Journalist Mark Halperin accused the legacy media of protecting Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris “at all costs” after Tuesday night’s high-stakes ABC News Presidential Debate.
“Not only was one news organization fully on board to continue through Election Day protecting her at all costs, but we saw in the coverage of the debate, which was laughably uneven, no recognition that it was laughably uneven. In fact, mostly praise for how great a job ABC did,” said Halperin during a livestream on his 2WAY media platform Wednesday.
ABC NewsNews’ debate co-moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir sparked criticism from conservatives after they fact-checked former President and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump five times during the contentious event and failed to correct Harris even once. The moderators were additionally accused of letting Harris off the hook by not getting her to explain why she flip-flopped her positions on numerous past progressive policies.
Halperin, a former ABC News political director, said the moderators’ soft treatment of Harris’ flip-flops on policy positions was the “biggest failure of the night.”
“Bigger to me was last night was the best — and if the Harris campaign continues to hide her, maybe only chance — to get her to explain her issue position changes. That, to me, was the biggest failure,” said Halperin.
While Trump and his running mate, GOP Senator JD Vance of Ohio, have conducted at least 44 interviews since the formation of the Harris-Walz ticket, Harris and her running mate have conducted only seven non-scripted interviews, with less than two months before Election Day.
The debate could have been Harris’ only chance to explain her flip-flopping
The debate could have been Harris’s only opportunity to explain her constantly shifting policy positions, argued Halperin.
“They asked her one question, she didn’t answer it, and then they dropped it completely,” he said.
Toward the end of the debate, Davis raised Harris’ prior support for abolishing private health care before asking her what her current healthcare proposal was.
Halperin additionally panned Trump’s performance as the “worst debate performance I’ve ever seen” from the former president.
He argued that Trump failed to get his message across about VP Harris being a left-wing radical.
“Last night, he demonstrated what most of us thought was the case: He’s utterly unable to do it,” said Halperin.
Despite what Halperin saw as Trump’s poor performance and biased media coverage, he wasn’t convinced the debate would significantly impact the polls.
“There may be movement, there may not,” concluded.
