US Elections 2024: Tim Walz, JD Vance set for vice presidential debate face-off: Know the CBS News moderators

On October 1, 2024, the highly anticipated vice presidential debate between Democratic nominee Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican nominee Senator JD Vance of Ohio will take place, broadcast live from the CBS Broadcast Centre in New York City. This pivotal event, moderated by two seasoned journalists — Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell — will provide a critical platform for the candidates to articulate their visions and policies ahead of the election which is set for November 5.

This will be the last debate of the election cycle, as no additional debates have been scheduled after that.

WHO IS MARGARET BRENNAN?

Margaret Brennan, 44, started her career as a business reporter. She’s from Connecticut and graduated from the University of Virginia. Her first job was at CNBC, where she worked as a producer on a show hosted by financial commentator Louis Rukeyser. After that, she spent six years covering global financial markets at Bloomberg News before joining CBS’s Washington bureau in 2012.

In 2018, Brennan’s life took a significant turn when she became the moderator of “Face the Nation”, taking over from John Dickerson. This happened shortly after she found out she was pregnant with her first child.

One of Brennan’s major reports came in 2021 when she was the first to reveal that members of President Trump’s cabinet considered using the 25th Amendment after the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.

Brennan is also fluent in Arabic. She was a Fulbright-Hays Scholar and studied Arabic at Yarmouk University in Jordan. While interning at CNN during college, she translated video messages from Osama bin Laden.

Brennan and her husband, Yado Yakub, who is a Syrian American and a judge advocate in the Marine Corps, are raising their children to be bilingual.

WHO IS NORAH O’DONNELL?

Norah O’Donnell, 50, was guided early in her career by Tim Russert, the former moderator of “Meet the Press”. After working at the newspaper Roll Call, she joined NBC’s Washington bureau, where she reported to Russert, who was also the bureau chief. She used to make phone calls to her sources from her car before going into the newsroom because Russert would always ask her, “What do you know?”

O’Donnell’s first experience on TV came when she was just 10 years old. Her father was a military doctor, so her family moved to different countries. While living in South Korea, she hosted a show that helped teach English to local people.

After the election, O’Donnell will be moving into a new role. She’s stepping down as the anchor of “CBS Evening News” to focus on longer interviews and special reports. She will be replaced by John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, a local anchor in New York.

One of O’Donnell’s major accomplishments is being the first US TV journalist to do a sit-down interview with a pope. Her interview with Pope Francis aired on CBS in May.

O’Donnell is married to Geoff Tracy, a chef who owns two restaurants in Washington, DC, and one in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The two met in a cafeteria line while they were students at Georgetown University. They married in 2001 and have three children.