Morning Glory: The Worst Presidential Debate of All Time

Not a single question was asked Wednesday night about the execution of Hersh Goldberg Pollin and five other hostages two weeks ago, or about the Americans killed by Hamas terrorists on October 7th?

Do you not ask a single question about Iran, which is acquiring nuclear weapons within weeks and is presumably giving precise instructions in return for repeated attacks by its proxy forces against American forces in the Gulf, Arabia, the Red Sea, Iraq and Jordan?

Is there any doubt about President Joe Biden's ability to continue in the presidency?

And not a single question about the People's Republic of China and its genocide of the Uighurs, its crackdown on Hong Kong, its threats to Taiwan or the Philippines, or its largest and most costly peacetime military buildup in history?

Perhaps ABC’s parent company, Disney, refrained from asking questions that would anger the People’s Republic of China and jeopardize its theme parks and film releases in the country. Who knows? But ABC and Disney made time for lengthy exchanges about abortion rights (a topic that has been debated many times in this campaign) and for a stupid question about Trump around January 6th about “I regret some things. I have some, but too few to say.” There were at least four moderator interventions and reprimands, disguised as “fact-checks” about former President Donald Trump, but none about Vice President Kamala Harris. The bias was pulsating. Everyone could feel it. Democrats and leftists cheered, Republicans were first shocked, then outraged.

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When Trump declared after the debate that it had been the best debate ever because it was three to one, almost no one agreed with the first part of what he said, and almost no one disagreed with the second part.

In interviews Wednesday morning with conservative thought leaders Matt Continetti, Mary Katherine Hamm, Bethany Mandel, and National Review's Rich Lowry and Jim Geraghty, not a single person thought Trump won the debate, many thought he lost, and some even called it a terrible performance. But no one defended ABC and its hosts, David Muir and Lindsey Davis, which is something I've never seen a conservative pundit do from the center-right (a polar opposite reaction to the Trump-Biden CNN debate, moderated by Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, which was widely praised by the right as fair).

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There is also widespread agreement among center-right voters that this was the worst-moderated and most biased presidential debate since the beginning of the debate in 1960. The left will eventually admit this after the election is over. Harris performed well, Trump did not. Trump raged early on, and by the time of his closing remarks, his finest moment, the audience was certainly thinning.

But while Trump lost the battle, he may have won the war. The blatant suppression of the press, the ostentatious displays of bias, the ignoring or refusal to mention important facts (Snopes debunked the old Charlottesville story, and thousands of Jewish students at universities across the country were terrorized by anti-Semitic mobs in recent months, but that wasn't even mentioned!) made ABC and Disney the real losers on Wednesday night. Polls may also tilt toward Trump as the “silent majority” digests the ubiquitous wave of criticism of the debate moderators outside of the Manhattan and Washington media elites. We'll see.

But no matter what the polls show or how the election plays out, this debate will live in infamy. The biggest damage done by this gaffe is to Muir and Davis's journalistic reputations, but the damage will extend to both the ABC and Disney brands, particularly with the omission of coverage on Israel and China.

As president of Salem Media, I have co-hosted five presidential primary debates hosted by major established networks: four with CNN in 2015-2016 and one with NBC last November. None of them were perfect. But no moderator was able to write about it the day after the debate. That was the goal. It's the goal that every moderator should strive for, no matter where they are. Throughout the hundreds of hours and dozens of question preparation sessions and rehearsals, I always maintained a fundamental level of fairness. Moderators work from a very strict script. They know the question set intimately. We rehearse responses to anticipated responses from the candidates. Wednesday night's hack was intentional. There is no room for excuses.

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ABC and Disney didn't expect a Bud Light-level disaster, but they created one themselves. Republicans don't have very good memories. If they had memories, they would have remembered that ABC's George Stephanopoulos infamously asked Mitt Romney in a 2012 debate, “Governor Romney, do you believe states have the right to ban birth control?” It's not that Republicans have forgotten, they just didn't believe in the media's collective guilt. They should forget now. This ambush against Trump was well planned and well executed. If Trump wins, there should never be an ABC interview. Republicans should not associate with this network. Republicans should not watch Muir or Lindsay. They are partisan, but they are disloyal partisans. They pretend not to be.

It's hard to imagine any media personality wanting to take part in the worst presidential debate in American history. That title currently belongs to David Muir, Lindsey Davis, and the entire team at ABC/Disney, and it's unlikely they'll ever relinquish it.

Hugh Hewitt is the host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” broadcast weekdays from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM on the Salem Radio Network and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide and on all streaming platforms where SNC is available. He is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel's News Roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6:00 PM ET. A native of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a professor of law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law, where he has taught constitutional law since 1996. Hewitt began his eponymous radio show in Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on all major national news television stations, hosted television shows on PBS and MSNBC, contributed to all major American newspapers, authored 12 books, and moderated numerous Republican presidential debates. He most recently moderated the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in 2015-2016. In his radio show and column, Hewitt focuses on the Constitution, national security, American politics, the Cleveland Browns and the Guardians. During his 40 years of broadcasting experience, Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests, from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In this column, we preview the top stories that will be headlining today's radio/television shows.

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