#ABC presidential debate

[gwydionmisha]

Obeying in advance did not save them.

[bodybybane]

Takeaways from the ABC presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/10/politics/debate-takeaways-trump-harris/index.html

[miki-13]

She's killing him by talking about helping the poor.

Also fuck ABC for cutting her off and calling trump president and interupting Harris

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis received plaudits from their peers for their efforts moderating the debate earlier this month between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Many journalists praised ABC’s decision to forcefully rebut a tiny fraction of Trump's false claims, which provided “a model… for real-time fact-checking of the candidates that we have not glimpsed in previous debates,” as New York Times reporter Michael M. Grynbaum put it. But CBS News has decided that moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan will not follow that model for Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. The network said that “the onus will be on Vance and Walz to point out misstatements by the other, and that ‘the moderators will facilitate those opportunities’ during rebuttal time,” The Associated Press reported Friday.��

In other words, if a candidate offers an obvious and easily debunked falsehood, the moderators will presumably turn to their opponent and say some version of, “Your response?” This amounts to “basically off-loading one of your journalistic responsibilities onto the candidates themselves,” as a critic put it to the AP. The CBS decision to renounce moderator fact checks will leave the national debate audience all the poorer. For instance, it will turn an inevitable and easily anticipated lie from Vance that Harris allowed thousands of migrant murderers to run rampant into a he-said/he-said conflict. And the plausible explanations for why CBS is telegraphing its unwillingness to do so bode ill for the state of the news media.

[...]

Why is CBS doing this?

There are two explanations for why CBS has decided not to follow ABC’s model and have its moderators fact-check the debate, and both are dispiriting. One is that CBS simply does not believe it is the network’s job to separate truth from fiction during high-profile, heavily viewed political events. Under this interpretation, while ABC News showed that such fact-checking can be done well, and that it adds to the debate rather than subtracts from it, CBS is simply opposed to doing that. The other is that CBS has been scared off of fact-checking by the right’s furious response to ABC. Right-wing pundits melted down in real time, castigating the ABC moderators and denouncing their network. And Trump himself repeatedly lashed out at the network in the days following the debate, even threatening to use federal regulatory power to retaliate against it. By contrast, Trump praised the CNN moderators, who had adopted a far more passive style, following his June debate with President Joe Biden. Perhaps CBS brass have decided they’d rather not risk angering Trump and have him take a hammer to the network if he returns to the White House, or perhaps they simply want to avoid the hassle that comes with such complaints. Either way, it means authoritarian threats have proved effective in compelling the media to change behavior. That is a dire incentive structure for the press.

Sounds like CBS moderators are caving into the right-wing bullying campaign against fact-checking lies being told at the debate stage, particularly from JD Vance.

[and-loth-cat]

cannot get myself to fully watch the debate but im waiting for harris to take out her lightsaber and kick ass

[sweetdreamstilsunbeamsfindyou]

why did you send me a picture of my house 🧐 you’re gonna have to figure that out abdul 🙂‍↔️🙂‍↕️

[noirandchocolate]

Okay they’re doing closing speeches now.

PS Harris really hammered hard on the abortion issue during this. I didn’t get to that fast enough but she really hit him hard on that.

Harris says she’s going to do many good things!!

Trump says why hasn’t she done it then.

BECAUSE THEYVE BEEN CLEANING UP YOUR MESS, ASSHOLE!!!! You absolute SHIT.

He says we’re a “failing nation” and that world leaders come to him to laugh at us. He is threatening nuclear war????????? He says Harris gave our weapons to the Taliban.

And that’s it!!!!! Goodbye it’s time for me and Bast and Penny and Master Kohga to go to SLEEP.

“HOW much did you drink??” “The right amount, Master, let’s go.”

[luvmoonie]

what the fuck is trump talking about

[uboat53]

Republicans are complaining that ABC's moderators at the debate did what good journalists do and prepared accurate fact-checks for easily foreseeable lies before the debate. My take is fairly simple, if your candidate's answer to being fact-checked is "but the people on TV are saying…", maybe the problem you have is not the person doing the fact-checking.

[jangillman]

Let's not forget the female interviewer was a sorority sister of Kamalas. Gee, what a coincidence 🤔🙄🥴😡

[originalleftist]

Harris has refused Trump's proposal of a debate on Fox, standing by the previously-agreed on ABC debate.

Your move, you gutless orange coward.

[thewarfox]

Big, if true.

It remains to be seen if any of this is true, obviously. I question the motives of such a thing if it is, in fact, real, but my best guess as far as that is that they wanted the debate to play out under the circumstances indicated in the statement.

On the other hand, perhaps it is fabricated after the fact? I suppose the reality of this would be discovered if all the parts about dated documents sent with time stamps are true. If so, this is kind of a bombshell. @reality-detective

[lightscamerabitchsmileee]

Anyways my thoughts in the debate:

Holy fuck what a debate!!

We all know who won that debate it's perfectly clear. Trump was a disaster he was a loose cannon the whole fucking time with lie after lie after lie after lie it was so embarassing and incoherent to the point that he was talking about eating cats and dogs and AI crowd sizes he was having such a desperate attempt at having the last word it was embarassing to watch and I feel like that's what Kamala was going for partly because she fucking roasted him and ate him for breakfast.

The way she baited him to talk about the most insane BS to come out of his mouth was glorious to watch and behold and professionally she was poised, gave really good answers and even good one liners and comebacks she struggled a little on immigration and the Gaza conflict but honestly she held her own overall she was the more professional one here and she won that debate easily. I really enjoyed her facial expressions too and how she didn't let his attacks faze her she was ready and prepared to pounce back.

The moderators I thought were okay I really wished they were more stricter on the mic rule which Trump broke every single time but im kinda glad they let him speak because Trump is a fucking idiot and America and the world needs a reminder of how much of a nutcase he truly is so yeah the right wing will complain that it was bias (and their meltdown is just a treat to watch btw lol) but I mean it really isn't they did their job and did fine.

Not only was Trump was a nutcase but man was he such doom and gloom that closing statement was just horrible nothing positive to say at all just how much of a failure America is when it really isn't that bad & he did shit all in his first term anyway so why claim America is a failure and is in a dark place when half of this shit is his fault Jesus christ and he didnt say how he'll be any different just attacks on Kamala, Biden and anyone he sees as the enemy that's not what you need in a President I understand sometimes you gotta give some reality but there needs to be more hope and joy and positivity and a plan that helps everyone which Kamala has.

Point is Kamala won and I know damn well she'll win this election too it's no contest Trump is a lost cause, a felon and a fraud he's old, out of touch and an embarrassment to America and the world and it baffles me how there's still Americans out there that still believe his BS and his constant lies like how wants to talk about failure and embarrassment?? His first term is riddled with them and I hope and pray Americans will make the right choice to vote in Kamala and have the common sense and decency ro not reward Trump with another term and puts his pathetic orange ass in prison.

And now with Taylor giving Kamala her endorsement let's just say Trump is in serious trouble lol the Swifties are coming 😊😊

[vintageseawitch]

former democrat sell-out tulsi gabbard seems to have a problem with people calling trump "the modern day hitler."

...does she realize what jd couch lover vance said about him just a few years ago before selling what was left of his soul to the likes of peter thiel for $15mil? or does that cancel out now that he's also proven that he stands for nothing & falls for anything much like herself?

she's so full of shit that she believed that trump stayed focused on policies the entire time. should we be concerned that they believe in delusions?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

A Fox News insider gave Donald Trump's campaign the questions in advance of Trump’s January 2024 town hall on the network, according to a forthcoming book. Later that year, Trump baselessly claimed someone at ABC had “very likely” provided Vice President Kamala Harris with the questions for their debate — and called for government retribution against the network if that were confirmed. CNN reported on the Fox revelations Wednesday after obtaining advance excerpts of Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt’s book Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power. Isenstadt writes that shortly before the start of Trump’s Iowa town hall, moderated by Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, a Trump staffer started receiving text messages from a Fox insider with the questions. 

“Trump was pissed” about the questions, which he thought were too aggressive, but the campaign “workshopped answers” with him, Isenstadt reported. While it's unclear who might have had access to the town hall questions, there is no shortage of Fox employees who value Trump’s political success over questions of journalistic integrity. The network effectively fused with Trump’s first-term White House, as several network hosts served as his advisers and a revolving door opened up between Fox and his administration. The network’s fawning coverage of his 2024 campaign helped him win the GOP primary and the general election, and he has since named 17 current or former Fox staffers to top posts in his second administration. (A Fox spokesperson told CNN that “we take these matters very seriously and plan to investigate should there prove to be a breach within the network,” a comical sentiment based on the network’s past handling of Trump-related ethics violations.) For his part, Trump subsequently claimed that a campaign receiving the questions from a news outlet source before a high-profile event should trigger serious consequences for the host outlet. Following his disastrous September 2024 debate performance, Trump alleged on his Truth Social platform that “People are saying that Comrade Kamala Harris had the questions from Fake News ABC. I would say it is very likely.” He went on to claim that if that were the case, “ABC’s license should be TERMINATED.”

[...] But when Brendan Carr, a Republican FCC member and the author of Project 2025’s chapter on the commission, was asked about the controversy during a House hearing, he “would not answer if he believed the FCC had grounds to revoke the ABC license after the debate.” Trump has since named Carr to replace Rosenworcel as FCC chair — and Carr subsequently suggested in a letter to Bob Iger, CEO of ABC’s parent company, Disney, that his FCC would closely scrutinize ABC’s affiliate agreements. Trump is an authoritarian who looks for any opportunity to punish news outlets he doesn’t like. But if Isenstadt’s story is accurate, he has no problem taking all the help he can get from favored ones.

According to Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt’s book called Revenge: The Inside Story Of Trump’s Return To Power, Donald Trump got his answers for the Fox town hall in January 2024 in advance by an insider from the channel. Now square that with his BS whining about ABC allegedly “gave” Kamala Harris favorable questions ahead of time.

See Also:

CNN: Trump camp was fed questions for Fox News town hall in advance from person inside network, new book says

[huntshro0m]

watching the debate,

IM SORRY ATHENA IS FLYING THE PLANE