This is no effort to alleviate Donald J. Trump, who has been involved in the most debates this side of Abraham Lincoln, of his responsibility for his less-than-great performance on September 10, but to explain the forces working against him. These forces include best friends, sorority sisters, and Hollywood.
By now, you know that Trump could have calmly pointed his lightsaber at the dark lies, blown up Kamala Harris's overt whoppers, and moved on, but he didn't do that with regularity. He let Harris get under his skin with her deceit, verbal sleights, and non-answers. He let it get to him. It wasn't his night.
The former president displayed irascibility in response to some wholly beside-the-point "questions" and answers by ABC's David Muir and his female sidekick. Now, I have watched David Muir a few times over the years. Having been a radio guy for decades, I've listened to and worked with people who are absolutely besotted with the sound of their own voices. David Muir is one of those guys. His studied, faux earnestness is a hoot to watch. "Listen to me," he seems to say, "while I look earnestly into a camera and speak words someone else wrote, with my deep baritone voice—that was so good in the Pippin summer stock let. me. tell. you."
Muir's self-love could have made Tuesday night the most cringetastic event of the election cycle, second only to Joe Biden blubbering through the first debate, but for the selection of questions and the fact that only one candidate was required to answer them. Only one candidate was interrupted five times for "fact checks" in the middle of his exposition, which were not factual at all. Guess which candidate that was? Trump was on his own to fact-check Kamala Harris—if he got a chance, that is.
Harris was allowed to lie with impunity, recite non-facts, and not participate in a "debate" to explain her positions. Her only tactic was to bait Trump.
The game was afoot at the beginning when it was clear that the two moderators, Muir and some chick I've never heard of, asked Kamala Harris if the economy is better now than it was four years ago. They let her escape without answering. Now we know that "chick," Linsey Davis, was Kamala Harris's sorority sister.
ABC News never mentioned it on debate night, but this video making the rounds on Thursday reveals that Davis was asked about their bond on the day Harris was sworn in.
THERE YOU HAVE IT: ABC News debate "moderator" Linsey Davis boasts on air about literally being Kamala Harris' sorority sister. WTF.pic.twitter.com/msQdryA4N1
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) September 12, 2024
There was no disclaimer, either, for the fact that the woman who oversees ABC News is Kamala Harris's best friend, Dana Walden.
Dana Walden, a senior Disney executive whose portfolio includes ABC News, is one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ “extraordinary friends,” according to a report in the New York Times.
Walden and Harris have known each other since 1994, while their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, have known each other since the 1980s.
Dana Walden has donated to dozens of Democrats and contributed to Harris’ political campaigns since at least 2003, when she ran for district attorney in San Francisco.
Walden's employee, David Muir, opened the debate with, "I want to begin tonight with the issue voters repeatedly say is their number one issue, and that is the economy and the cost of living in this country. Vice President Harris, you and President Trump were elected four years ago, and your opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?'"
Besides Trump not having been elected four years ago, David Muir didn't demand an answer from Harris to a question I swear I had just heard him say was the "number one issue" in America.
Americans watching the doyenne of Brentwood, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.—cities where she currently owns homes—speak about her "middle class" upbringing by her two college professor parents in Canada and then the Bay Area, never heard her answer whether she thought her and Joe's "Bidenomics" sucked.
The entire night went like this, with Trump being interrupted to be "fact-checked" by the moderators, whose facts were laughably wrong. Harris libeled Trump about easily checkable "bloodbaths," "fine people on both sides," inciting January 6, the economy, his "weakness," abortion, Project 2025, and even Trump's well-attended rallies. She was never fact-checked.
On gun control, Harris claimed she never called for getting rid of guns and claimed that she is a gun owner.
"And then this business about taking everyone's guns away," Harris lied. "Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We're not taking anybody's guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff."
There would be no fact check on either claim. Sorority sisters protect the sisterhood. I remember when women disparaged the "old boys network" only to create their own.
The United States is facing serious economic problems, inflation, the nation's indebtedness, and the open-borders madness brought about by the Biden/Harris administration, international NGOs, and the devotees of Cloward Piven. We actually need to hear answers from the people who presume to lead this nation.
The false fact checks grew worse when Kamala's sorority sister attempted to save the vice president by pivoting from the economy to abortion. She "fact-checked" Trump's answer about late-term and after-birth deaths.
LINSEY DAVIS: There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born. Madam vice president, I want to get your response to President Trump.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, as I said, you're going to hear a bunch of lies.
Davis's question was based on a lie, and Kamala's answer was a lie because former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam — a baby doctor— confirmed that children who survive abortions are killed if the mother consents.
Matt just wrote about how late-term abortion is a fact of life in a number of states. Scott wrote about late-term abortions where babies are left for dead in Minnesota.
And let's remember the seminal day when the Associated Press reported that anti-abortion protesters who prayed and "blocked" access to a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic were arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to years in federal prison. The AP reported that one of the patients seeking an abortion was in labor.
A clinic nurse sprained her ankle when one of Handy’s co-defendants forced his way into the clinic and pushed her. Another co-defendant accosted a woman who was having labor pains, preventing her from getting off a floor and entering the clinic, prosecutors said. [emphasis added]
Trump had some good moments and not-so-good ones. He sometimes ranted and failed to complete thoughts and sentences. Harris sounded more polished but failed to answer questions. She lied with impunity and was not fact-checked. The after-action panels of non-committed voters questioned on TV broke for Trump, however.
Before the debate, Trump told Fox News's Sean Hannity that he wouldn't get fair treatment from ABC News but it was the only network Kamala would agree to.
“I agreed to do it because they wouldn’t do any other network," Trump said. “The other thing is, her best friend is the head of the network.”
Trump was right. He didn't get treated fairly by the network. Big surprise.
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