In the wake of the Tuesday, October 1 debate between Senator and 2024 Trump running mate JD Vance and Minnesota Governor and 2024 Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz, numerous conservatives sounded off on Fox News Channel about how the CBS News co-moderators handled the debate, alleging that they were “obnoxious” and “biased” in how they treated Vance. Among those who did so were contributors Joe Concha and Brit Hume.
As background, CBS announced before the debate that moderators would not attempt to call out or fact-check false claims during the debate and would instead utilize live fact-checking on its website. During the debate, however, Brennan interrupted Vance, saying, “Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.”
Sen. Vance then shot back at Brennan, snapping, “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check. And since you are fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.” Sen. Vance then described the actual legal process for obtaining the legal status Brennan described, connecting it to a Harris-backed immigration policy.
Brennan talked over him and snidely said, “Senator, we have so much we have to get to, thank you so much for explaining the legal process.” Then, the network cut off Sen. Vance’s microphone and Brennan, as he tried to explain his position, said, “The audience can’t hear you because your mics are cut.”
So, as might be expected, conservatives, though generally quite pleased with Sen. Vance’s responses, were hopping mad about how the CBS News debate moderators, particularly Margaret Brennan, handled the debate and situation, arguing that they were extremely “biased” and “obnoxious” in their moderation efforts.
Amongst those who argued as much in the wake of the contentious debate was Fox News senior network political contributor Brit Hume, who appeared on FNC and took aim at the debate moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, arguing that they had teamed up with Gov. Walz to go after Sen. Vance, adding that they were “obnoxious.”
He said, commenting on the moderators and Sen. Vance, that they were awful but Vance did a superb job. He said, “Well, the moderators were obnoxious. And made it feel like three-on-one on Vance. Vance was just fine. He seems to — his skills as a debater and speaker have been honed to some extent just by the several months on the campaign trail.”
Continuing, he said that Vance ran rings around Walz, saying, “And for one so young, he seemed in terms of his knowledge of policy to run rings around poor Governor Walz, who I don’t think that a great night as you say, Bret. He got better as the night went on. But if you are reading the debate on points it wasn’t close. Vance had a good night.” Watch Hume here:
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