The TV debate for the US election is over – and Harris was able to shine. But she was hardly challenged by the moderators. A problem, says a US media expert.
Many agree that the Vice President Kamala Harris as winner of the TV duel for the US election This is mainly because Harris has been able to successfully lure Trump out of his shell time and again, says media expert Andrew Selepak of the University of Florida BuzzFeed News Germany from IPPEN.MEDIA.
Harris-Trump TV duel: One point could harm the Democrats
But there is also one point from the TV debate that will help the Democratic candidate in the US election could harm: “Harris was never really challenged by the two moderators in the debate,” says Selepak. At least not in the way they did with Trump, where they made it clear when something he said was not true.
For example, on the subject of abortion, when he claimed that some Democrats would want to kill babies after birth. Moderator Linsey Davis from ABCNews reacted promptly: “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after birth,” she said. However, when Harris claimed that there would be a “national abortion ban if Trump is re-elected,” which the broadcaster reported in a Fact check later falsified, nothing came from the moderators.
US election: TV debate could “fuel right-wing conspiracy theories”
“Right-wing media and right-wing extremists will pounce on this imbalance,” says Selepak. Trump himself has already jumped on this bandwagon. Shortly after the TV debate, he wrote on his own social network “Truth Social”: “That was the best debate I’ve ever had, especially because it was a three against one situation!” (see below)
“The questions that ABCNews for the TV debate were not really what right-wing voters or people from the political center would have been interested in,” says Selepak BuzzFeed News GermanyFor example, that Trump lost the 2020 election and his supporters stormed the Capitol. These are all issues “outside the political present of the US election that do nothing more than make Trump look negative.”
He also felt that the moderators had not pressed Harris for answers as much as Trump. “For example, when asked whether Harris Vladimir Putin Kamala Harris did not answer that, although it is actually a very simple question,” says the media expert. The moderator David Muir did not “press her to answer the question”: “That could fuel right-wing conspiracy theories about so-called Mainstream media actively opposes Trump.”
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