The Failures of the Debate Committee
/As the final presidential debate approaches, the debate commission is under more scrutiny than ever before, and it is justified.
The Trump campaign voiced their unhappiness regarding the final debate topics, which were very similar to the first debate. Topics include “Race in America” and “Fighting Covid-19.” Notably missing is foreign policy. This would be a weakness for Joe Biden, given the current underreported stories concerning Hunter’s business deals and alleged evidence provided by an abandoned laptop. The media is spinning this story as possible Russian disinformation, but the Department of Justice and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe assured Americans that the laptop is not disinformation. However, the Biden campaign has not refuted the authenticity of the emails.
When a reporter had enough courage to ask Biden about it on the campaign trail, he angrily lashed out and insulted him.
President Trump has also negotiated a few peace deals in the Middle East, taken out notable terrorists like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Qasem Soleimani, defeated ISIS, is the first president in my lifetime to not start any wars, and is bringing troops home. He has a couple of feathers in his cap.
Climate Change is also a topic rather than abortion. Energy is also not a topic. I hope education is highlighted during the “American Families” section. Moms want to know when their kids will be going back to school, and school choice is a very important topic for minority voters, a demographic both candidates are trying to woo.
Biden’s press secretary, TJ Ducklo, noted that the campaigns and the commission agreed the moderators would select the topics. The final moderator is Kristen Welker, who the president told Fox & Friends she’s “totally partisan.” Welker comes from a family of Democrat donors, and a video reemerged of her tipping the Hillary campaign on questions she was going to ask in 2016. She’s not registered with either party today, but she was registered as a Democrat.
The commission also decided to instate a new rule muting the candidate’s mics while their opponent is giving their two-minute answers. Biden’s campaign is rooted in lies such as the “Fine People Hoax” and now the “Losers and Suckers Hoax.” At their first debate, Biden proclaimed offense as he invoked his deceased son, Beau. If Biden was aiming to cut a campaign commercial from it, Trump ruined it with constant interrupting and mentions of Hunter.
The second debate first caused controversy when the commission decided to host a virtual debate, after President Trump and many members of his team were infected with Covid-19. Considering that Biden and Trump both had townhalls that night on two different networks, the commission could have worked something out. Many Americans have gotten used to working virtually, but anything could go wrong with a virtual presidential debate. Someone’s feed could drop, the quality could be bad, something could be wrong with the mic (which actually happened at Trump’s past presidential debate). Your posture, your tone, your facial reactions, and your answers matter during a debate. Since the commission was also threatening to mute mics during this time, avoiding the rigid debate was probably best.
The second debate was canceled after the moderator Steve Scully tweeted at Anthony Scaramucci, a rabid Trump critic, asking whether he should respond to Trump. Speculators assumed Scully meant to privately message him, and giddily waited until the morning for Scully to realize his mistake. The following day, Scully’s page briefly disappeared, then reappeared with the questionable tweet deleted. He then blamed the tweet on a hack.
No one in their right mind believed a hacker tweeted one tweet to Scaramucci, which he responded to, from an iPhone. Yet journalists marched to his defense.
Scully claimed he was going to have the FBI look into his case, but he eventually confessed to C-Span last Wednesday that he made it up. “These were both errors in judgment for which I am totally responsible for. I apologize.”
Trump made sure to brag about calling out another biased journalist. After this disgrace, the second debate was officially canceled.
Former presidential candidate Bob Dole pointed out the debate commission’s bias. Even though it is made up of Democrats and Republicans, he said none of them are voting for Trump and believes the system is flawed.
The first debate was certainly contentious. Trump was sure to be a bulldozer in his performance, but if anyone remembered Biden’s performance with Paul Ryan, they would have also expected him to interrupt constantly. They were hard for Chris Wallace to manage, but Wallace himself also acted inappropriately.
For him to mischaracterize President Trump’s opposition to Critical Race Theory as being opposed to “sensitivity training” was disgraceful. He also introduced the president’s response to Charlottesville, noting it was Biden’s so-called reason for running. To bring up the “fine people” comment without giving the context that Biden’s assertions about it were false and constantly debunked, was also a low point for Wallace as well.
Debate moderators have also been criticized in the past, particularly Candy Crowley when she sparred with Mitt Romney and falsely “fact-checked” him during the debate, and then turned around and admitted four hours later that Romney was correct.
The way we do presidential debates definitely needs a shakeup, and so does the biased mainstream media. 2020 was not a good year for journalism, but neither were the three before that.
