You'd think someone who has been reporting the news since 1975 and covered just about
every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan would have seen it all. But Chris Wallace, who moderated
the first presidential debate on September 29, 2020, in Ohio, is proof that there is
a first time for everything, even for a veteran newscaster. As he told The New York Times,
"I'm a pro. I've never been through anything like this."
When Wallace first saw President Donald Trump engage with former Vice President Joe Biden,
he explained,
"I thought this was great - this is a debate!"
But then things took a turn for the worse. Wallace said,
"If I didn't try to seize control of the debate - which I don't know that I ever really did
- then it was going to just go completely off the tracks. [...] You're reluctant [...] to
rise to the point at which you begin to interject more and more. First to say, 'Please don't
interrupt,' then 'Please obey the rules,' and third, 'This isn't serving the country
well.' Those are all tough steps at real time, at that moment, on that stage."
Social media commentators on both sides of the political aisle were merciless in their
judgement of Wallace's handling of the debate, but many of the harshest criticisms came from
the right.
Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's tweets praised the president for his comments, saying,
"Good line from Trump - he tells Chris Wallace he's debating him, not Joe."
"First of all, I guess I'm debating you, not him, but that's OK. I'm not surprised."
Actor James Woods, a vocal Trump supporter, tweeted,
"Chris Wallace is shamelessly biased. It's a beautiful demonstration of fake news in
action. I'm actually glad it's happening, because you can see it for yourself."
Conservative pundit Ann Coulter said,
"Every time Trump is nailing Biden, Chris Wallace interrupts. 'That's the next topic!'"
"Mr. President. Mr President, as a moderator… We are going to talk about COVID in the next
segment, but, go ahead."
Wallace defended himself, telling The New York Times,
"I've read some of the reviews. I know people think, well, gee, I didn't jump in soon enough.
I guess I didn't realize [...] that this was going to be the president's strategy, not
just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate."
The Commission on Presidential Debates has said it would bring "additional tools" on
board to try and keep the chaos of the first debate from happening again. The day after
the debate, the commission stated,
"Last night's debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of
the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues."
The Trump campaign has already objected to the yet-to-be-announced changes, because they
say their candidate would be treated "unfairly" as a result. Spokesman Tim Murtaugh told USA
Today,
"They're only doing this because their guy got pummeled last night. President Trump was
the dominant force and now Joe Biden is trying to work the refs. They shouldn't be moving
the goalposts and changing the rules in the middle of the game."
One change observers have suggested is turning off the microphone of the candidate who doesn't
have the floor, but Wallace doesn't think a mute button will work. He said,
"As a practical matter, even if the president's microphone had been shut, he still could have
continued to interrupt, and it might well have been picked up on Biden's microphone,
and it still would have disrupted the proceedings in the hall."
Plus, cutting off a presidential candidate's mic could have unforeseen consequences, he
said, because both candidates have the support of millions of viewers and voters.
In the end, Wallace says the debate was a "terrible missed opportunity." He's already
warning the moderators of the second and third debates, C-SPAN'S Steve Scully and Kristen
Welker of NBC News, to be on their guards. He said,
"If either man goes down this road, I hope you'll be quicker to realize what's going
on than I was. I didn't have that advance warning."
"We're moving on."
But even with all the chaos and commentary, will what happened at the first debate even
make a difference? In the polls, the debate didn't seem to end up moving the needle very
much.
The director for the University of Virginia Center for Politics Larry Sabato told NBC
29 that several post-debate polls show the political circus act that played out on television
didn't change the standings of either candidate. He said,
"We are so polarized, we're so tribal in politics today. We're so fixed on what we want, and
who we support that my guess is this is not going to have a major impact on the vote.
I've already seen one private poll and two public ones that suggest exactly that. This
election is about Donald Trump. Everybody knows it. It's a referendum on Donald Trump."
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