Following the controversial presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hosted by ABC News, there has been substantial criticism regarding how the event was conducted. While the consensus among the liberal pundit class in the media is that Harris won the debate, others have a much different opinion.
Throughout last Tuesday night’s event, ABC moderators David Muir and Linsay Davis incessantly fact-checked former President Trump. Seemingly, Kamala Harris was not held to the same standard, leading many to conclude the debate was a three-against-one attack on former President Donald Trump that highlighted the bias against him in the mainstream media. Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., the co-founder and co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, even expressed concerns about how the event was conducted.
Fahrenkopf criticized the debate moderators for showing apparent favoritism toward Vice President Harris throughout the discussion. “What really shocked me last night was the way the moderators handled it. You know, we always explain to our moderators — and we’ve done 33 of these debates, starting back in 1988 — that their job is to be facilitators. They’re not supposed to get involved themselves,” he said.
Addressing the constant interjections from the moderators to fact-check Trump’s comments, Fahrenkopf maintained that is not the role of a moderator. “It’s different than if you had someone on your show and you asked them a question, and they answered in a different way than they said a month before. You would correct them. But moderators are not supposed to do that,” he noted.
“A debate is between the candidates, not a debate between the candidate and the moderators. And these moderators, as far as I was concerned, it was the worst performance that I’ve seen,” the presidential debate expert continued, emphasizing the event is supposed to be about interactions between the two candidates without influence from the moderators.
In his opinion, Fahrenkopf said that it was apparent the moderators were seeking to bolster Harris’ performance during the debate. “I don’t know what their thoughts were, but they clearly were oversized, I think, on the way they treated the former president and the way they treated the present vice president. I think they bent backwards to help her,” he said.
Following the debate, Donald Trump claimed that he would not participate in a third debate against Kamala Harris, taking to Truth Social to blast what he described as a “rigged deal.” However, he maintained that he delivered a strong performance despite the apparent hostility from the moderators who played an outsized role in the event.
Watch Fahrenkopf below:
Trump said, “When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, “I WANT A REMATCH.” Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate. She and Crooked Joe have destroyed our Country, with millions of criminals and mentally deranged people pouring into the USA, totally unchecked and unvetted, and with Inflation bankrupting our Middle Class. Everyone knows this, and all of the other problems caused by Kamala and Joe – It was discussed in great detail during the First Debate with Joe, and the Second Debate with Comrade Harris. She was a no-show at the Fox Debate, and refused to do NBC & CBS. KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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