Fox News says president won, but it’s an outlier
Analysis of debate varies wildly across networks, with others offering mixed views.
The debate showdown between President Trump and Joe Biden produced some sharp contrasts Thursday night, but none as drastic as the divide that emerged in the television world’s post- debate analysis — with Fox News delivering one world view and most of the rest of the TV news ecosystem presenting a starkly different one.
Fox News commentators who immediately followed the debate suggested it was unlikely to sway many undecided voters. But their more moderate remarks were quickly washed away when Trump advisor Sean Hannity delivered an hourlong beatdown against Biden, who the Fox star falsely insisted had been caught in “lie after lie after lie.”
Hannity devoted much of his program to a disquisition on unsubstantiated allegations about Biden’s son Hunter’s overseas contacts as an energy consultant.
It would be hard for the average viewer to believe that Hannity was watching the same debate as the commentators at rival CNN or NBC, the network that sponsored the debate and provided the moderator, correspondent Kristen Welker.
Panelists at CNN acknowledged that Trump had done better than in last month’s debate, when he spent much of the evening cutting off Biden and moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.
But the CNN regulars said Trump had also given away some of his obvious weaknesses, such as a lack of compassion. They pointed, in particular, to his suggestion that children separated from their parents at the U. S.- Mexico border had been “so well taken care of. They’re in facilities that are so clean.”
“I couldn’t believe that anyone would say that,” political analyst Gloria Borger said. Van Jones agreed that Trump’s comments showed a “shocking” lack of compassion.
CNN White House correspondent Abby Phillip said the president again demonstrated his callousness when he belittled the performance of “Democrat- led” cities during the COVID- 19 pandemic, saying people in those communities were experiencing real pain, not dependent on political affiliation. “The president fell into the same old patterns,” Phillip said.
The panelists generally agreed that the debate would probably not change the trajectory of the race.
“Donald Trump did his best ever, and his best was not good enough,” said Jones, who served as an advisor to President Obama. “He sounded better. He looked better. But there was nothing there.”
On NBC, the consensus was that Trump had recovered from an atrocious f irst debate performance. In the words of the network’s top political analyst, Chuck Todd, the president “probably stopped the bleeding.”
But he suggested that Trump was still def lecting on his coronavirus response, healthcare and the economy. “In some ways he was trying to make Joe Biden the incumbent,” Todd said.
The NBC host also wondered whether most Americans had much interest in allegations about Hunter Biden. Trump was “speaking the language of Fox prime time,” Todd said, leaving most people wondering “what the hit is.”
It wasn’t all rosy for Biden among the NBC commentators. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt expected Trump to be able to make a substantial political gain out of Biden’s promise to eventually move away from oil and other fossil fuels, calling it “an unforced error.”
On a night when the candidates adopted a mostly civil tone, it was Hannity who played attack dog for the president. The host, who has appeared in a Trump video and rally and even hugged the president on stage, claimed that Biden had been untruthful on many issues. “The mob and the media won’t tell you,” he said.
Hannity also drove home a point that Trump repeatedly tried to make. He said the president had “held Joe Biden — 47 years all talk no action — accountable.”
Fox’s Tucker Carlson spent the hour leading up to the debate accusing Biden of ethical failures.
A federal judge recently opined, based partly on statements by Fox’s lawyers, that Carlson’s work should not be misconstrued as “‘ stating actual facts’ about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘ exaggeration’ and ‘ non- literal commentary.’ ”
Fox’s on- air programming and its website have been awash for days with stories about the “scandal,” following the lead of Trump, who has demanded that the press and voters focus on the younger Biden and an unsubstantiated New York Post story that purported to disclose damaging emails that Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said came from Hunter Biden’s laptop computer. Fox’s website featured no fewer than a dozen stories about the issue.
The vast majority of news outlets have found the provenance of the purported emails suspicious and the claims of Biden inf luence peddling entirely unproved. But Fox asserted that those news judgments were themselves another scandal; Carlson called it “collusion,” and a story on the outlet’s website insisted Welker was obligated to raise the issue.
CNN, in contrast, spent the run- up to the debate suggesting that Trump would be forced to confront his failed response to COVID- 19, the economic downturn and the separation of immigrant children from their families.
Borger said the attempt to turn the focus to Biden would be difficult for Trump: “People don’t trust him.” Anchor Jake Tapper called Trump’s Hunter Biden attacks “babble.”
NBC’s pre- debate analysis also put the onus on the president. “He’s trailing, he is behind,” anchor Chuck Todd said. “He needs to change the trajectory of this race.”
Average Americans may have been relieved to see the two candidates manage to avoid shouting and interrupting for most of their encounter.
“The f irst debate was sort of like white water rafting, blindfolded,” said Dana Perino, former White House spokeswoman for George W. Bush and now a Fox News host. “This one was more like being on the lazy river and not even spilling my drink.”