(DailyAnswer.org) – Last week’s presidential debate moderators, Linsey Davis and David Muir, have stirred up some controversy. Davis, who works for ABC News, admitted in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that the plan was only to fact-check former President Donald Trump, not Vice President Kamala Harris during the debate.
Now, let’s break down what happened. During the debate, Trump was fact-checked by the moderators seven times. That’s not necessarily a problem in itself, but the issue is that Harris wasn’t fact-checked at all. Not once. Even when she repeated some claims that have already been debunked, like the infamous Charlottesville “very fine people” hoax, no one on stage called her out for it despite the repetition of these claims.
So, why the double standard? Well, Davis gave a pretty revealing answer. She said that Trump was the target because some people felt that during the June debate, which aired on CNN, Trump got away with saying false things without anyone challenging him—neither his opponent nor the moderators stepped in. Davis explained that this time, she wanted to make sure his statements didn’t go unchecked due to concerns from the previous debate.
Interestingly enough, this decision was apparently made in response to concerns about the CNN debate between Trump and Biden in late June. After that debate, where Biden’s poor performance was partly blamed for his exit from the race, many felt that Trump’s statements were just left to “hang” without enough pushback.
But here’s where things get strange. While Davis admitted the moderators did their homework and prepared for what Trump might say—since “politicians tend to repeat themselves,” as she put it—no such effort was made to fact-check Harris, even though her use of debunked claims is well-documented. In fact, she used the very same “fine people” hoax during a 2020 debate against Mike Pence, and he fact-checked her on the spot.
It seems like a one-sided fact-checking strategy was in place, leaving many to wonder: should debates really be about targeting one candidate over the other? Or should everyone’s words be held to the same standard?
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