US Election: First presidential debate to be held in Cleveland on Sept 29

The first debate in the run-up to the US presidential election will be held on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) said in a statement on Monday.

"CPD is pleased to announce that the first presidential debate will be co-hosted by Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic and held at the Health Education Campus (HEC) in Cleveland, OH," the commission said, listing September 29 as the date for the event.

US President Donald Trump is facing his Democrat challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden in the November 3 election.

The CPD said the second debate between Trump and Biden will be on October 15 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Florida, while the third will be on October 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

There will also be a vice-presidential debate on October 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City between Vice-President Mike Pence and his Democratic challenger for the post, yet to be announced by Biden.

Democratic US presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic during a campaign event in Wilmington on Tues

All debates will be 90 minutes long and will run from 9 pm to 10:30 pm (ET) without commercials, and be broadcast live by the White House pool networks, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the University of Notre Dame has withdrawn from hosting the first presidential debate of this year's election, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has announced.

The CPD on Monday said instead the debate, scheduled on September 29, 2020, will be co-hosted by Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic at the Health Education Campus in Cleveland, Ohio, Xinhua reported.

The University of Notre Dame, a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, said in a statement that "the inevitable reduction in student attendance in the debate hall, volunteer opportunities and ancillary educational events undermined the primary benefit of hosting -- to provide our students with a meaningful opportunity to engage in the American political process."

This year, there will be three debates between sitting US President and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and former US Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.