The biggest takeaway from the fiery presidential debate on Sept. 10 between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is that if you want a fair and balanced event with solid moderators that will help facilitate a productive conversation on the issues, don’t choose ABC News as the platform. Folks have been on the warpath against anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis, the moderators of the Trump-Harris debate, and rightly so. Trump wasn’t just taking on Harris. It was a three-on-one debate and the bias of the moderators swung the event in the favor of Harris.
She surely would not have had such a strong showing with better, more balanced moderators. They know it. We know it. And Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., who is the co-founder and co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, knows it. In fact, he slammed the Davis and Muir for what he called a breach of protocol. He stated his concerns centered around the favoritism shown to Harris and on the proper role moderators are to play in this sort of event.
“What really shocked me last night was the way the moderators handled it,” Fahrenkopf stated. “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.”
Throughout the debate, Muir and Davis frequently interjected, fact-checking Trump’s statements while offering Harris a smoother path to rebuttal. According to Fahrenkopf, this was a clear violation of the role moderators are supposed to play. “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 explained.
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Fahrenkopf stressed that the debate should focus on the candidates, not on interactions with the moderators. “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.” He didn’t mince words when discussing the imbalance in treatment between Trump and Harris. “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.”
Trump shares the sentiments of Fahrenkopf, calling the ABC-hosted event a “rigged deal,” going on to say that he feels he did a pretty good job with the odds being “3-to-1.” On Thursday, two days after the debate, the former president announced he would not be doing any more debates, declaring victory in a post published on Truth Social.
He 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.”
Trump then dropped some serious allegations on Harris, accusing her of ducking debates in the past, pointing out that she didn’t show up at a previous debate hosted by Fox News. He then mentioned he’s unwilling to do any further debates, saying so in all caps.
“Harris’ team initially requested an additional debate following the vice president’s face-off with Trump at ABC’s presidential debate. Trump’s statement came as no surprise to many, given his history of criticizing the debate process, moderators, and media outlets. Throughout his political career, Trump has frequently expressed his dissatisfaction with the format and fairness of debates, often accusing the media of bias,” the report ended.