (74) and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden (77) started their final TV debate on Thursday (October 22) in Nashville. Not only a mute button on the microphones of the opponents led to a more civil debate than at the first meeting at the end of September. In particular, presenter Kristen Welker (44) ensured a clear process without mutual interruptions between the duelists.
The network praised Welker for her "brilliant job" in the 90-minute broadcast and named her "best debate presenter 2020". Donald Trump (74), who had previously criticized the moderator as "unfair" and "radically democratic", also admitted during the debate that he had to praise Welker for the way she conducted the debate. Chris Wallace (73), who moderated the first TV duel, told his broadcaster Fox that he was jealous of Welker. "I wish I could have had this debate – a real exchange without all these interruptions." Welker was able to draw on her experience in the White House environment during the debate.
Harvard graduate and correspondent
Kristen Welker is the daughter of an African American and was born in Philadelphia in 1976. She studied history at Harvard and took her first steps in the TV business in the late 1990s. She initially worked at ABC subsidiaries before moving to NBC in 2005. Welker joined NBC News as a correspondent in 2010 and became NBC White House correspondent in December 2011, from where she covered extensively on the 2016 election campaign.
Welker and three other moderators already held a debate in the democratic primaries last November. She is only the second black journalist in US television duel history to compete for the presidency. In 1992, ABC News presenter Carole Simpson (78) took advantage of this opportunity.