As Trump and Harris spar, ABC’s debate team wrestles with conducting a debate in a divided country

The New York Times

The ABC News moderators were great.
And so it went Tuesday night at Trump’s and Harris’ first — and quite possibly only — debate.
In an illustration of how difficult it is to conduct a presidential debate in a polarized country, ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked and corrected Trump four times Tuesday and were attacked angrily by the former president and his supporters.
During a discussion of abortion, Trump made his oft-repeated claim that Democrats supported killing babies after they were born.
ABC moderators did not correct any statements made by Harris.
Harris, for example, was asked to address Trump’s criticism that the U.S. Justice Department has been weaponized against him.
Muir twice asked Trump whether he wanted Ukraine to win its war against Russia, and he didn’t answer.
Trump often looked angry or smiled at some of Harris’ statements, while avoiding eye contact with his opponent.
Harris looked over at her opponents several times, often in bemusement, sometimes in open amusement, sometimes shaking her head.
Online anger toward how ABC handled the evening began while the debate was ongoing, and quickly became a talking point.

NEGATIVE

I really liked the moderators on ABC News. They were a “disgraceful failure,” to be precise. They spoke too little to Kamala Harris. No, in actuality, they unfairly corrected Trump.

The political climate in 2024 is quite contentious at the moment. Thus, the first and possibly last debate between Trump and Harris took place on Tuesday night.

In a prime example of how challenging it is to lead a presidential debate in a divisive nation, Trump and his allies angrily attacked ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis on Tuesday after they fact-checked and corrected the former president four times.

Trump posted the following on social media shortly after leaving the Philadelphia stage: “I thought that was my best debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!”.

The anticipated one-and-only debate between the outgoing vice president and the former president was moderated by Muir and Davis. Inquiries were made regarding Jan., abortion, the war in Ukraine, and economic policy. 6 U. s. protests in the Capitol and Harris’s shifting of positions since her 2020 presidential campaign.

After all was said and done, The New York Times calculated that Trump had spoken for 43 minutes and 3 seconds and Harris for 37 minutes and 41 seconds.

Views on the coverage served as a political litmus test.

The stakes for the debate were high from the start because of the approaching election as well as the fact that the last presidential debate in June featured Trump and incumbent Joe Biden, whose performance was widely criticized. This set off a chain of events that culminated in Biden’s withdrawal from the race and Harris’s entry a few weeks later.

Views on ABC’s handling of the most recent debate on Tuesday essentially served as a Rorschach test for how supporters of the opposing sides felt about the outcome. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro responded to MSNBC commentator Chris Hayes’s message on X that the ABC moderators were doing a “great” job, saying, “This is how you know they’re complete s—-.”. “.

ABC contested remarks made by Trump regarding abortion, immigration, the 2020 election, and violent crime, while CNN refrained from correcting any errors made by the candidates during Trump and Biden’s June debate.

In the course of a debate about abortion, Trump repeated his frequently made accusation that Democrats were in favor of killing newborns. “No state in the nation allows for the legal killing of a newborn,” stated Davis. “.

Muir drew attention to the fact that Trump had recently acknowledged his loss to Biden on three different occasions, following years of publicly refusing to acknowledge his loss in the 2020 contest. In response, Trump said that his previous remarks had been sarcastic.

Muir stated, “I didn’t pick up on the sarcasm.”.

Muir got into a heated argument with the former president after he implied that crime had increased under the Biden administration, pointing out that violent crime had decreased in that time. After Trump echoed a discredited report alleging that immigrants in Ohio were killing and consuming pets, ABC also pointed out that there was no proof of such an incident.

No remarks made by Harris were corrected by ABC moderators.

Angie Drodnic Holan, director of the Poynter Institute’s international fact-checking network, acknowledged in an interview that “they could have done more.”. “I think they did enough. Did they do enough? There was not a single choice. “.

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale declared on social media at the conclusion of the debate that “Harris has been overwhelmingly (though not entirely) factual, while Trump has been staggeringly dishonest.”. “.

Questions were not addressed by either candidate.

It frequently happens in debates that certain questions go unanswered, which was observed by the moderators. Harris was asked, for instance, to respond to Trump’s charge that the U. s. The Justice Department is being used as a weapon against him. She failed to do so. She also sidestepped inquiries concerning modifications to some of her previous policy stances. Trump remained silent when Muir twice asked if he wanted Ukraine to prevail in its conflict with Russia.

Different stories were conveyed by the split screen views of the two candidates. Whenever Harris made a statement, Trump would frequently look irate or smile while avoiding making eye contact with Harris. Harris gave her opponents multiple glances, occasionally shaking her head and other times looking at them with amusement.

During the debate, there was a surge in online resentment towards ABC’s handling of the evening, which rapidly gained momentum.

Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly wrote on X, “This is one of the most biased, unfair debates I have ever seen, and these moderators are a disgraceful failure.”. ABC deserves shame. “.

Responding to internet critics who claimed that ABC had stacked the deck in Harris’ favor, Atlantic writer James Surowiecki stated that “Trump’s self-hung parenthesis is how they ‘rigged’ the debate.”. “.

CNN’s Jake Tapper compared it to a live 4Chan post.

Following the discussion, Fox News Channel anchor Martha MacCallum claimed that Harris “was never really held to the fire.”. She was right, according to British pundit Hume, but there was more going on.

Without a doubt, Hume stated. It was a rough night for Trump.

. “.

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