And the moderators for the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential debates have officially been announced. Shockingly, it seems it will be somewhat fair. No, that doesn’t mean any of them will be Republicans, but neither are they are all-out liberals who will stand ready to insinuate Trump is the devil on national television.
According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the first matchup will happen on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio. It will be moderated by Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace. Next will be the first and only vice-presidential debate between Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. This will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 7 and will be moderated by USA Today’s Washington bureau chief Susan Page.
The second presidential debate will happen on October 15 in Miami and will be led by C-SPAN senior executive producer and political editor Steve Scully. The third and final debate will be moderated by NBC News’ White House correspondent and co-anchor of the “Weekend Today” show, Kristen Welker. It will take place on October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The first thing to note here is that each debate only has one moderator, which will probably make things go much smoother. As we saw from the Democratic primary debates, matchups with more than one moderator tend to get a little chaotic at times, with journalists trying to outdo one another for more speaking time and or better questions.
However, this certainly isn’t the only thing to notice here.
We also have to point out that for the first time since 2008, CNN has not been represented. Woohoo… I mean, is there another network that is more outright biased against the political right and, therefore, President Trump?
Of course, someone reading this from the left side of the center just also made sure to voice that Fox News was included in this year’s line-up, as Fox has been seen in recent years as being a bit more conservative than most news outlets.
To that, I point out who is representing Fox News. Enter Chris Wallace. If you know anything at all about Wallace, you will note that he definitely doesn’t have any love for President Trump. He has, on several occasions, as The Hill says, “angered some Republicans for his pointed questioning of Trump and White House officials.”
However, Wallace has had ample time to discuss specific policy issues and thoughts with President Trump in recent weeks, such as when Trump appeared on his Sunday morning show on Fox in July. In contrast, Biden has refused to sit down and do the same with Wallace.
Wallace has noted that since his interview with Trump, Biden has been invited to do the same, but each week, Wallace is told that “the former vice president was not available.”
Then again, it’s not like Biden has appeared on much of anything in the last few months unless it is a teleprompter speech from his basement. And even then, his gaffes are newsworthy.
The rest of the moderators are likely on Team Biden, but, as I mentioned before, they aren’t the ones screaming it from the rooftops. After all, with about 90 percent of all journalists identifying as Democrats these days, it’s become challenging to find someone who is both unbiased and competent.
However, it is expected that with these chosen few, we just might get at least some semblance of professionalism and objectivity.
In fact, according to the Commission, this is expressly why they were chosen.
“We are grateful to these experienced journalists, who will help ensure that the general election presidential debates continue to serve their unique educational purpose of helping the public learn about the candidates. Each individual brings great professionalism to moderating and understand that the purpose of the 2020 debate formats is to facilitate in-depth discussion of major topics.”
The only one we may have any real reason to wonder about is Welker, as she seems to clearly be on Biden’s side, as does her employer. Then again, I’m sure Trump knows this all too well and will be well prepared.
That is if Biden even shows up for the debates. It’s far more likely that he will be stuck in his basement, still trying to figure out how many grandchildren he has.
