CNN’s presidential debate rules are set for Thursday night as President Joe Biden looks to eviscerate his opponent by potentially raising debunked hoaxes.
CNN opposes debate moderators live fact-checking Biden during the high-stakes event, network political director David Chalian announced this week.
Neither are the moderators permitted to fact-check Trump, Chalian said, although they can correct an “egregious” misstatement “that needs to be checked or the record needs to be made clear.”
Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, two extreme Trump critics, are the moderators. It will be up to them to referee the contentious and potentially highest-watched debate in history.
Critics question whether Tapper and Bash can host an unbiased and fair debate. CNN believes they will, though the network’s history of covering Trump earned them the Trumpian-given name: “fake news.”
Biden has a history of pushing falsehoods during debates.
Those falsehoods, perhaps not immediately apparent, were debunked years later. The most recent example came in June when an FBI agent testified that Hunter Biden’s laptop was real and not Russian disinformation, as Biden suggested during the 2020 debate.
Below are three hoaxes to watch for Thursday night:
Russian Disinformation Hoax
Critics will watch closely how Biden responds to comments or questions about a Tuesday congressional report that claimed the CIA interfered in the 2020 election by colluding with the Biden campaign to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story.
In 2020, 51 ex-spies signed an infamous letter that called reporting on Hunter’s laptop “Russian disinformation” ahead of the election. Current Secretary of State Antony Blinken allegedly coordinated the story for political purposes.
CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand wrote the infamous, and now discredited, Politico story that used “dozens of former intel officials” to push a false and misleading narrative about the origins of Hunter’s laptop.
President Joe Biden cited the story during a presidential debate with Trump to discredit the contents of the laptop.
Seventy-one percent of Americans believe accurate reporting of Hunter’s “Laptop from Hell” could have altered the 2020 presidential election, TIPP Insights polling revealed in 2022.
Inflation Hoax
Critics will watch for how Biden speaks about inflation, the number one issue for voters. Inflation, which is the rate at which prices increase over a period of time, is a word the White House uses to ambiguously suggest prices are coming down.
Though the rate of price increases slowed in recent months, inflation and prices continue to increase. Prices, in fact, increased under Biden by about 20 percent across the board. For perspective, “a basket of groceries that cost $100 in November 2020 would now set you back $125.80,” Yahoo News reported.
Eighty-seven percent of Americans believe Biden’s policies either hurt or have no impact on inflation, the number one issue among respondents, a Monmouth University poll found in June.
Threat to Democracy Hoax
Critics will watch how Biden’s speaks about his leading reelection pitch of defending democracy from Trump. “When I’m on stage, it’ll be me and this grassroots team versus Donald Trump and his MAGA minions,” Biden’s website states. “It will be democracy versus authoritarianism.”
Polling does not support Biden’s claim. Trump is the stronger candidate to protect democracy, a Washington Post poll found Wednesday.
“Which candidate do you think would do a better job handling each of the following? Threats to democracy in the U.S.,” the Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University poll asked respondents:
- Trump: 44 percent
- Biden: 33 percent
- Neither: 16 percent
- Both: 7 percent
Inflation, immigration, and crime are much larger concerns among voters, polls consistently show. Trump leads in those categories, too, which Biden will likely try to avoid.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
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