TELL ME IT ISN’T TRUE, JOHN – I was in my car when Kayleigh McEnaney’s White House press briefing came on the radio. I was getting irate when I heard this media representative insist – three times – that she provide “a definitive statement, without ambiguity or deflection as the person who speaks for the president, does the president denounce white supremacism, and groups that espouse it, in all forms?”
That was after she had read several quotes of the president on that subject. “You just read a bunch of quotes from the past,” he pressed on. “I just asking you to put this to rest.” “I just did,” she responded.
It wasn’t until I arrived back home that I learned that the media representative in question was John Roberts of Fox News Channel. I was shocked, then disappointed. I always thought highly of him as a journalism. I recall writing to him with congratulations when he came to Fox.
I have been critical of Fox News Channel of late, with their hiring of Democrat contributors, even the former DNC chairwoman, and the time they give leftist guests time to comment, all in the name of being fair and balanced.
Have you gone over to the other side, John?
A BRIEF LOOK BACK AT THE DEBATE – You’ve probably heard and read more comments on the first 2020 debate than you want repeated, but I do feel obligated to provide you with a few of my observations.
You may recall in my brief comment made after the debate, I made three observations. Chris Wallace did a lousy job. A writer to the editor of the Arizona Republic captured it, writing “It was a travesty overseen by a hapless moderator who could do nothing to moderate the vitriol. I found myself yelling at the TV, ‘shut up, Chris.”
Then there’s Wallace’s selection of questions, which he said were his and his alone. The debunked Charlottesville Trump quote? The New York Times’ tax story? Climate change and the Paris Accord? All to favor Biden.
We learned nothing. The president was able to make a good number of points, however, they were of a nature we were already aware. You might say we learned that Biden is in charge – not Sanders or AOC – but who believes that? And he has no interest in law and order, but we already knew that, too.
And, finally, Joe Biden was not forced to answer the question on Black Lives Matter.
To my knowledge, his dodging of that question was not picked up by a single member of the media. Not surprising, because, like the question about Antifa, it would have put him on the opposite side of his leftist supporters, who want to pretend those groups don’t exist.
“Antifa is an idea, not an organization,” Biden declared. So, it was “ideas” that caused some $2 billion In damage in several American cities.
Wallace asked: “What does re-imagining policing mean and do you support the Black Lives Matter call for community control of policing.”
Biden did not answer the question. He didn’t even use the name of Black Lives Matter. He denied wanting to defund the police, before going off on one of his fantasy views of policing that would have a psychologist or psychiatrist respond to 911 calls to talk people down.
Wallace didn’t challenge him.
How can Americans be assured of their safety when Democrats refuse to acknowledge the existence of two domestic terrorism groups destroying our cities?
Wallace also let Biden get away with saying of the Green New Deal, “That is not my plan,” while later insisting that the “GND will pay for itself as we move forward.” Biden has said that the GND is the “crucial framework for meeting the climate changes we face.”
FOX BRASS COMMENTED TO COLLEAGUES on Chris Wallace’s performance in a memo: “We’d like to take a moment to thank and congratulate Chris Wallace for moderating last night’s extraordinary debate. We are extremely proud of his professionalism, skill and fortitude in a unique situation while doing everything possible to hold both candidates accountable. NO moderator could have managed a debate of that magnitude better than Chris.”
HERE’S WHAT WALLACE HAD TO SAY – “I’m just sad the way last night turned out. I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did.”
That’s because he didn’t check his ego at the door. The build up to the event painted Wallace as THE premier journalist.
“I’ve been involved in a certain amount of soul-searching,” Wallace added upon reflection. ”Generally speaking, I did as well as I could, so I don’t have second thoughts there. I’m just disappointed with the results. For me, but more importantly, I’m disappointed for the country, because it could have been a much more useful evening that it turned out to be.”
Yes. Beginning with better question selection and requiring answers to questions for starters.
IF BIDEN DID SO WELL, why are the Never Trumpers so eager to have him skip the next two debates? “If Joe Biden is looking for a pretext to skip the next two debates, he found it,“ said Matt Lewis of the Daily Beast.
“Trump is unhinged, sweating, angry and blistering. He is losing. He is falling apart. There should be no more,” wrote Steve Schmidt, former confidant of the late John McCain.
“There should be no more debates,” wrote Bill Kristol in The Bulwark.
MEANWHILE, rumors fly about changing the debate rules. A mute button was suggested, but forget it. We have a mute button if we choose to use it.
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH, Spanish-speaking viewers of Telemundo expressed their preference of who won the presidential debate: 65 percent Trump and 34 percent Biden.
FINALLY, IN PASSING – Prior to my 1965 discharge from the U.S. Air Force, I had the enjoyable assignment to provide public communications support for the aircraft storage unit at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona. As I drove amongst the old aircraft it was like reliving the history of our air power.
I was reminded of that period in my life while reading that a B-52, that had been in storage there since 2008, was removed from the 309th Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Group facility and returned to service at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, as a replacement for one lost in a 2016 accident.
While I was there, history recorded the first B-52 to go into storage.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
