Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said he watched with envy as moderator Kristen Welker moderated the second and final debate between President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Thursday, weeks after he sat in the same chair during a more contentious meeting between the two men.
“Well, first of all, I’m jealous,” Wallace said on Fox News during the network’s live coverage of the event. “I would have liked to have been able to moderate that debate.”
The veteran television journalist described Thursday’s event as “a real exchange of views rather than hundreds of interruptions.”
Wallace took heavy criticism from the Trump campaign and some media pundits following the first debate in late September, a spectacle marked with arguments between he and Trump and a great deal of crosstalk that was low on information or coherent conversation.
“I guess I’m debating you,” Trump told Wallace at one point during the first debate.
Thursday’s second and final debate consisted of a more measured tone, especially on Trump’s part. The president attempted to shine a light on Biden’s son’s foreign business dealings. Biden attacked Trump for allowing thousands of Americans to die from the coronavirus.
Welker also earned high praise Thursday, with some comparing her favorably to Wallace.
Thursday’s debate also included a provision that allowed the Commission on Presidential Debates to mute the microphones of both candidates if they went over time or started talking over one another. That tool wasn’t a part of the debate Wallace moderated.
A second debate between the two candidates was scheduled for last week, but was canceled after Trump pulled out following the commission’s decision to hold that event virtually due to Trump’s positive coronavirus test result and resulting hospital stay.