CNN is coming under heavy criticism after two of its top anchors failed to offer real-time fact checks of false statements made by former President Trump and President Biden as they moderated Thursday night’s presidential debate.
During the highly anticipated and nationally televised clash, both Trump and Biden made a number of misleading or false statements about topics ranging from crime to immigration to the economy.
Moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash on multiple occasions offered follow up questions when a candidate had not used up all of their allotted speaking time or had not answered a question directly.
But neither, however, offered any fact checks to the two men’s assertions during the 90-minute broadcast.
“CNN’s decision to abrogate its journalistic responsibilities by not fact checking Trump’s firehose of lies is unforgivable,” wrote former cable news host Keith Olbermann in one social media post.
“I wish the CNN moderators did more fact-checking, letting the audience know when things are said that are flatly false. Not sure how it helps for a platform to transmit falsehoods disguised as facts,” added New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.
In a statement to The Hill late Thursday, CNN said “we are very proud of Jake and Dana. Our job was to make sure candidates were heard so voters can make informed decisions and we are pleased we were able to do that.”
Biden’ allies and some on the left expressed frustration with how the moderators responded to Trump’s false statements late Thursday.
Biden himself even seemed to voice some displeasure with the fact Trump was allowed to make statements about him without much pushback.
“What’s going to happen over the next couple of days is they’re going to be out there fact checking all the things he said,” Biden said at a post-debate fundraiser in Atlanta. “I can’t think of one thing that he said was true.”
Going into Thursday night’s debate, CNN had faced intense criticism from Trump’s campaign accusing Tapper, Bash and the network more generally of bias against him.
As it announced ground rules for this week’s debate, CNN said Tapper and Bash would be “empowered to use all tools at their disposal to enforce timing and ensure a civilized discussion.”
The network’s political director David Chalian told the New York Times earlier this week Thursday’s live debate “is not the ideal arena for live fact-checking,” and so Tapper and Bash would be focused on “facilitating the debate between these candidates, not being a participant in that debate.”
The outlet’s resident fact checker Daniel Dale did offer some live fact checks online of claims being made on the debate stage, but those did not appear as part of its 90-minute broadcast which is expected to net an audience of tens of millions.
But as far as the Biden campaign was concerned, by late Thursday night the damage had already been done.
“He [Trump] just lied through his teeth throughout the debate without any recourse from the moderators. Of course, the president had an opportunity to push him and did on many of the issues,” a source familiar with the Biden campaign told The Hill. “The moderators sat there and let him lie through his teeth the entire time.”
Updated at 12:01 a.m.