Staff Reports
Cardboard cutouts might have as well replaced Dana Bash and Jake Tapper during the recent presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. After painstaking preparation, the CNN moderators ended up as mere background noise as Biden fumbled and Trump pirouetted around their questions with the grace of a seasoned politician.
The script was familiar: Biden mumbled through his supposedly sharp responses while Trump dominated the stage in his trademark style. Bash and Tapper tried their best to keep the conversation focused on the economy, the war in Ukraine, climate change, the border, and election integrity – topics Americans actually care about – but Biden’s fitness for office became the unintended star of the show.
I never thought I would say this. It DID matter that the moderators were there. They actually did a much better job than I expected given their track record.
How did CNN's moderators do in the Biden-Trump debate? It almost didn't matter that they were there…
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) June 28, 2024
Backstage, it was panic central for Biden’s camp. According to one of their analysts, concerned texts were flying faster than a CNN fact-check. With every passing minute, it became more apparent that this was not how Team Biden imagined their candidate standing, or rather, floundering, before the American public.
CNN’s strategy seemed straightforward: let them ask the questions but avoid playing referee. This led to multiple moments where Trump artfully sidestepped straight answers, while Biden’s vague responses left audiences scratching their heads. When asked about supporting a Palestinian state, Trump’s clever pivot to NATO showed his knack for dodging landmines with finesse. Biden, in contrast, struggled to string together coherent thoughts on several occasions, much to the moderators’ visible frustration.
The post-debate analysis was a study in liberal media hand-wringing. CBS lamented about Trump’s unchecked statements controlling the narrative. CNN’s reporters were busy firing off unheeded fact-checks on social media as if trying to call fouls in a game where they weren’t allowed to blow the whistle.
Even before the debate, CNN courted criticism for shutting out a pool reporter – an action protested by the White House Correspondents’ Association. CNN’s firm stance was just another move in the grand theatre of what was supposed to be a landmark debate, but it ended up more like a poorly orchestrated school play.
In the end, mainstream media outlets echoed each other as usual, with headlines that painted Biden as struggling and Trump as evasive. Of course, the real takeaway for Americans was about who looked more like a leader under pressure – and the answer was certainly not the bumbling incumbent. Viewership was expectedly high, but whether Biden’s performance gained him any new supporters is another question entirely. Let’s say it will be a long campaign season for the Dems.
