Right-Wing Pundits Reject Trump’s Claims of Victory in Presidential Debate
Latest Edition of “The Pulse of Politics — USA” newsletter examines confirmation bias by conservative media
Welcome to another edition of “The Pulse of Politics — USA” newsletter on LinkedIn. Thanks very much for taking the time to read and engage with this post.
Although media coverage of the presidential campaign is being dominated by news of another assassination attempt against former president Trump on Sunday, it’s worth taking one more look at the media narrative surrounding the presidential debate one week ago.
ABC News said that upward of 67 million people watched the debate, a significant number.
Of interest to me was how some conservative commentators on Fox News shockingly broke with their blind support of Trump by admitting he lost badly.
Confirmation Bias
In today’s turbulent political environment, it was refreshing to finally see at least some right-wing media voices breaking the trend of confirmation bias by finally speaking the truth about former president Trump.
Surprisingly, some on Fox News took the rare measure of openly agreeing that Trump’s debate performance against Vice President Harris was an unequivocal debacle.
Confirmation bias by conservative media only helps to further indoctrinate Trump supporters and unduly influence undecided or Trump-leaning voters whose favorite (and sometimes only) media source is Fox News.
But agreeing with Trump that he performed great and won the debate was a bridge too far for some on Fox, but not everybody.
Predictably, the anchors of Fox’s highest-rated prime-time political talk shows actually parroted Trump’s victory claims.
Evening talk show hosts Jessee Waters, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, for example, tried to sugarcoat Trump’s dismal debate performance.
Monumental Win?
As usual, Trump sang his own praises after the debate:
- “We had a monumental victory over comrade Kamala Harris.”
- He asserted without any evidence: “94 percent of the Republicans said I did phenomenally in the debate. Obviously, I did very well.”
Trump also insisted that the ABC News moderators were unfair and overly aggressive in their treatment of him.
“They had a rigged show,” Trump said. “She seemed awfully familiar with the questions.”
Trump wrote on his social media platform:
“ABC FAKE NEWS has been completely discredited, and is now under investigation” (not sure what investigation to which he’s referring).
“It was 3 to 1, but they were mentally challenged people against one person of extraordinary genius. It wasn’t even close…I WON THE DEBATE!”
The key telling point about who really won was that Trump met immediately with reporters in the “spin room” after the debate ended to insist his performance was perfect.
Decisive Loss
Despite Trump’s self-proclaimed overwhelming win, at least some on Fox News saw it differently:
- Anchor Neil Cavuto: “He decisively lost it. His remarks were disjointed, he was all over the map. It wasn’t a close call, it was a lopsided win.”
- Dana Perino, co-host “The Five”: “She overperformed expectations and the Democrats are very happy. He took all of the bait and none of the opportunities, she pivoted better.”
- Anchor Brett Baier: “Vice President Harris was clearly well prepared, practiced, on the offensive much of the night. Trump took a lot of the bait that she threw out.”
- Commentator Brit Hume: “Make no mistake about it, Trump clearly had a bad night. We heard so many of the old grievances that we long thought Trump had learned were not winners politically.”
- Anchor Martha MacCallum: “He went down a few cat and dog holes, rather than rabbit holes.”
Commentator Geraldo Rivera: “He was terrible tonight!”
Even Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — who has endorsed Trump and said he would accept a Cabinet position in a second Trump presidency — flatly stated: “Vice President Harris clearly won the debate.”
Media Narrative
It’s worth noting that political tribalism is often shaped through a distorted media lens. This takes place through a steady stream of confirmation bias fed to news consumers.
It’s usually the same old story: Conservative media (like Fox) report one version of events, while liberal media (like MSNBC) tell another story.
This gaping discrepancy leaves some news consumers wondering which media narrative to believe.
Supporters of both Trump and Harris have had their personal political views confirmed time and again by partisan media bias instead of factual accuracy, whether it’s Fox News or MSNBC.
That’s why I recommend following a diverse range of news outlets spanning the political spectrum.
Consuming presidential campaign news from both sides of the political pendulum helps citizens to be more informed, which subsequently helps decision-making by voters on Election Day.
But most people do the opposite. They are stuck in partisan political silos. They only consume media that already agrees with their perceived or preconceived ideological views.
Too many citizens obtain news from biased media sources which only serve to confirm their preexisting beliefs — and without any relevant context or contrary views expressed.
Final Thoughts
It’s about time some conservative media voices cracked Trump’s veneer of self-proclaimed invulnerability by telling the truth.
This is noteworthy because conservative commentators — and most Republicans — normally don’t think twice about distorting reality according to the whims of the former president’s rhetoric.
Many on Fox News, including media critic Howard Kurtz, stated that Harris was a “clear beneficiary of media bias” because the debate moderators were “more aggressive” in questioning Trump’s answers to their questions.
Despite some accusations of media bias against ABC, Trump spoke five minutes longer than Harris, which is significant in a time compressed presidential debate.
Still, the few right-wing voices on Fox News who told viewers the truth about Trump’s disastrous defeat deserve credit — at least temporarily — for calling out his post-debate disinformation and propaganda.
Does this signal that at least some conservative media commentators have finally come to their senses about Trump?
Don’t bet on it.
- You can subscribe to this newsletter on LinkedIn here.
CALL TO ACTION: Try consuming a diverse range of political news from across the ideological spectrum, rather than only from media of a viewpoint to which you already agree.
What do you think? Please share your comments below…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I’m an independent voter who is unaffiliated with any political campaign. My experience in government and politics spans 25 years, including work at The White House, the Presidential Transition Office, two winning presidential campaigns, the U.S. Congress, and two federal agencies. You can learn more about me here.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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