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Chris Wallace and Susan Page revealed themselves to be advocates of Democratic Party talking points in their performance as moderators, Wallace in the first and perhaps only presidential candidates’ debate and Page in the one and only vice presidential candidates’ debates.

Wallace in addition proved himself to be a knave or a fool with a classically stupid question to President Trump: “This month, your administration directed federal agencies to end racial sensitivity training that addresses white privilege or critical race theory. Why did you decide to do that, to end racial sensitivity training? And do you believe that there is systemic racism in this country, sir?” (More here.)

Wallace is a veteran journalist who supposedly follows the news for a living and who equates the inculcation of critical race theory with “racial sensitivity training.” He doesn’t know the difference, or pretends not to. Surely a few of his colleagues at FOX News can explain it to him.

Like Wallace, Page asked a variety of questions with left-wing assumptions planted in them. I thought this one took the cake last night: “This year, we’ve seen record-setting hurricanes in the South. Another one, Hurricane Delta, is now threatening the Gulf, and we have seen record-setting wildfires in the West. Do you believe as the scientific community has concluded, that man-made climate change has made wildfires bigger, hotter, and more deadly and have made hurricanes wetter, slower and more damaging?”

You have got to be kidding me. What a joke. (The transcript of the debate is posted here).

Now the Commission on Presidential Debates has decreed that the next scheduled encounter between Trump and Biden is to take place virtually. President Trump has declined, putting in doubt the the debates scheduled for October 15 and 22. Why not quarantine the moderators and let the candidates go at it with agreed questions and time limits in hazmat suits wired for sound? Surely the details can be worked out.

It is way past time for this whole system to be junked and replaced by one that holds out the possibility or likelihood of Republicans playing on a level playing field. There is no reason why they should submit to debates in which they are required to take on both the opposing candidate and the moderator.

It’s a tired observation but nonetheless true. Last night just brought the point home one more time.

UPDATE: Mollie Hemingway does an excellent job elaborating on the absurd bias of Page’s performance as moderator in “7 Quick Takeaways On The 2020 Vice Presidential Debate” (takeaway 5).

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