As a recent NewsBusters study shown, ABC News was 100 percent in the tank for the Harris-Walz campaign. So, it was no surprise that during the network’s analysis of the vice presidential debate hosted by CBS on Tuesday, that their journalists would largely stay away from admitting that Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) had a pretty bad performance between his lies about being in Tiananmen Square, his gaffe about being friends with school shooters, and many more.
But without getting into those details, chief Washington correspondent Jon Karl admitted it didn’t go well for the number two on their Democratic ticket.
World News Tonight anchor David Muir initially wanted Karl to focus only on “the January 6 moment” near the end of the debate, but Karl wanted to talk about Walz’s short coming since they really weren’t mentioned up until that point in their coverage:
MUIR: Jon, you heard what the Harris campaign is saying tonight, that the January 6 moment they believe was one of the strongest moments for Governor Walz. That came well into this debate.
JON KARL: 90 minutes in by my count.
MUIR: But it was still quite a moment.
KARL: It was. You know, but first, David, I've got to say I think that Walz did seem unsteady. And frankly what I saw in Walz is somebody who has not faced questions on a national stage since he became the Democratic nominee.
Karl openly lamented that the Democratic campaign had been hiding Walz, keeping him away from the media and that it obviously hurt him in the debate:
He was simply out of practice. I mean, I don't know why they've done it but they've kept him out of the limelight. They've kept him away from reporters. They haven't had him do any interviews. And he was clearly unsteady through much of that debate. And in contrast J.D. Vance was very smooth. He took the arguments not to Walz. He was very respectful of Walz. Took it to Kamala Harris.
Desperate to get away from the topic, Muir latched on to Karl mentioning the “tone of civility in this debate”:
MUIR: I was struck on that point, though, Jon. Repeatedly both of them said to each other, ‘well, I appreciate what you just said there,’ and then went to sort of claim their separate stances on whatever the issue was in the moment. But they said it a number of times in different ways. But both acknowledging the other standing on that stage.
KARL: Yeah. And you just don't hear that anymore. And J.D. Vance did a very good job on taking the policy questions including ones that were going to be very difficult for him and pivoted back to make the points he wanted to make.
Karl eventually did get to the January 6 stuff Muir wanted him to talk about with the latter seemingly admitting they were doing the Harris campaign’s bidding. “Which is why the Harris campaign is bringing that to your attention and other reporters as well,” he strangely said.
The only time Walz’s floundering with his Tiananmen Square lie was mentioned was from a non-journalist in the form of former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
ABC's @Reince Priebus on the #VPDebate: "I thought he did really well...[M]ost importantly, he went head on against this narrative that he's this snarky unlikable guy and he talked about the American Dream and his life in the beginning and the end. Walz lied about Tiananmen… pic.twitter.com/3VpdJ8FnHI
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 2, 2024
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Post Debate Analysis
October 1, 2024
10:49:32 p.m. Eastern(…)
DAVID MUIR: Jon, you heard what the Harris campaign is saying tonight, that the January 6 moment they believe was one of the strongest moments for Governor Walz. That came well into this debate.
JON KARL: 90 minutes in by my count.
MUIR: But it was still quite a moment.
KARL: It was. You know, but first, David, I've got to say I think that Walz did seem unsteady. And frankly what I saw in Walz is somebody who has not faced questions on a national stage since he became the Democratic nominee.
He was simply out of practice. I mean, I don't know why they've done it but they've kept him out of the limelight. They've kept him away from reporters. They haven't had him do any interviews. And he was clearly unsteady through much of that debate. And in contrast J.D. Vance was very smooth. He took the arguments not to Walz. He was very respectful of Walz. Took it to Kamala Harris.
Overall, a tone of civility in this debate. In an election that has been anything but civil.
MUIR: I was struck on that point, though, Jon. Repeatedly both of them said to each other, ‘well, I appreciate what you just said there,’ and then went to sort of claim their separate stances on whatever the issue was in the moment. But they said it a number of times in different ways. But both acknowledging the other standing on that stage.
KARL: Yeah. And you just don't hear that anymore. And J.D. Vance did a very good job on taking the policy questions including ones that were going to be very difficult for him and pivoted back to make the points he wanted to make.
But at the end of the debate, 90 minutes in, a reminder that this is not a normal election. This is not simply an election that is about policy debates. This is an election that features a candidate who is trying to return to office after having refused to accept defeat in the last election and trying to overturn a democratic presidential election, something we never have seen in this country through our 258 years or however many years.
It was striking to me that we didn't hear the words mentioned Mike Pence. Mike pence who of course was Donald Trump's vice president. Mike pence who is not supporting Donald Trump in large part because Donald Trump on January 6th helped to unleash a mob that attacked the Capitol that went literally to chants of "Hang Mike pence" calling for the execution of Mike Pence, because he refused to go along with Donald Trump's attempts to illegally overturn that election.
So, when it finally came up, you heard from J.D. Vance -- again, a reminder, not a policy debate here. J.D. Vance has said that he would not do what Mike Pence did, that he would not have stood up to Donald Trump, that he would have done what Donald Trump wanted him to do. And he reiterated that. And that was I think a very important moment but it came at the very end of this debate.
MUIR: Which is why the Harris campaign is bringing that to your attention and other reporters as well.
(…)
