Journalist Mark Halperin accused the media of trying to protect Vice President Kamala Harris “at all costs” following Tuesday night’s crucial ABC News presidential debate.
“Not only were certain news organizations fully in favor of continuing to defend her at all costs until Election Day, but their coverage of the laughably uneven debate was completely unaware of the laughably uneven nature of it all, and in fact was mostly praising ABC for the great job they were doing,” Halperin said in a livestream on his media platform, 2WAY, on Wednesday.
ABC’s co-hosts David Muir and Lindsey Davis drew criticism from conservatives for fact-checking former President Trump’s comments five times during the heated debate but never correcting Harris. The hosts were also criticized for failing to ask Harris to explain why she had changed her stance on some of her past progressive policies.
Halperin, the former ABC News political director, said the hosts’ response to Ms Harris’ policy shift was “the biggest mistake of the night.”
ABC Presidential Debate: Moderators David Muir and Lindsey Davis fact-check Trump 5 times, Harris zero
ABC’s presidential debate co-hosts David Muir and Lindsey Davis fact-checked former President Trump’s comments five times during the 90-minute debate but failed to correct Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments once on Tuesday night. (ABC News)
“What’s bigger to me is that last night was their only chance to hold Harris’ campaign to account for her change in positions on issues if they continued to hide her. To me, that was the biggest mistake,” he said.
While Mr. Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, have given at least 44 interviews since the Harris-Waltz coalition was formed, Ms. Harris and her running mate have given only seven unscripted interviews with less than two months until Election Day.
He argued that the debate may have been Harris’ only opportunity to explain her change in policy stance.
“They asked her one question and she didn’t answer, and then they just totally abandoned it,” Halperin said.
Towards the end of the debate, Davis brought up Harris’ past support for abolishing private health care, then asked the candidate what her current health care proposals are.
FOX News Media proposes second Harris-Trump debate to be moderated by Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump attended the second presidential debate at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday. (Getty Images)
Trump’s performance was also slammed by Halperin as “the worst debate performance I’ve ever seen.”
Trump argued that Harris failed to get the message across that she is a far-left extremist.
“Last night he demonstrated what most of us thought, which is that he just can’t do it,” Halperin said.
Halperin wasn’t convinced the debate would have a significant impact on the polls, despite the biased media coverage and Trump’s poor performance.
“There may or may not be movement,” he said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to ABC News for comment.
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