On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump will debate Vice President Kamala Harris of their first direct encounter of the 2024 presidential election. Trying again at Trump’s three debates with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, count on the press to adore Harris’s efficiency, whereas deriding Trump as somebody out of a “third world” “banana republic.”
The media tone was established early, simply minutes earlier than the candidates met of their first (September 26, 2016) debate, as CNN’s Van Jones extolled Hillary’s supreme skills. “She is the Michael Jordan of coverage in a number of, a number of areas,” Jones crowed. “She’s just like the valedictorian operating towards this loopy frat boy.”
With NBC’s Lester Holt asking the questions, Hillary escaped scrutiny on her well being (simply days earlier, she’d collapsed at a 9/11 ceremony), international donations to the Clinton Basis, and her function within the debacle that led to the homicide of a U.S. Ambassador in Benghazi, Libya whereas she was Secretary of State.
“I believed it was a shutout for Hillary,” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews cheered throughout his community’s post-debate protection. “She cleaned his clock tonight. It was a bit embarrassing for Trump. I believed a bit that I used to be watching A Few Good Males and she or he was Tom Cruise and he was Jack Nicholson. It was not shut. It was over tonight. Very clear end result: Hillary gained massive time. It was a shutout.”
“I feel that Hillary’s composure and her mastery of the element was constant all through, and she or he was nice all through,” assessed NBC’s Tom Brokaw, as he faulted Trump for resorting to “bombast.”
Over on ABC, Cokie Roberts scolded the Republican nominee: “His facial expressions all through have been condescending and in methods simply impolite, and early within the debate he was additionally bullying, so, I feel there are a selection of issues right here that didn’t work for him.”
“This was the worst debate efficiency I’ve ever seen,” concluded the Huffington Put up’s Howard Fineman on MSNBC. “In each respect, it was terrible. Hillary wiped the ground with him on this debate.”
The entrance web page of the following morning’s New York Occasions featured a one-sided “information evaluation” trashing Trump’s “hurricane of factual distortion, taunting interruptions and blustery generalities.”
“Mrs. Clinton’s problem was evident from the second she walked onto the stage at Hofstra College on Lengthy Island,” political reporters Michael Barbaro and Matt Flegenheimer wrote. “How a lot respect ought to she present to a rival of unparalleled incivility, who misrepresents the reality with abandon, crassly charges ladies’s seems to be on a scale of 1 to 10 and casually denigrates complete ethnic teams — a person whose phrases Mrs. Clinton has described as racist, xenophobic and misogynistic?”
“To name Trump a con man, as many have, is a disservice to the artwork of the con,” ex-CBS Night Information anchor Dan Moderately wrote on Fb the day after the controversy. “By its definition a con requires deceit. However Trump has not tried to cover his lies or the sheer unrealistic audacity of his cartoonish coverage positions.”
13 days later (October 9), the pair met once more for his or her second debate. The evaluations sounded as if they may have been lifted from protection of the primary debate. “I simply hope to God I don’t see one other marketing campaign like this one. America can do higher than what we’ve got seen right here tonight. This was simply disgraceful,” CBS’s Bob Schieffer grumped when it was over. “This was WrestleMania, this wasn’t about presidential politics.”
“I can’t even recall a debate ever within the American historical past with that a lot venom between the 2,” fretted NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
In a sign of simply how far the media goalposts have shifted in eight years, journalists in 2016 discovered it fully objectionable that Trump floated the concept Hillary belonged “in jail” for her mishandling of categorised e-mails as Secretary of State.
“To not sound too corny, however what makes this nation completely different from international locations with dictators in Africa, or Stalin or Hitler, or any of these international locations with dictators and totalitarian leaders, is that once they took over, they put their opponents in jail. To listen to one presidential candidate, say — even when it was a flip remark, which it was — ‘you’re going to be in jail’ to a different presidential candidate on the controversy stage in america of America, beautiful, simply beautiful,” griped CNN’s Dana Bash.
“That is the sort of factor that they do in international locations not like america, the place you lock up and jail your political opponents,” CNN’s Jake Tapper agreed.
“I imply that is what they do in banana republics,” groused Schieffer on CBS.
Previous to the controversy, Trump appeared with a number of ladies — Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey — who had been victimized by Invoice Clinton earlier than and through his presidency. The media didn’t like that, both.
Former New York Occasions Govt Editor Jill Abramson wrote in The Guardian that Trump’s look with the ladies “resembled a Soviet present trial,” whereas the Washington Put up’s Margaret Sullivan sneered the look of Trump sitting at an extended desk with the ladies “regarded like a twisted model of ‘The Final Supper.’…Bringing the accusers right into a presidential-debate city corridor was nothing however hate-theater: a counterpunch to deflect criticism of Trump’s personal shameful historical past with ladies.”
“Solely in a 3rd world nation, and solely within the, type of, the thoughts of some type of film author of a 3rd world democracy or dictatorship would you’ve gotten a candidate publicly humiliate a former occupant of that workplace by parading all of those different individuals round,” NBC’s Chuck Todd blasted on MSNBC Dwell the following day.
Whereas the media derided Trump, there was but extra predictable reward for Hillary. “The whole lot about her was presidential tonight. Her poise, her speech supply was assured, mellifluous, even. She has a good looking voice,” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews proclaimed. “She was very successful. She had successful character once more.”
Ten days later (October 19), Clinton and Trump met for the ultimate time. “It is a very unhappy night time for the nation. You possibly can’t polish this turd,” CNN’s Van Jones mourned as he slammed Donald Trump’s efficiency.
MSNBC’s protection included the vehemently anti-Trump one-time Republican operative Steve Schmidt, who derided Trump as “incoherent….He was like an outdated man within the park feeding squirrels.”
“There simply wasn’t a second that I noticed on this debate the place Donald Trump had a bonus over Hillary Clinton,” extolled The Final Phrase host Lawrence O’Donnell. “It was nothing however a romp by Hillary Clinton throughout right here.”
“I’ve heard from Republicans tonight who additionally thought it was her finest efficiency,” raved Nicolle Wallace.
Over on ABC, political analyst Matthew Dowd agreed, arguing that Clinton’s robust displaying meant {that a} Democratic victory was now all-but-assured: “This debate was a transparent win for Hillary Clinton. She has the lead. She is definitely within the strategy of operating out the clock and until some unknown occasion happens, Hillary Clinton goes to be elected president of america.”
Oops.
The forthcoming Trump-Harris debate might or will not be a “shitshow,” as an irate media slammed the 2020 Trump-Biden debate. However it already appears a foregone conclusion that they’re going to declare Kamala Harris the winner, and blame Trump for any incivility that erupts.
For extra examples from our flashback sequence, which we name the NewsBusters Time Machine, go right here.
