What to know about the history of presidential debates “He’s the one that actually challenged Jimmy Carter to debates, and that set in place this tradition that has existed ever since then of presidential debates,” Alan Schroeder, professor emeritus of journalism at Northeastern University, previously told CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf.
How Biden is getting ready for his high-stakes debate with Trump But Trump took a more restrained tack in the second debate in 2020 — and that makes preparation for Biden a bit unpredictable, said Alan Schroeder, a professor at Northeastern University who’s written a history of presidential debates. “You don’t know which one you’ll get,” Schroeder said.