ABC News Moderators Falter in Trump vs. Harris Debate Analysis \ Newslooks \ Opinion \ Bill Mikhail \ Washington \ The greatest losers in the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump was the media outlet that hosted that debate itself, namely: ABC News. There were two hosts who were assigned to field questions to the two debaters, David Muir and Linsey Davis. From the very beginning they displayed their bias and hostility against former President Trump. This is why several political commentators dubbed that debate as three debaters versus one meaning that President Trump was facing off Kamala Harris plus the two ABC moderators who were clearly against him.
The two moderators quizzed Kamala Harris early about the economy, and whether the American people were better off under the Biden-Harris Administration than they had been under Trump. Then they did not ask her to elaborate on what she was propagating for her “opportunity economy.” Expectedly, any growing economy is an opportunity economy. Then, Harris spoke about her economic plan. Here, none of the moderators requested her to elucidate further on what she meant by that phrase. The moderators could have asked her about what she meant regarding giving people money to buy homes. These logical and relevant questions were never raised by either Muir or Davis.
One striking case of the wrong reasoning by the moderates happened when Linsey Davis was examining Trump on abortion. She told him that you killed the Supreme Court case Roe versus Wade. In fact, Trump transferred the interpretation of that law to the states. Then she continued accusing him of trying to institute a national ban on abortion. Trump answered smartly that he would not sign such a bill because Congress will veto it. Worse, she did not understand or comment on a very critical position which Trump made a reference to, that many conservative Democrats are against abortion or late-pregnancy abortions. Quoting Trump in the debate, “The reason why I’m doing that vote is because… they have abortion in the ninth month. They even have, and you can look at the governor of West Virginia [Virginia], the previous governor… not the current governor, whose doing an excellent job, but the governor before, 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. And that’s why I did that.” As soon as Trump ended that sentence, Davis quickly cut him off and said, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.” But Trump was right on that. Trump was alluding to former Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam, who issued statements that he was opposed to abortion in cases of third-trimester pregnancies that they must continue even if the fetus was non-viable for whatever medical reason. Trump could have expressed that point view better. Yet, such a slanted way of questioning Trump led to much analysis to check the correctness and the authenticity of the questions which Muir and Davis directed to the former President.
All of them were wrong questions and were delivered as accusations. Among them are the following: That President Trump favors Project 2025 authored by the think tank the Heritage Foundation which aims to remake the U.S. Federal Government on an ideological conservative basis. This was something that Trump is not involved in. Second, they charged that Trump described white supremacists who killed a human rights activist in Charlottesville, Virginia that there were “very fine people on both sides.” Trump did not say so. Third there was a question that Trump had overseen the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. This was not true and if it were correct, that had to do with the COVID-19 epidemic. Fourth, there was another question that Trump was against the medical method known as IVF or in vitro fertilization (In vitro fertilization is a treatment for infertility or genetic birth problems.) Trump is not opposed to IVF and said that he wants to increase the population of the United States.
In addition, Muir and David were eager to prove that Trump was wrong on illegal immigration. While Trump made a controversial statement that illegal immigrants were eating dogs and cats in Springfield, OH, Muir swiftly said that the mayor of that town rejected that claim. Yet, such an allegation could still be valid. Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina was right when he stated after the debate that, “We need moderators who aren’t extensions of the Harris campaign.”
The honesty of the media is essential to the workings of a democracy. If the media carries a distorted reporting of facts, this indicates that democracy is in a state of dysfunction and has many errors. The liberal media disposition to harass conservatives and their ideas are serious errors in the practice of American democracy. Therefore, the ABC News moderators inflicted a self-wound on the reputation of their tv station. The media must be neutral in any political debate. If the media is biased this will give rise to the importance of individualized social media platforms which will be motivated to rectify any wrong piece of information that the media establishments promote.
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