Donald Trump last night faced new Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for their first—and possibly only—presidential election debate.
The head-to-head is, of course, unlikely to be as consequential as Trump’s debate with a flailing President Joe Biden back in June, and there have been few surprises in the immediate post-debate analysis regarding who various outlets and political figures thought came out on top.
But the handling of the event by ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis has prompted a potentially more significant debate.
Clear partisan lines can be seen here, too. Although certain elements of the debate do suggest that, like Harris, Muir and Davis were out for Trump.
The moderators ‘fact-checked’ and ‘corrected’ the former president four times—on issues as contentious as immigration and abortion. They chose not to correct a single statement by Harris.
Before the debate was over, CNN fact checker Daniel Dale suggested this was because “Trump has been staggeringly dishonest and Harris has been overwhelmingly (though not entirely) factual.”
But Muir and Davis also let Harris off the hook on her U-turning on key issues, and on Trump’s claim the U.S. Justice Department has been weaponised against him, allowing her to skirt around both these—and other—points.
So “why,” joked Megyn Kelly, “did the moderators need Kamala Harris there at all?” She called their performance “the worst anchor pile-on I have ever seen.” Trump himself described the debate as being “THREE ON ONE!” And not for the first time.
James Surowiecki, who writes for The Atlantic, responded to claims the debate was “rigged” against Trump by insisting that the moderators only did this “by letting him hang himself with his own stream-of-consciousness rambles,” and pointing to the fact that Trump talked for longer.
But Fox anchor Martha MacCallum stressed that however Trump performed, Harris “was never really held to the fire.” British observer Tony Diver noted that while Harris at times made Trump “look ridiculous,” she “spent little time on the debate stage talking about her major policy commitments”—perhaps because these are ever-changing.
And former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was probably closest to the mark when he said: “I think that Kamala Harris exceeded the very low expectations that were purposely set for her.”
Indeed, concerns within the Democratic camp surrounding Harris’ interview and debate performances have been palpable. Harris’ team kept her away from the press for as long as it could, and when they finally sent her out for her first interview as nominee, running mate Tim Walz turned up as her “babysitter,” too.
