On CNN’s Friday installment of New Day, John Avlon reacted to the news that the RNC has withdrawn from the Commission on Presidential Debates with one of his “reality checks” that characteristically featured plenty of pretentiousness, but not a lot of reality.
For Avlon, the decision is another Trumpian threat to democracy: “This is a big deal. Another blow to our democracy. It also appears to be a temper tantrum thrown at Donald Trump's request, complaining that the commission is biased. It's also a virtual guarantee that America will retreat further into its partisan echo chamber, which is the last thing we need.”
Avlon then played some clips of memorable debate moments including Ronald Reagan’s “there you go again” quip in 1980 despite the debate commission not being founded until 1987.
After the clips, Avlon explored one of the RNC’s complaints: “They point to the selection of Steve Scully from C-SPAN who moderated a debate last cycle, despite the fact that he had briefly interned for Joe Biden decades before. Now, it's worth noting, that debate never happened because of COVID. But, regardless, it's a bad look. Let's give them that.”
Scully was much worse than that. He attempted to coordinate with Anthony Scaramucci and then lied about it by declaring his Twitter account was hacked.
Avlon continued: “But despite the RNC's claims that the commission is biased, if you look at what stations have actually moderated general election debates this century, it's PBS that has the decided edge, followed by NBC and CBS. Two debates have been moderated by CNN, as well as two by then-Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. MSNBC has been shut out.”
Of course, being a CNN personality, Avlon completely ignored that one of those CNN debates was the infamous Candy Crowley debate which predated Trump. Facts being stubborn things to be ignored, Avlon declared:
So, the problem isn't partisan bias, it's that conservatives seem to believe that anyone who is not explicitly right-wing is de facto from the left, which is an absurd way to understand the American electorate. But let's be honest, this is also an attempt to avoid answering tough questions. At the end of the day, it's really just about fealty to Trump.
Avlon concluded by suggesting Republicans have no self- confidence:
Trying to shut down presidential debates shows a lack of confidence in being able to win a contest of ideas. It's worth remembering that in politics, as in religion, the essence of evangelism is winning converts. And that means not simply preaching to the choir, but instead making your case on the debate stage for all your fellow citizens to hear.
Tough questions are fine, moderators repeatedly interfering on one side is not and that’s why the RNC was justified to quit the Commission on Presidential Debates.
This segment was sponsored by Ancestry.
Here is a transcript for the April 15 show:
New Day with John Berman and Brianna Keilar
4/15/2022
6:36 AM ET
JOHN AVLON: I hope it ain't so, but you just might have seen your last presidential debate in America, at least for quite a while. Now, yesterday, the RNC voted unanimously to withdraw from the bipartisan commission that sponsors presidential debates. This is a big deal. Another blow to our democracy. It also appears to be a temper tantrum thrown at Donald Trump's request, complaining that the commission is biased. It's also a virtual guarantee that America will retreat further into its partisan echo chamber, which is the last thing we need.
Look, I love me some presidential debates because they offer voters a chance to judge candidates side by side, to get a sense of their character and beliefs and how they think on their feet. Think of Ronald Reagan dismissing President Jimmy Carter's criticism and his stance on health care.
RONALD REGAN: There you go again.
AVLON: There was the famous VP debate smackdown of '88.
LLOYD BENTSEN: Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.
AVLON: And George W. Bush's nod that put Al Gore in his place.
GEORGE W. BUSH: But can you get things done? And I believe I can.
AVLON: So, here's how we got here. In January, after the RNC threatened to keep its candidates from participating in debates sponsored by a commission, the commission co-chairman, Frank Fahrenkopf, himself a former chair of the RNC, said that the GOP was demanding to, quote, “control things we aren't prepared to let them control.”
So, let's look at one of the RNC's core complaints. They point to the selection of Steve Scully from C-SPAN who moderated a debate last cycle, despite the fact that he had briefly interned for Joe Biden decades before. Now, it's worth noting, that debate never happened because of COVID. But, regardless, it's a bad look. Let's give them that.
But despite the RNC's claims that the commission is biased, if you look at what stations have actually moderated general election debates this century, it's PBS that has the decided edge, followed by NBC and CBS. Two debates have been moderated by CNN, as well as two by then-Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. MSNBC has been shut out.
So, the problem isn't partisan bias, it's that conservatives seem to believe that anyone who is not explicitly right-wing is de facto from the left, which is an absurd way to understand the American electorate. But let's be honest, this is also an attempt to avoid answering tough questions. At the end of the day, it's really just about fealty to Trump. He started this blame the ref cycle and two weeks before election day 2020, former Republican senator and CBD board member John Danforth pushed back in an op-ed. Listen to what he said. Quote, “the president's apparent strategy is to challenge the validity of the election should he lose. We saw the strategy initially in his claims that mail-in ballots are tools for massive election fraud. Now we see it as well in his assertion that the debates have been rigged by the commission to favor former Vice President Joe Biden.”
Someone buy that man a crystal ball because that's exactly what happened. But it's not too much to ask politicians to have the courage of their convictions and the ability to defend them. Those should be table stakes, right? Instead, we see too many conservatives only going on right-wing TV because they'd be guaranteed softballs and too many Democrats refusing to make their case to conservative outlets and audiences. Here's what former Trump Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told us last October on New Day.
STEPHANIE GRISHAM: They, you know, by and large didn't get tough with us. They just took what we were saying and disseminated it.
AVLON: Spoiler alert, that's not how democracy or journalism is supposed to work. Trying to shut down presidential debates shows a lack of confidence in being able to win a contest of ideas. It's worth remembering that in politics, as in religion, the essence of evangelism is winning converts. And that means not simply preaching to the choir, but instead making your case on the debate stage for all your fellow citizens to hear. And that's your "Reality Check."
