C-SPAN Political Editor Steve Scully Says He's Ready to Moderate the Next Political Debate
After presidential debate number one devolved into everyone talking at once, would anyone want to follow Fox's Chris Wallace into the moderator's hot seat?
Erie's Steve Scully is the seasoned journalist tapped for the task and in a Zoom interview he told me he's ready. "Well I can feel the Erie support so I appreciate that and I am looking forward to it," Scully said.
Presidential debate number two with Scully, host of C-SPAN's Washington Journal moderating, will be a town hall style debate with the questions coming from some 30 undecided voters in three south Florida counties. "And so I think you often get the very best questions from regular folks who have issues on their mind and they tend to be much more issue oriented questions than what we would say --inside the beltway-- questions, which is good, which is important,"Scully said.
The choice of Steve Scully to moderate was widely lauded when the Presidential Debate Commission tapped him over the summer. Ben Speggen, Vice President of the Jefferson Educational Society, who works closely with Scully to bring top political speakers and thinkers to Erie for the annual Global Summit believes Steve is the right person to moderate a policy centered discussion. "I think he will bring a sense of calmness to the debate," Speggen said, "I hope he can imbue that in the candidates and that can be part of a more sensible dialogue where we hear policy, we hear plans."
Steve Scully told me he learned all that he needed to know to cover Congress and Washington politics for C-Span, by covering Erie City Council meetings during the Mayor Louis J. Tullio era. But added that his TV job affords him one benefit. "The only difference is that I have the ability to hit the mute button, so I'm able to do that on the Washington Journal, not so much in a debate."
John Oliver has repeatedly called Steve Scully "the most patient man on television," a moniker that stays with him. I asked if there's anything ahead that could shake that patience? His reply? "Ask me on October the 16th."
Full interview with Ben Speggen