Another presidential debate, another day after spent scratching your head and wondering why we’re still in this place. Why did the GOP allow its candidate to — yet again! — be ganged up on by DNC operatives masquerading as journalists/moderators? Why do we say “Never again!” every election cycle, and every election cycle do it again? Will the insanity of it all ever stop?
It’s not like we haven’t been here before. As RedState’s Jen Van Laar noted today, CNN whiffed spectacularly back when Mitt Romney was the nominee:
Back in 2012 CNN debate moderator Candy Crowley let her bias get the best of her and incorrectly “corrected” Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s remarks about Barack Obama and the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, and her credibility was ruined.
That was 12 years and four election cycles ago. And then there was the infamous Donna Brazile incident, where the then-CNN contributor (who also happened to be the DNC chair at the time) gave the debate questions to Hillary Clinton in advance of Hillary’s showdown with Trump. It’s been an uneven playing field for many years now.
The days of Jim Lehrer challenging each candidate, regardless of party, to defend their positions are clearly long gone. They have been replaced, instead, with some sort of bizarre, quasi-debate setup where the moderators, playacting as journalists, transform into kindergarten teachers who have their pet student, who can do no wrong, and the bad kid, who must be corrected repeatedly. Except, surprise, the bad kid isn’t really that bad, the pet student is kind of awful, and the teachers are as incompetent as they are ignorant.
And the GOP is the parents who keep requesting the incompetent teachers over and over again. The rest of us, looking in from the outside, are left wondering why the cycle can’t be broken.
Tuesday night’s debate was a debacle and would have been a “Saturday Night Live” skit 30 years ago, but it’s the sad reality of today’s media landscape. Opinion is mistaken for fact, and unsmiling, hyper-partisan hacks like David Muir and Linsey Davis are handed the important job of helping the electorate decide on the next president. Both were so clearly unequal to the task that we’re left wondering if they are, in fact, on the DNC payroll.
So, what should the GOP do about debates going forward? Our own Becky Noble argues that Trump shouldn’t shy away from another debate, and makes the case for the debate to be hosted by Fox News and the moderators to be chosen by Trump:
Trump can negate the ABC News cheerleaders by going to more friendly territory like Fox News. The Trump campaign must insist that a second debate be on Fox.
More from Becky:
“Was Tuesday night an example of the way Democrats want to play the debate game now? If that is the case, and Kamala Harris won the evening, then she should have no trouble answering debate questions from the Fox News team. But Donald Trump should absolutely agree to a second debate, and it is high time the Trump campaign forced Kamala Harris to agree to their conditions.”
It certainly seems like a fair solution, given that Kamala and her team couldn’t have crafted a more favorable scenario than the one they got handed to them Tuesday by ABC News. But, as we all know, there’s nothing “fair” when it comes to the right getting equal treatment.
The GOP could, of course, just refuse to put their candidate in this position and not take part in any other debates. Who could blame them? The Democrats, after all, aren’t likely to agree to another debate if Kamala isn’t assured of getting preferential treatment.
Here’s another idea: Agree to another debate, regardless of who hosts it. Prepare for and execute the debate you want to have, not the one that the corporate media is going to give you.
For starters, most Americans have a grave distrust of the media, so Trump could use that fact to good effect by pushing back hard against the moderators. Call them out as hacks. Paint them as partisan shills. Ask if they actually are on the DNC payroll. Mock them as they so richly deserve to be mocked. Knock them off their game. They’re not that smart, it won’t be hard.
Then, Trump should answer the questions he wants to answer. Strategically pick the topics and positions he most wants to get in front of voters and have at it. He needs to artfully pivot from the moderators’ line of questioning and take over the conversation. It won’t be easy, and likely not that pretty, but there’s really nothing to lose here.
The bottom line is that Trump and the GOP know it’s an unfair fight, so why not have some fun with it? The networks and their moderators are unserious players, so treat them that way. It could sway a few votes and get a few laughs. Win-win.
It’s beyond time to turn the tables on the Democrats and their lapdog media.
