The Moderators, The Candidates & The Rules of the VP Debate – Top 3 Takeaways – October 1st, 2024
- The moderators. One of the biggest storylines ahead of debates is the role that moderators play in a debate. Moderators are like referees and umpires. If we come out of debate talking about them...there’s a problem. And following the Trump-Harris presidential debate...we had a big problem. According to the Media Research Center, ABC’s World News Tonight program featuring David Muir and Lindsey Davis, the debate moderators, had provided the most biased news coverage of any network. In the MRC’s study, from July 21st when Kamala Harris entered the race, through September 6th, 100% of the coverage of Kamala Harris was positive. During the same time 93% of the news coverage of Donald Trump was negative. And they moderated the debate that way in what Donald Trump and his team described as a 3 on 1 matchup as the moderators “fact checked” Trump five times during the debate compared to zero fact checking of Harris despite her lobbing multiple whoopers out there. Is tonight’s VP debate set to potentially be more of the same? CBS News is the venue. Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan are the moderators. According to the Media Research Center’s study, CBS’s coverage has been 84% positive for Kamala Harris and her campaign compared to 79% negative for Donald Trump and his campaign. Hey, that’s better than 100% and 93% anyway...but ahh, yeah. There's obviously the potential for tonight’s debate to take on a similar feel to what we saw during the most recent presidential debate. While there are many examples of critically unjust coverage of the Trump campaign by both O’Donnell and Brennan, perhaps the most instructive was their breaking news coverage of the first assassination attempt of Donald Trump when it was stated: He is recovering from these injuries now, this was a traumatic event, no doubt, for him. But I did notice there was no call for lowering the temperature, condemning all political violence, and really trying to signal to his supporters as well not to retaliate or have any kind of escalation here. The man had just been shot, had come within an inch of being killed, one of his supporters was murdered and the O’Donnell and Brennan response was to effectively condemn Trump? So yeah, there’s the potential for the moderators to factor in a one-sided way once again. It’s likely that Vance prepared for this however, so if it happens, he’ll probably be prepared 1) How will the questions be framed? 2) Will the focus of the questions be on the issues that matter to us or to the moderators (January 6th, threat to democracy, etc.)? 3) Will Tim Walz be properly pressed on his lack of public access since becoming Kamala Harris’ running mate (no solo interviews), his ticket’s failure to provide comprehensive policy plans so that Americans may better understand what it is that the ticket stands for, and for Kamala’s stated flips flops on key issues? 4) Will the moderators let the candidates speak during their allocated time or would they intervene and/or cut off mics during a candidate’s time? We’ll review those tomorrow.
- The candidates. Can the younger and lesser experienced politician JD Vance stand tall on the debate stage in comparison to the veteran politician and current Minnesota Governor Tim Walz? Will JD Vance be able to effectively redefine himself to a country of people who’ve been conditioned to think that he’s a weirdo who has a particular bug up his butt about cat ladies? Will Vance be able to effectively turn the tables and paint Tim Walz as the weirdo? Will Walz be able to credibly come across as the “every man” he portrays himself to be, or will he potentially come across as an insincere politician trying to fake it? Will Vance be able to effectively paint Harris and Walz as the leftist radicals that their voting records and rhetoric preceding the presidential and vice-presidential run suggest? Will Walz be able to effectively paint Vance as an out-of-the-mainstream conservative extremist the way that he has often suggested is the case (people already have their opinion of Trump – nothing Walz has to say about him will have any impact)? Will Vance be able to effectively combat the questions about his previous criticisms of Donald Trump as a one-time “Never-Trumper” (that’s an easy way for the moderators to say negative things about Trump without making it sound like it’s about them – it will happen)? Will Vance, a Millennial, be able to come across in way that connects with younger voters, a traditional Trump weakness? JD Vance and Tim Walz are two very different people, with very different paths to the debate stage and with a greater age separation than Trump and Harris. There should be quite a contrast in just about every way that’s on display.
- The rules of the debate... There will be no studio audience. There will be only a pen, paper and water allowed on stage. No prewritten notes will be allowed, nor will any sitting be allowed during the course of the 90-minute debate. There will be commercial breaks though neither candidate will be allowed to consult their political teams. And then there’s this one that’s different from the presidential debates. The candidate’s microphones may be muted if the moderators feel it’s necessary, however they will otherwise remain hot throughout. The candidates will have two minutes for closing statements and Vance, like Trump before him, won the coin toss and opted to go last so he’ll have the last word in the debate. Get your popcorn ready for what’s likely to be the last debate of the election cycle as we’re now only 5 weeks away from Election Day.