Debate Moderator Stirs Outrage by Asking Anti-Trumper for Advice
UPDATE, Oct. 9, 2020: After C-SPAN claimed that Scully’s Twitter account had been hacked, social media users uncovered prior posts revealing Scully had blamed previous tweets on hackers at least two other times, in 2012 and 2013. Scully’s Twitter account, meanwhile, has been deleted.
Tweets from 2012 and 2013 pic.twitter.com/jdeKqq7UEW
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) October 9, 2020
UPDATE, Oct. 9, 2020: Roughly 90 minutes after this story was published, C-SPAN issued a tweet claiming “Scully did not originate the tweet and believes his account has been hacked. The Commission on Presidential Debates has stated publicly that the tweet was not sent by Scully himself and is investigating with the help of authorities.
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 9, 2020
The Western Journal’s original story remains below as published:
The man picked to moderate the second debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden has been caught seeking advice from a rabid anti-Trumper.
Steve Scully, the political editor for C-SPAN, sent a since-deleted tweet Thursday to Anthony Scaramucci, who after a brief and tempestuous stint as White House communications director is now a virulent foe of the president.
“@Scaramucci should I respond to trump,” Scully tweeted, with the message appearing publicly.
The crisis PR team is taking a very long time to “explain” this incident.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) October 9, 2020
Scaramucci tweeted in reply, “Ignore. He is having a hard enough time. Some more bad stuff about to go down.” That tweet was still public Friday morning.
Ignore. He is having a hard enough time. Some more bad stuff about to go down. https://t.co/cMphfQJELL
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 9, 2020
Trump on Thursday rejected the unilateral decision from the Commission on Presidential Debates to change the format of Thursday’s debate from in-person to virtual and said the commission was changing the rules to help Biden win the election.
Several journalists said Scully has compromised his objectivity. Others noted that at a time when the establishment media are facing a crisis of confidence, Scully further blackened the image of the media’s objectivity.
“What? Why is the next presidential debate moderator publicly asking one of Trump’s staunchest critics in Anthony Scaramucci if he should respond to the president? In a related story, Scully once interned for Sen. Joe Biden. Optics here are horrible & underscore mistrust is media,” The Hill media reporter Joe Concha tweeted.
C-SPAN’s Steve Scully — the next presidential debate moderator — has deleted tweet asking staunch Trump critic Anthony Scaramucci if he should respond to Trump. That original message appears (not confirmed) to be a DM accidentally sent as Tweet. Account was down- now back up. https://t.co/awaEvm4OFs
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) October 9, 2020
“We need a different moderator at the least. This is disqualifying,” tweeted Rebeccah Heinrichs, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute.
We need a different moderator at the v least. This is disqualifying. https://t.co/tnPhB6z0jj
— Rebeccah Heinrichs (@RLHeinrichs) October 9, 2020
Politico’s Alex Thompson said it was an “odd thing for the next debate moderator to tweet.”
odd thing for the next debate moderator to tweet. https://t.co/WXH0UdNEB4
— Alex Thompson (@AlxThomp) October 9, 2020
Many used the incident to point to the supposedly nonpartisan debate commission’s bias.
Moderator Steve Scully deleted this tweet. Neither he nor the Presidential Debate Commission have addressed why he was asking a Trump loather for counsel on responding to Trump. Horrific problem here for the “independent” debate commission, in their worst year ever. https://t.co/rqChwmySQl
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 9, 2020
Yeah guys the debate commission isn’t rigged against Trump. ?
Debate moderator Steve Scully raises eyebrows with tweet asking Scaramucci ‘should I respond to Trump’ | Fox News https://t.co/pfkHCcjzrs
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 9, 2020
My @washingtonpost column was written, edited and scheduled before @SteveScully “Tweet” posted. @debates Commission’s awful derailment is not Steve’s fault. He’s a good guy who appears to be anti-@realDonaldTrump but his selection is on Commission. Its charade is over. Exposed. https://t.co/4peel8jhqa
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) October 9, 2020
White House deputy communications director Brian Morgenstern said that “if anybody is having a bad week, it’s certainly the presidential debate commission.”
“Now their chosen moderator certainly seems not to be very impartial,” Morgenstern said Thursday night on Fox News.
“The first one, Susan Page, of course, is writing the glowing biography of Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and now Mr. Scully, who interned for Joe Biden, now colluding to use the word the Democrats love with the Mooche, who, you know, I love The Mooche, but he’s gone way off the deep end. He is a wild-eyed critic of the president at this point,” he said. “And now to have a debate moderator seeking his advice.
“I think the cat’s out of the bag. I don’t think Mr. Scully is impartial. So that really calls into question, again, the debate commission’s judgment here.”
Fox News said neither the Commission on Presidential Debates nor C-SPAN had responded to its requests for comment.
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