The whole friggin' thing was rigged

Flopping Aces ^ | 09-13-24 | DrJohn

[Starman417]

The whole thing was rigged.

Twice in the last few months democrats have binge drank the Kool Aid. The first one was the anointing of Kamala Harris following the coup of Joe Biden. The second was Harris's debate performance. They've been high fiving each other non-stop since Tuesday, but the I suspect the hangover is just beginning.

Over at Townhall, Matt Vespa posited a question - Did Someone Leak the Debate Questions to Kamala Harris?

It's a fair question. Why? Because it’s happened before. It’s not some tin foil hat, pie-in-the-sky conspiracy theory: Democrats hired by major news networks have fed debate questions to their party’s presidential nominees. While many analyses and polls are being discussed about the ABC News debate on Tuesday, what about the possibility that Harris got the questions in advance?

I think this is very possible. Despite her juvenile tactics and facial expressions, to me she appeared to be ready for all the questions. She had her false claims and accusations all teed up. It's like she knew.

Surprisingly, Harris campaign co-chair Sen Chris Coons (D-MD) opined that Harris should participate in a debate on Fox News.

“I think the American people would love to hear more from both of them: ‘What will you do to make us safer and stronger at home and abroad?’ And she should accept an invitation from FOX to come on and debate President Trump.”

That's pretty curious from a team so confident that they'd won the war already. Perhaps they know something they haven't admitted- the debate did not move the needle. Nate Silver still believes Trump is the likely winner.

But ABC may have killed the traditional debate, especially as this debate was 3 on 1. Ben Whedon at Just The News:

The Tuesday evening presidential debate saw former President Donald Trump trade barbs not just with Vice President Kamala Harris, but with moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, presenting a lop-sided spectacle that has some questioning the utility of further debates at all.

This is an amusing but accurate description of what happened:

Indeed, Tuesday evening’s event on ABC News stood in stark contrast to the CNN debate, an event that even saw Trump compliment moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash on their handling of that contest. Muir and Davis, by contrast, drew scrutiny from both sides of the aisle for pressing their thumbs on the scale in favor of Harris.

Conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly presented a caricature of the debate format in which the moderators would present questions as follows:

“Mr. Trump, you said something incredibly controversial and terrible. Let me remind you of what it was. Do you have any regrets or thoughts on how terrible you were? Trump answers. Vice President Harris, how bad is Trump? And then she answers.”

“It happened over and over again. That was the format,” Kelly said. “Mr. Trump, you’re a piece of shit. Kamala Harris, isn’t he a shit? Thank you.”

Bill Shipley out it this way:

First Muir Question to Trump re Tariffs -- here is the "question" which is in the form of the following individual sentence predicates before the question is posed:

"Mr. President, I do want to drill down on something you both brought up."

"The vice president brought up your tariffs you responded and let's drill down on this because your plan is what she calls is a essentially a national sales tax."

"Your proposal calls for tariffs as you pointed out here, on foreign imports across the board."

"You recently said that you might double your plan, imposing tariffs up to 20% on good coming into this country."

"As you know many economists say that with tariffs at that level costs are then passed onto the consumer."

"Vice President Harris has argued it'll mean higher prices on gas, food, clothing medication arguing it costs the typical family nearly four thousand dollars a year."

"Do you believe Americans can afford higher prices because of tariffs."

So Muir's question included the following editorial assertions prior to asking a question:

1) Tariff is a national sales tax.

2) Tariffs on imports across the board.

3) Double them to 20% on goods coming into the country.

4) Most economists say costs passed on to consumers.

5) Harris says higher prices on gas, food, clothing, medicine -- $4000 per year on a typical family. Q -- Can Americans afford your tariffs?

This was the first question to Trump. It has poison darts littered in it. There are 5 predicate sentences -- all debatable -- and the "question" was akin to "When did you stop beating your wife?" The first question to Harris, just before this was "Are Americans better off now than 4 years ago?" That's a question with hazards for her, but it is not argumentative like the one posed to Trump.

Former democrat pollster Doug Schoen:

[central_va]

Tariffs increase revenue, promote domestic industry and are a voluntary consumption tax. For these reasons tariff are a good idea.

[pgyanke]

I think their plausible deniability is the reverse. The can credibly state that ABC didn’t give the questions to Kamala because the DNC gave the questions to ABC.

[TTFlyer]

Yes it was. Hate the “News Media”. Then make that hatred white hot.

[kiryandil]

America is officially a banana republic.

[Disambiguator]

The next debate should be on Brighteon, with Mike Adams and Ann Vandersteel moderating. That would be something other than else.

[George J. Jetso]

Of course it was rigged. This country has become just another shithole country.

[Owen]

It’s very easy to deal with all this.

Stop talking about debates.

Talk about the Swamp. The Deep State. The invasion.

Debates are now history. Dwell on victory instead. Volunteer with Lara Trump’s RNC to hand carry ballots to nursing homes in red areas.

[Boogieman]

No more debates with media types unless THEIR mics are turned off.

Give both sides the questions ahead of time, to void even the possibility of an unfair advantage that way. Just put the questions on a screen and have green/red light on the podiums to let the candidates know whose turn it is to speak. No need for the moderators to say a word.

[Regulator]

Uh, and which Republican’t thought it would be any different?

[Sequoyah101]

Lie down with dogs and get what you should expect.

We have not seen a debate in decades. This was no debate, it was a Spanish Inquisition or donkey bbq with Trump as the meal.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I’m glad President Trump has decided to NOT ride into another Media Mafia ambush. He gets the same treatment from the “media” that he gets in the far left’s “justice system.” Stay the hell away. They are not for Americans.

[FlyingEagle]

Of course they leaked debate questions.

Harris is a sorority sister of a moderator.

The Marxist democrats leaked a Supreme Court decision.

Why would they not leak debate questions to the Extreme Marxist Politburo appointed President candidate?

Because Rules? Ha.

[GSWarrior]

There is a limited number of questions to choose from during a debate. There are no surprise questions.

The moderators should not be fact checking. They essentially knew in advance the answers Trump would give to their questions. This knowledge allowed them to frame every question in a manner that preempted Trump’s responses. They cut him off at the knees before he even had a chance to respond.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

The[y] can credibly state that ABC didn’t give the questions to Kamala because the DNC gave the questions to ABC.

 

That's exactly how it would work and not the reverse. Allowing the media to dictate how it would go is a risk they would not be willing to take, that's not how criminal totalitarians roll. No, they would give instructions to the mediots as to how what narrative is going to be followed, what questions there will be and what attacks will be expected and to get busy writing them out for execution.

 

 

[Dead Corpse]

If they can’t CHEAT, they don’t WIN.

Debates, passage of legislation, elections... Doesn’t matter.

Only the accrual and retention of POWER matters.

[Orosius]

Tariffs need not increase prices for consumers if there’s an American made product that’s cheaper, and better into the bargain. Anybody who’s tried to drive one of those cheap Chinese made screws from Home Depot knows how often and easily the heads and threads get stripped. American screws and hardware used to work fine. They can again, and scale that up to every other kind of product we can make ourselves. We’re not talking about Chilean fruit in midwinter here.

[maro]

That’s the right way to think about it. Trump’s answer didn’t articulate it as well as you.

[cymbeline]

I don’t know whether Trump won or lost the debate. The real question is whether it helped him win the election.

The moderators didn’t control what Trump could have said during the debate.

Trump could have directly asked Harris all sorts of questions about her plans or past views, but he didn’t.

Trump would show up for a 2nd debate more prepared for Kamala’s style and assertions.

If Trump doesn’t want to do another debate, I trust that he’s made the correct strategic decision.

[cpdiii]

When the moderator is in control of the questions it no longer is a debate but a staged production that is rife for cheating by the moderators. My proposal for an honest debate is below.

1. The debaters ask the questions of the opponent. 1 minute
2. Opponent has 3 minutes to respond.
3. Then 1 minute for the questioner to rebut.
4. Muted mikes when it is not your turn to speak.
5. No audience, they are a distraction.
6. Each side can have 1 piece of paper with their questions written on them.
7. Identical podiums. Kamala had a short podium so as not to appear short. She is 5’4”.

The debate would thus have 9 really hard questions for each side of the debate.