President Donald J. Trump responds to a reporter’s question at the protecting America’s Seniors event Thursday, April 30, 2020, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour) Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the 2016 Chief of Missions Conference in Washington, D.C., on March 14, 2016. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]
Americans want politicians who are accountable. Giving Joe Biden a “virtual” debate, moderated by his former aide, will only allow him to continue to escape the scrutiny he deserves as a candidate for president.
Scott McKay writes of the President’s decision to avoid the “virtual” debate, explaining (abridged):
Thanks to some rather sketchy polling in the days following last week’s presidential debate, polling that also picked up the news that President Trump had tested positive for COVID-19, the prevailing narrative is that the debate was a disaster for Team Trump.
This is all bunk. It’s the product of an institution — supposedly “objective” journalism — that is all but dead. Cable TV news networks are dying, as is network television. Newspapers are moribund. The reporters working for these zombie organizations work for each other, not the public, and they live in the cesspool that is Twitter.
If Trump performed so terribly and Biden won the debate, why do the rules need to be changed?
It’s easier to cheat in a virtual debate than it is with mail-in ballots?
Is it because Biden might have a teleprompter if the debate is virtual. He might have all the questions. He won’t have to deal with any interruptions.
I don’t buy that. I saw Chris Wallace bailing Biden out more than once in that debate. And there is no reason to believe that Scott Scully, the “independent” moderator of the second debate who formerly worked as an intern for Biden, wouldn’t do the same.
But in a virtual debate, what guarantees do we have that Biden will get any questions requiring him to actually think of an answer? He managed to prove in the first debate that he could regurgitate his memorized talking points … barely.
Did you see Biden’s answer on the court-packing question Thursday? He told a reporter in Arizona he’ll answer that question “after the election.”
Scott McKay is publisher of the Hayride, which offers news and commentary on Louisiana and national politics.
