Early on in the debate, Americans learned that their distrust of and loathing for the legacy press is merited. Being eternal optimists, many Americans were confident that after the debacle of a debate embarrassingly (im)moderated by ABC’s leftist activists David Muir and Linsey Davis, CBS would make a herculean effort to appear neutral. Nope, CBS activists no can do.
Leftist activists masquerading as neutral journalists and debate moderators cannot stop themselves. They either cannot identify bias even as it fills their minds and mouths, or their political goals supersede commitments to fairness and professional responsibilities.
The very first question exposed the bias that polluted the debate. Margaret Brennan asked:
Would you support or oppose an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran?
Why was the question phrased like that? According to the AP, just on Tuesday, “Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel,” and the “Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon … has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began.” The war in Gaza began with a barbaric assault on innocent Israelis by Iran-backed Hamas. In April, Iran fired 300 missiles and drones into Israel. In what moral, geo-political, or military universe would an Israeli strike against the terror-state of Iran be deemed “pre-emptive”? Who wrote Margaret Brennan’s question? The Iranian government? Rashida Tlaib?
Fifteen minutes later, Vance discussed the Harris/Biden administration’s rescinding of “all of Donald Trump’s border policies, 94 executive orders, suspending deportations, [and] decriminalizing illegal aliens,” which has dramatically increased fentanyl and child trafficking. Following his statements, Brennan, with a metaphorical nudge and wink to the befuddled Walz, asked this loaded question:
Governor, do you care to respond to any of those specific allegations including that the vice president is quote ‘letting in fentanyl and using kids as drug mules’ among other things regarding children.
Brennan—the moderator—directed Walz to the specific claims she wanted him to address. A discerning audience could virtually hear her thoughts: “C’mon, knucklehead, I’ve just tossed you a lifeline. GRAB IT! Do as I say—not as you think.” Tuesday night, Brennan fancied herself the Great and Powerful Oz.
But Brennan had yet more hackery in her partisan bag ‘o’ tricks.
During the discussion of the border catastrophe caused by the Harris/Biden administration, Vance made this statement, which expresses a sentiment widely shared in Springfield and other communities across the country:
In Springfield look in Springfield Ohio and communities all across this country you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you’ve got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants.
That didn’t sit well with Brennan, so she piped up with a fact-check:
Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status—temporary protected status.
Since the debate rule was that the moderators would not be fact-checking the candidates and because Brennan’s fact-check was misinformation, Vance spoke up as he should have, clarifying for the viewers that the Haitian migrants were “legal” only because of some hocus-pocus, mumbo jumbo machinations of the Harris/Biden administration.
Brennan mischaracterized Vance’s clarification of her clarification as an effort to “explain the legal process.” His goal was not to “explain the legal process.” His goal was to correct her misinformation.
O’Donnell and Brennan would not take fact-checking of their fact-checking sitting down—no siree, not when they had a cone of silence to abuse at the ready to make sure that the audience didn’t hear too much clarification. And abuse it they did but not soon enough. The audience heard.
The audience also heard Walz lie—again. He said the law to trans illegals into legals had been in place since the 1990’s. So weird that mannikin—er, I mean womynnikin—Brennan didn’t clarify Walz’s misinformation.
Washington Post writer Jeremy Barr twisted himself into a Gordian Knot of sophistry as he tried to deflect accusations of bias and debate rule-breaking by the schmoderators:
CBS News anchors Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan took a diplomatic approach to moderating Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate, cutting off the candidates’ microphones at one point but mostly facilitating a conversation between Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).
Yeah, that’s the ticket. The schmoderators were “mostly facilitating” just like the riots of the 2020 Summer of Love were “mostly peaceful.”
Remember, it’s leftists like Brennan who want to be the cultural arbiters and censors of “misinformation.”
CBS oddly didn’t ask any questions about Walz’s Biden-esque lies about his military service or IVF, but because his Tiananmen Square whopper was just this week exposed, they couldn’t avoid that. With a faceful of grimaces, Walz told one truth, one lie, and one Kamalesque headscratcher.
The truth: He’s a knucklehead. The lie: He just “misspoke” about Tiananmen Square. The headscratcher: As a child, he rode his bike with his buddies till the streetlights went on, and he’s “proud of that service.”
In addition to being reminded not to trust the legacy press, Americans learned that JD Vance is brilliant, winsome, compassionate, focused, and rhetorically adept. He’s the Fred Astaire of debate.
It says something significant about the judgment of our presidential candidates that Trump selected as his running mate JD Vance, and Kamala chose a knucklehead.