Lots of President Trump’s supporters were hopping mad at Fox News host Chris Wallace’s performance as moderator of the first debate between the president and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
But it looks as if Wallace is being a little hard on himself, as well.
According to the Daily Mail, the veteran journalist did not rate himself highly following the raucous Tuesday evening affair, which featured several clashes between the two candidates, lots of interruptions, many insults – and too few moments of relative calm where Trump and Biden could actually talk policy.
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Most of the media – including the Daily Mail – blamed President Trump for the tenor and tone of the debate, but they would; these are the same meatheads who have failed to grasp just who Donald Trump really is at his core: A street fighter who is going to come at his opponents with a ferocity and a vigor that is unmatched by anyone else in the Washington Wimpy Media Corps and the Halls of Congress.
In a post-debate interview with The New York Times, another outlet whose reporters and editors all have terminal cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome, Wallace lamented his performance.
“I never dreamt it would go off the tracks the way it did,” he told the Times, adding that it was a “terrible missed opportunity.”
In his first interview since the chaotic and often incoherent spectacle — in which a pugilistic Mr. Trump relentlessly interrupted opponent and moderator alike — Mr. Wallace conceded that he had been slow to recognize that the president was not going to cease flouting the debate’s rules.
“I’ve read some of the reviews. I know people think, well, gee, I didn’t jump in soon enough,” Mr. Wallace said, his voice betraying some hoarseness from the previous night’s proceedings. “I guess I didn’t realize — and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.”
Recalling his thoughts as he sat onstage in the Cleveland hall, with tens of millions of Americans watching live, Mr. Wallace said: “I’m a pro. I’ve never been through anything like this.”
“If I didn’t try to seize control of the debate — which I don’t know that I ever really did — then it was going to just go completely off the tracks,” Wallace added.
And because all traditions in the era of President Trump have to be upended in order to stop him from being himself, naturally the Commission on Presidential Elections is poised to step in.
“Last night’s debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues,” the commission said in a post-debate statement.
That said, not everyone was upset about the outcome — especially Fox News executives.
The Daily Mail adds:
In his first comments since the event, the moderator said he accepted a glass of champagne from CEO of the Fox Corporation Lachlan Murdoch while waiting at the airport for his flight home from Cleveland.
Fox News Media’s CEO Suzanne Scott, who was with Lachlan when he offered Wallace champagne, and President Jay Wallace – no relation – also praised the anchor in a company-wide memo on Wednesday afternoon.
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“We’d like to take a moment to thank and congratulate Chris Wallace for moderating last night’s extraordinary debate,” the executives said.
“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.”
Will the second and third debates happen now?
