The winners of the first Republican debate: its Fox News moderators

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/07/winners-republican-debate-fox-news-moderators

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Politics is sport in America, where every televised debate needs a clear winner and a loser – even when, like Thursday night, there was neither. The truth about the Republican primary debate was that every single candidate on the stage was defeated. If there must be a victory trophy, let it be shared between the three Fox News anchors who gave Washington’s sycophantic press corps a lesson in how to hold politicians to account.

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Fox News put on an exemplary spectacle. It was not so much a debate between candidates, but an interrogation that each man, in turn, had to endure. Moderators Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier were forensic, unrelenting and pointed.

Critics may say it was all about ratings, a cable news extravaganza that was more dramatic than it was substantive. The reality is that Fox News achieved a rare feat in journalism – making often dry policy debates entertaining.

Liberal critics of Fox News should at least acknowledge it performed a public service, testing the Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, beyond his limits.

“Is there anyone on stage, and can I see hands, who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the Republican party?” Baier asked in the debate’s opening question. “And pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person.”

It was the perfect opening salvo, aimed at Trump without naming him, electrifying the debate by slicing to the heart of what makes his candidacy such a radioactive force. And it set the tone.

Within the first 15 minutes, neurosurgeon Ben Carson was asked how he could be president given he thought Alan Greenspan had been treasury secretary instead of federal reserve chairman, and governor Chris Christie was pressed to explain why New Jersey has undergone nine credit rating downgrades under his watch.

As candidates ducked and dived, the moderators did not let them off the ropes. When Trump declined to meet Wallace’s demand for evidence for his incendiary claim about the Mexican government sending criminals across the border, the anchor did not relent.

“I’ll give you 30 seconds to answer my question, which was, what evidence do you have – specific evidence – that the Mexican government is sending criminals across the border? Thirty seconds.”

The persistence paid off, laying bare Trump’s questionable sourcing. “Border Patrol, people that I deal with, that I talk to, they say this is what’s happening,” he replied. “Because our leaders are stupid. Our politicians are stupid.”

Of course, Fox News could adopt this forceful approach – so unusual in political journalism – because it is Fox News. Republicans know the easiest pivot away from a difficult interview is to complain about the “liberal” media, clearly not an option here.

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None of this is to say the Fox moderators were without fault. There was not a single question during the two-hour debate, for example, about climate change, arguably the most important issue to face the next occupant of the White House. The selection and tone of questions reflected the right-wing bias of Fox News – although, in its defense, those prejudices echo those of Republican primary voters.

Kelly asked one or two silly questions, which detracted from what was otherwise a fearless performance. Those familiar with her previous controversies would not have expected her to be a liberal hero. And that’s unlikely a label she wants. But she repeatedly struck the 10 male candidates where it most hurt, peeling back the curtain on a party that cannot let go of its war on women.

Kelly called out Florida senator Marco Rubio when he suggested he is against “exceptions” to bans on abortion, such as in cases of rape or incest, contradicting positions he’s taken in the past. She turned the screw on Wisconsin governor Scott Walker on similar terrain, pointing out that he wants to make abortion illegal even in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

“Would you really let a mother die rather than have an abortion, and with 83% of the American public in favor of a life exception?” she asked. “Are you too out of the mainstream on this issue to win the general election?”

Yet her more notable exchanges were, unsurprisingly, with Trump, the silverback gorilla in the middle of the stage that, for the most part, the other candidates were too scared to even prod.

She had the temerity to ask the billionaire to explain derogatory remarks he has made about women, calling them “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals”. When he responded with a joke intended to diffuse the situation, Kelly refused to let him off the hook. “Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?”

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Appearing backstage in the spin room shortly after the debate, Trump could not conceal how irritated he was with Kelly.

“The questions to me were not nice. I didn’t think they were appropriate,” he told a mob of reporters. “And I thought Megyn behaved very badly.”

Later, at 3:30am, Trump, apparently unable to sleep, tweeted that Kelly “is totally overrated and angry” and “totally bombed tonight”. He retweeted another user who called Kelly, who is blond, “a bimbo”.

It is a great achievement when a reporter gets under a politician’s skin with nothing more toxic than a series of difficult questions. In that sense at least, Fox News won the fight.