Two takeaways from the debate: Trump is still Trump, and we have irrefutable confirmation the bulk media has crossed over to the dark side. Somewhere along the line, it became part of MAGA dogma that Trump is a great debater. The facts never supported this contention. He lost debates with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and failed to win against Joe Biden in 2020. Trump scored a solid victory in a presidential debate only against a feeble Biden in the recent one. You must return to the Republican primary debates in his first run, where Trump appeared to dominate. However, then he could belittle his opponents on a very crowded stage.

Trump, unprepared and drawn into rehashing his 2020 loss, failed to effectively present his case in a debate ripe with opportunities. On the other hand, Kamala Harris delivered many carefully vague, rehearsed answers, mainly unrelated to the questions asked. Her first question was, “Are you better today than four years ago?”‘ It was left unanswered in favor of a planned opening statement, setting the tone for the night’s rest. The ABC moderators’ failure to follow up and press her for an answer was consistent throughout the debate.

In judging the debate, it’s helpful to note what issues Americans care about most:

Before the event, Trump said Disney’s ABC was biased against him, so why agree to a debate where it might be three against one? Possibly, CNN’s recent Biden-Trump debate gave him a false hope of even-handedness. but that time, Biden’s removal was the target.,not him. It might’ve been hubris; maybe he didn’t comprehend how far Disney would go to ensure a Harris victory. Even though we’ve seen moderator bias in Presidential debates before, such as Candy Crowley erroneously intervening to back Barrack Obama over Benghazi Terrorism, severely damaging Mitt Romney when he was about to win his second straight debate.

Fact-checking is only done to the Republican’s disadvantage. When Trump brought up damaging material found on Hunter Biden’s Laptop, Joe Biden was allowed to claim a letter signed by a bunch of former intelligence people showed it was all Russian disinformation. The moderators did not murmur, even though honest journalistic investigations confirmed its contents. Unfortunately, the mainstream media only clarified this well after the election. This lack of balance in fact-checking should raise serious questions about the media’s role in these debates.

Tuesday night was partisanship on steroids. Trump wasn’t alone in his surprise at how extreme the Disney moderators behaved. Not once but at least five times, they fact-checked Trump while not doing the same once to Harris. Worse, the checks were, for the most part, questionable or wrong. When Trump referenced a former Virginia Governor’s advocating the death of a baby even after birth to illustrate the extreme nature of the Democratic abortion position, Disney moderator Linsey Davis interjected: “There is no state in the country where it is legal to kill a baby after it was born.” The Virginia Governor’s remarks are on tape, and several states allow abortion up to birth, yet Davis jumped in. The issue was the extreme position of late-term abortions.

While rising crime is one of the significant issues in this election, when Trump mentioned it, Disney’s other moderator, David Muir, jumped in with, “President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is actually coming down,” Muir interrupted, prompting an argument with the ex-president.” “The FBI figures are suspect because many high-crime cities don’t submit their figures,” Trump replied. When people go to the corner drugstore, they find everything under lock and key, or worse, closed because of crime; why is Muir trying to tell America they’re not seeing what they see. Talk about gaslighting. In any case, the National Crime Victimization Survey contradicts the FBI figures.

When Trump, in his haphazard way, tried to illustrate the trials many areas are suffering from the mass migration, he said, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats … They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Muir interjected, saying Springfield authorities have said there are no credible or detailed reports to support the claim.” If Disney had taken the trouble of fact-checking this rumor fully before the debate, Muir would’ve been more enlightening if he had included that it was reported to the police that migrants were taking geese out of parks.

Trump may have misunderstood the animals involved, but his point was correct. The Ohio governor had to enter the Springfield crisis with state troopers and support. If Muir was going to step in, he should’ve provided full context. Otherwise, it was just a hit to make Trump look bad.

You could have overlooked the one-sided fact-checking if Kamala Harris hadn’t told so many whoopers herself and never been challenged. I see at least a dozen easily checked-lies, and I’m still counting. People on both sides in Charlotteville, a bloodbath, against IVF, for a national ban on abortions, 2025, and on and on debunked anti-Trump lies elicit bupkus from the Disney moderators. What bothers me is she told a falsehood every other minute she spoke. Would she have done so with such aplomb if she thought she might be taken to task? Why did Harris act as if she knew she wouldn’t?

Even if you think, as I do, that Trump performed poorly, it is easy to conclude that these biased moderators have killed presidential debates. Had it been Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis instead on the debate stage, they still would’ve been subjected to the same partisanship. Remember Mitt Romney, and now it’s far more blatant. A lot of the same lies, such as those about IVF, abortion, or 2025-like projects, would be used against any Republican.

I discussed Project 2025i previously, but the distortion is so successful that Democrats will likely repeat similar lies in the future. The mainstream media isn’t about to point out that think tanks on both sides exist to provide ideas. By their nature, people move back and forth between administrations and institutions. For instance, the Center for American Progress alumni fill plenty of positions in the Biden-Harris Administration. If you want to read some really scary proposals, download those of The Progressive Policy Institute.

Spending much of the time discussing issues favoring the Democrats, as they did with abortion, this time could be done against anyone. (See the Issues Chart above)

Why would any Republican participate in the debate held by any legacy media? You might think it could be held on Fox, but Kamala Harris refused a Fox debate. Why go to a place that might be fair to Republicans when you can go where they get sandbagged.

This farce of a debate illustrates how much the media is willing to hurt those who disagree with them. What can we do? You might’ve noticed I referred to Muir and Davis as Disney moderators. That’s because Disney owns ABC and is ultimately responsible. The moderators would’ve complied if Disney CEO Bob Iger wanted a fair debate. We got the opposite. One only has to remember Disney’s attempted interference in Ron DeSantis’ Florida to know where the company stands.

The approximately half the country Disney loathes avoid it. Disney is a laggard because of poor, biased management, as seen by its stock chart:

If we avoid Disney, it would take little for the company to be even worse off than Bud Lite. Seeing Disney’s present bunch punished in the market may cause companies to have second thoughts about how they treat people who disagree with them. Maybe then Mickey will like us again.