Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump’s presidential debate continues to generate attention as some media critics allege bias against the Republican candidate by ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.
The duo undertook the first live fact-checking of presidential candidates by debate hosts.
Previously, that function had been left to journalists behind the scenes, who published their findings separately from the debate itself.
Much of the criticism has been leveled at the moderators.
“They weren’t necessarily in control of what was going on, and they only fact-checked one of the two candidates,” Andrew Selepak, a professor of journalism at the University of Florida, told The Epoch Times.
“A good moderator asks serious questions on serious topics and doesn’t ‘fact check in real-time,’” Tim Graham of the conservative Media Research Center told The Epoch Times.
“A good moderator should sound neutral.”
Other critics have praised Muir and Davis for their exemplary work.
“They were excellent. Kept the debate moving on track,” Robert Shapiro, a political science professor from Columbia University, told The Epoch Times.
“Asking good questions that most Americans want answered, pushing the candidates to try to actually answer them but then move on, control the candidates to follow the rules and keep within the time limits,” are what make for good moderation, Steven Fein, a professor at Williams College, whose specialties include media and presidential debates, told The Epoch Times.
Fact-Checking
Moderators challenged four of Trump’s responses and none of Harris’s, which prompted the claim of bias.When speaking of abortion, Trump referred to a former state governor saying: “He said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we'll execute the baby.”
He was referring to former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s 2019 comment on a proposed law concerning late-term abortion in cases of severe deformity or a non-viable fetus.
In a radio interview, Northam said: “The infant would be delivered; the infant would be kept comfortable; the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desire, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
ABC moderator Davis said, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”
She did not challenge the veracity of Trump’s statement that the governor’s comment seemed to allow for infanticide, and did not add context showing that it referred to a proposed law concerning infants with severe deformities.
Later, after Trump said that crime in the United States is rising rapidly, Muir challenged his assertion.
“President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country,” Muir said.
That led to a debate within the debate in which Trump argued with Muir, saying that the FBI statistics are incorrect because they do not include data from many of the nation’s most dangerous cities.
“The clarifications were directed more at Trump because they were more warranted in his case,” Shapiro said.
Yet Harris went unchallenged on her statement that no active duty U.S. forces were serving in a combat zone.
However, the U.S. Central Command said on Aug. 30 that U.S. forces had completed a mission the preceding day in western Iraq that resulted in the death of 15 ISIS operatives.
Seven U.S. personnel were injured in that operation. Five others were seriously injured in an attack against a military base in Iraq on Aug. 4.
Harris, when asked why her position on fracking had changed since she sought the presidency four years ago, said: “I made that very clear in 2020. I will not ban fracking.”
However, she had said in a televised April 2019 town hall meeting, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”
Trump himself challenged some of Harris’s statements, including one in which she implied that Trump had called white supremacist marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 11–12, 2017, “very fine people.”
Trump’s statement referring to “very fine people” on both sides was made in an Aug. 15, 2017, news conference, referring to protesters and counter-protesters demonstrating about the removal of a Confederate statue.
In the same remarks, Trump said, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.”
Trump pointed out in the debate that this false interpretation had been widely debunked in the media but is still used by his opponents.
Questions and Follow-Up
Graham saw bias in the topic selection for the debate. The lineup highlighted “favorite anti-Trump topics,” including the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and election denial in 2020, according to Graham, but ignored topics that might embarrass Democrats.“Trump’s questions were often specific hardballs,” Graham told The Epoch Times.
Fein disagrees. “I thought the questions asked by ABC were superior to CNN’s and perhaps more even-handed,” he said.
Harris was not questioned about any responsibility she may have had in confronting President Joe Biden’s alleged mental decline or for giving just one major interview since her nomination.
However, she was questioned on the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the administration’s approach to illegal immigration.
Both Trump and Harris were asked to justify aspects of their record or policy positions, and both occasionally appeared to skirt the subject. On five occasions, Muir and Davis pressed Trump with follow-up queries, four times asking for a “yes or no.”
Asked whether there was anything he regretted doing on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump said that he had called for people to behave “peacefully and patriotically,” then pivoted to talk about illegal immigration.
Muir pressed for a direct response: “It’s a very simple question as we move forward toward another election. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day? Yes or no.”
Muir asked a similarly pointed question of Harris concerning the deaths of military personnel in what he called the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. “Do you believe you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out?” Muir asked.
Harris said she agreed with the decision to pull out of Afghanistan but did not respond to the question of personal responsibility for what ensued. There was no follow-up.
Asked to define their plans for health care, both candidates gave less-than-complete answers.
Davis asked Trump if he had created a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Trump said he was considering cost-saving options but would “run [the ACA] as good as it can be run” in the meantime.
“So just a yes or no, you still do not have a plan?” Davis asked.
A moment later, she asked Harris a similar question about health care. “What is your plan today?” she asked.
Impact
Trump sharply criticized Muir and Davis during a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona, on Sept. 12, calling for them to be fired.Fein sees that as confirmation that Trump did not perform well.
“I would also add that there’s an old saying in sports: If you’re complaining about the refs after the game, it means you lost,” he said.
Some Trump allies agreed that his performance in the debate was not the result of any action by the hosts.
“I’ve spoken to people on his team and members of his family. I think they feel the same way that I do. I think that, you know, there were some lost opportunities.”
After the event, Harris’s campaign manager called for a second debate. “Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
Speaking from the spin room after the event, Trump said he would consider a second debate. Two days later, he said he decided not to have another debate.
The Epoch Times requested comment from ABC but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.
