Earlier this year, Newsmax uncritically reproduced trash-talking from Donald Trump and his surrogates around the idea of a debate with Joe Biden before the first debate was even announced. For instance:
- Guilfoyle to Newsmax: Biden No Match for Trump in Debate
- Trump Calls for Debates With Biden Sooner, More Often
- Trump: Will Debate Biden ‘Anywhere, Anytime, Anyplace’
There was also this April 26 item by Fran Beyer:
President Joe Biden will be sorely tested in any debate with former President Donald Trump, nor will Biden persuade Americans that the economy “is working,” former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told Newsmax.
Whitaker, who serves as a senior fellow at the American Cornerstone Institute, said Friday on “Newsline” that “based on his recent appearances, it doesn’t seem like [Biden] can do” a debate with Trump.
“He can’t read off a teleprompter,” Whitaker said. “He’s put his foot in his mouth several times recently.”
Whitaker predicted “it’s going to be very interesting.”
“We have to have debates,” he said. “We have to see these two stand toe-to-toe and debate the important issues on behalf of the American people.”
Beyer did not mention the fact that Trump is the candidate who is on the record as avoiding debates, having refused to take part in any debate involving other Republican candidates during the primary process.
After the first debate was announced, Trump toady Dick Morris made an attempt to work the refs in a May 15 Newsmax TV appearance:
Author and political analyst Dick Morris told Newsmax on Wednesday that his only concern about the upcoming debates between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is “that the moderators are going to stack the debates.”
Earlier in the day, the two campaigns agreed to hold two debates — one on June 27 hosted by CNN and the other on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC.
The revised schedule comes following Biden’s announcement that he would not participate in the three-decade long tradition of fall debates sponsored by the nonpartisan debate commission. CNN announced that hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the first debate.
Morris referenced the moment in the 2012 presidential debates when moderator Candy Crowley from CNN aided former President Barack Obama during his debate with Mitt Romney. Regardless, Morris still felt that Trump’s energy will win out.
“It’s fantastic for Trump. He’s going to clobber him and the fact that Biden is agreeing to it shows that the poll numbers we’ve been reading are accurate, and he’s in serious trouble,” he said during an appearance on “Greg Kelly Reports.”
Another Republican served up debate complaints in a June 22 article:
Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., co-founder of the Commission on Presidential Debates and former Republican National Committee chair, told Newsmax he’s uneasy about the rules ahead of CNN’s debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
In an interview on “Saturday Agenda,” Fahrenkopf emphasized the importance of allowing candidates ample time to delve into topics thoroughly, a principle that he believed was lacking in the current setup.
[…]Fahrenkopf also expressed reservations about moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
“There was no choice here for the Trump campaign,” he said.
“As I know, they had no way to say, No, we’re not going to use those two people who historically have not been very, very kind with regard to former President Trump.”
Nicole Wells tried her own ref-working in a June 24 article:
The two CNN anchors who will be moderating Thursday’s presidential candidates’ debate have a rocky history with former President Donald Trump, having suggested the presumptive GOP nominee will try to “kill democracy” if reelected.
Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, who host CNN’s “State of the Union,” will be posing questions to both Trump and President Joe Biden at the network’s forum beginning at 9 p.m. ET in Atlanta.
Tapper has derided Trump as a “desperate electoral loser” in the past and suggested the 45th president spread “Russian propaganda.”
He did try to kill democracy once, and he’s going to try to do it again,” Tapper said on air in December 2021. “But this time with a little help from his friends.”
In December, Tapper also said that Trump’s language about migrants “poisoning the blood of our country” was similar to that of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in his book “Mein Kampf.”
[…]Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, was abruptly cut off during a live interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Monday morning for suggesting Bash and Tapper would create a “hostile environment” for Trump during the debate.
Despite her complaints, Wells made no attempt to dispute the accuracy of anything Tapper said. She did, however, make an usual stab at balance by noting that “In a statement to Newsmax, CNN said there are ‘no two people better equipped’ than Tapper and Bash to serve as debate moderators.”
Newsmax also forwarded complaints from Robert Kennedy Jr.’s campaign that wasn’t allowed to take part, but also a column by Susan Estrich pointing out that “RFK Jr. has yet to meet the commonsense qualifications that CNN has set for participants.”
On the day of the debate on June 27, Newsmax got in one more bit of ref-working:
The biases of CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, who are moderating the first 2024 presidential debate in Atlanta, will impact the event to the point that it will not matter what topic is being discussed, Ric Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany under Trump, said Thursday on Newsmax.
“Jake Tapper is a former Democratic staffer,” Grenell told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “He worked on the Hill for the Democrats.”
He also pointed out that Bash’s ex-husband, Jeremy Bash, was a CIA operative who signed a letter in 2020 along with 51 individuals that discredited the Hunter Biden laptop as being used as a tool for Russian interference.
[…]Grenell also questioned calling Thursday night’s event a debate.
“This is not a debate,” he said. “This is a CNN scripted forum. It’s outrageous. A debate. This is not a debate. This is a CNN-scripted forum, and I don’t understand why this is happening. It’s outrageous.”
Jeff Crouere served up his own ref-working in a May 20 column:
Since 1976, every four years, the presidential nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties have met for televised debates. Usually, these debates are highly anticipated and attract impressive ratings.
The largest viewing audience for a presidential debate was the first 2016 encounter between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It drew an incredible 84 million viewers.
Of course, the problem with most of these debates is that liberal “journalists” masqueraded as impartial moderators. Thus, previous presidential debate moderators have included Lester Holt of NBC News, Gwen Ifill of PBS, Martha Raddatz of ABC News, Anderson Cooper of CNN, and Kristen Welker of NBC News.
[…]Sadly, none of these moderators are known for their fairness or objectivity. All of them, especially Tapper and Bash, are liberal activists pretending to be journalists. Both networks have been extremely unfair to Republicans, especially President Trump and supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda.
In fact, CNN has spent the last nine years trying to destroy President Trump. Currently, it is giving nonstop coverage to the “Trump Hush Money” trial, like the treatment of the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995.
Crouere offered no evidence to back up his claims.