Presidential debates without studio audiences … 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon … 1976 between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford … And now, 2024 …

Which means -- before the upcoming CNN debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, you won't hear anything like what moderator Jim Lehrer told the audience on October 3 , 2000 … before the debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush:

I'm going to sit here and ask questions for 90 minutes.

And you all are going to remain absolutely silent for 90 minutes.

One exciting feature of presidential debates used to be: watching debate moderators give the audience instructions on how to behave. Instructions based on a simple yet stern premise: be quiet.

If you're going to miss hearing presidential debate moderators tell presidential debate audiences to pipe down, then the latest episode of C-SPAN's podcast "The Weekly" is just the thing for you. A heart-warming nostalgic stroll down memory lane, remembering all the ways moderators used to tell audiences: keep your mouths shut.

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