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What can we glean from last night’s presidential debate?

Sep 11, 2024

By Dave Andrusko

You didn’t have to be Nostradamus to predict what would happen in last night’s debate between former President Donald Trump and pro-abortion Vice President Kamala Harris.

Two days ago, analysts for the Media Research Center

reviewed all 100 campaign stories that aired on ABC’s World News Tonight from the day Harris entered the race (July 21) through September 6, including weekends. Our analysts found 25 clearly positive statements about Harris from reporters, anchors, voters or other non-partisan sources, with zero negative statements — none. That computes to a gravity-defying 100% positive spin score for the Vice President.

 

As for Trump, our analysts found just five clearly positive comments, vs. 66 negative statements, for a dismal 7 percent positive (93% negative) spin score.

Rick Klein, ABC News Political Director, responded to the New York Times ahead of the debate about fact-checking. According to CNN’s  Hadas Gold

But regardless of the moderators’ history, their performance on Tuesday will inevitably come under scrutiny, particularly over the question of whether to fact check the candidates – or not – in real time.

 

“I don’t think it’s a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ proposition,”Klein told The New York Times this week. “We’re not making a commitment to fact-check everything, or fact-check nothing, in either direction. We’re there to keep a conversation going, and to facilitate a good solid debate, and that entails a lot of things in terms of asking questions, moving the conversation along, making sure that it’s civilized.”

You would think, but you would be wrong, if you thought ABC’s World News Tonight host David Muir and anchor Linsey Davis might make a pass at impartiality (As they say, Mr. Trump and Ms. Davis have a history. Suffice it to say, there is no love lost between the two.)

In any event, Muir and Davis “fact checked” Trump four times while Harris got a free pass even on statements that have already been disproven. (We’re not counting the snide remarks.)

And it’s not as though Harris didn’t blatantly state….untruths. As Fox News reported

Fox News host and Trurmp’s former press secretary Kayleight McEnany said ABC should be “ashamed” of themselves and that the moderators were only prepared to fact-check Trump. 

 

As McEnany added, “Kamala just invoked the Charlottesville ‘both sides’ hoax that has been fact checked as false by left-wing Snopes and the “bloodbath” hoax. Why is Trump having to debunk this and not the moderators?? The ABC moderators only fact check Trump.”

 

“Linsey Davis completely interjects herself into the debate to help Kamala. No surprise at all there. But I thought Trump nailed his abortion answer. This is Kamala’s only issue,” OutKick founder Clay Travis wrote.

Ed Morrissey relentlessly hammered the duo:

At multiple points during last night’s presidential debate, ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis – but especially Muir – seemed more intent on debating rather than moderating. They continually entered the argument, contradicting Donald Trump and only Donald Trump, and often in error. …

 

Perhaps the most egregious of these pompous rebukes came during the abortion debate. Muir contradicted Trump on Democrats proposing that babies born alive after abortion attempts be allowed to die of neglect if the mother desired it. However, that is precisely what then-governor Ralph Northam proposed in Virginiaand that the bill in question would allow abortion to the moment of birth (Trump said West Virginia the first time). …

 

Not only did Muir get this wrong, he derailed a real debate about abortion and the radical nature of the Democrats’ position on it. And it’s veeeery difficult to believe that this was an honest error on Muir’s part, or ABC’s. This was a deliberate attempt to gang up on Trump to assist Harris by making her look less radical. As a result, they allowed Harris to escape without really addressing this point, and she went on to have a pretty good night in large part thanks to the tag team that assembled on stage last night. 

Harris is celebrating her performance last night, her “victory.” However, Trump is used to being sand-bagged by the media. He had to anticipate debating not only Harris but Muir and Davis.

3-1? Sounds fair.

Luckily, Trump really is tough as nails.

Categories: Politics