Poll: Presidential Debates Expected To Be Watched by 75 Percent of Voters; Anderson Cooper is Crowd Favorite

The upcoming presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is expected to be watched by nearly three-quarters of voters, according to a new poll.

Among registered voters surveyed, 73 percent say they're at least somewhat likely to watch the Sept. 26 debate, including 44 percent who say they are "very likely" to watch, according to the Morning Consult poll.

Clinton has a slight edge over Trump, 37 percent to 31, when asked about who will win the first debate. Another 32 percent didn't know or have an opinion.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced earlier this month the lineup to moderate this year's presidential debates: Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace.

Holt, the anchor of the "NBC Nightly News," will moderate the first debate on Sept. 26; Raddatz of ABC News and Cooper of CNN will moderate the town hall debate on Oct. 9; and Wallace of Fox News will moderate the Oct. 19 debate.

CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano will moderate the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 4, and Steve Scully, senior executive producer, White House and political editor for C-SPAN Networks, will serve as backup moderator for all the debates.

Although Trump once teased the possibility that he would not participate in the debates, he has since committed to them. However, he told The Washington Post last week he didn't think Cooper should be a moderator.

"CNN is the Clinton News Network and Anderson Cooper, I don't think he can be fair," Trump said.

Among those surveyed in the Morning Consult poll, however, Cooper gets the highest marks for being the most likely to ask "tough questions" and be "least biased."

Among respondents, 28 percent think Cooper will do the best job as a debate moderator, followed by Holt and Wallace at 15 percent each and Raddatz at 8 percent. Another 34 percent didn't know or have an opinion.

Earlier this month, a close ally of Democratic presidential nominee Clinton called for the Commission on Presidential Debates to pull Fox News anchor Chris Wallace from his role as a moderator of the final debate in October, citing a conflict of interest.

"It is a glaring conflict of interest that Roger Ailes, who resigned from Fox News in July, simultaneously provides advice to Donald Trump while serving as a paid adviser to Fox News chief Rupert Murdoch — debate moderator Chris Wallace’s boss," wrote David Brock, a Clinton ally who founded the pro-Clinton super PACs Correct the Record and American Bridge 21st Century.

He added: "I am disappointed that an organization that prides itself on being non-partisan would make such a selection. I would respectfully ask that you reconsider your selection of Chris Wallace — or any current Fox News employee — as a presidential debate moderator until Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch cut ties with Roger Ailes."

Brock also pointed to a recent interview in which Wallace said he would not press the candidates to be truthful during the debates.

"That’s not my job," Wallace said. "I do not believe that it's my job to be a truth squad. It's up to the other person to catch them on that. I certainly am going to try to maintain some semblance of equal time if one of them is filibustering, I'm going to try to break in respectfully and give the other person a chance to talk."

Last week, Trump said that there is only one way the presidential debates against Clinton can be fair in his eyes: no moderator.

"I think maybe we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate, because I think the system is being rigged so it's going to be a very unfair debate," Trump said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"I think we should have a debate with no moderator, just Hillary and I sitting there talking," he said.

The full debate lineup, via the CPD:

• First presidential debate, Sept. 26: Lester Holt, Anchor, NBC Nightly NewsMonday, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
• Vice presidential debate, Oct. 4: Elaine Quijano, Anchor, CBSN and Correspondent, CBS NewsTuesday, Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia
• Second presidential debate (town meeting), Oct. 9: Martha Raddatz, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and Co-Anchor of "This Week," ABC, Anderson Cooper, Anchor, CNN Sunday, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
• Third presidential debate, Oct. 19: Chris Wallace, Anchor, Fox News Sunday, Wednesday, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada

The Morning Consult survey of 1,861 registered voters was conducted Sept. 15-16 with a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons