By any objective measure, Senator JD Vance had a very good night during Tuesday’s Vice Presidential debate hosted by CBS News.
If you were looking for analysis on Fox News to see how the candidates performed, however, that reasonable takeaway would be diminished by a repeated insistence that moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan somehow “broke the rules” by fact-checking Vance.
The thing is, CBS News’s debate rules did not include anything about fact-checking. Further, the absolute eagerness of many Fox News opinion hosts to complain about the “refs” is so great that a false claim was repeatedly amplified — which significantly undermines what would otherwise be considered a triumph for former President Donald Trump’s running mate.
Half an hour into Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate, JD Vance protested to Brennan, who clarified comments about Springfield the Ohio Senator had just made. “Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check,” Vance insisted. Dana Milbank wrote for The Washington Post, “It was a lie on top of another lie, supplemented by a pair of other lies, in support of an even bigger lie.”
You see, there was nothing in the rules about fact-checking. Don’t just take my word for it; check them out here, posted by USA Today:
There will be 90 minutes of debate time, with two breaks of four minutes each.
There will be no audience.
The two moderators, Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, will be seated and will be the...
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