In a recent development, Mark Penn, a former high-ranking adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, has raised questions about the impartiality of ABC in the 2024 presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Penn has expressed concerns that the debate seemed unfairly tilted in favor of the Democratic candidate.
According to The Post Millennial, Penn has called for an investigation into whether ABC's news department intentionally manipulated the debate's outcome. Observers have pointed out that the moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, were more stringent in demanding answers from Trump, while Harris was allowed to sidestep questions. The moderators scrutinized many of Trump's claims and policy statements, but none of Harris's comments were subjected to similar scrutiny.
Penn stated, "I actually think they should do a full internal investigation, hire an outside law firm. I don't know how much of this was planned in advance." He further added, "I don't know what they told the Harris campaign. I think the day after, suspicion here is really quite high, and I think a review of all their internal texts and emails really should be done by an independent party to find out to what extent they were planning on, in effect, you know, fact-checking just one candidate and in effect, rigging the outcome of this debate. I think the situation demands nothing less than that."
Despite the perceived bias, Trump has declared that he will not participate in a third debate with Harris. CNN host Jake Tapper has also noted that Harris evaded debate questions. Interestingly, a Reuters survey of undecided voters indicated that Trump emerged as the winner of the debate, which often seemed to pit him against three opponents.
Penn, who is also the chairman of the Harvard CAPS Harris Poll, observed that Harris has managed to persuade many people that it's time to "turn the page" on Trump. She has positioned herself as the candidate of change, despite being the second-in-command in President Joe Biden's current administration. Penn criticized the mainstream media's coverage of Harris's campaign as "laughable."
He stated, "It's a 50-50, race. He's [Trump] got more obvious tools to get across the finish line than she does and part of the thing here is that if the referees have their finger on the scale, it's harder to, you know, break through and overcome. And certainly, general media coverage has been fairly laughable."
Penn also offered some advice to the Trump campaign. He suggested that it would be beneficial to distribute copies of the ACLU survey that Harris answered, indicating her support for taxpayer-funded sex change operations for prisoners and defunding Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This move, Penn believes, could potentially sway voters in favor of Trump, emphasizing the importance of individual freedom and limited government intervention, core tenets of conservative values.
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