The debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was notable for several reasons. Despite creating rules to prevent Trump from behaving badly, they were not enforced. Notably, moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper did not push back at all as Trump repeatedly lied throughout the debate and refused to answer questions.
Dan Goldman, a Democratic congressman from New York, appeared on CNN last night to talk with Anderson Cooper about the event. And according to him, the network allowed Trump to intimidate them during the debate.
"I think Joe Biden had an off tonight," the Congressman began. "It was a poor performance. There’s no question about it and no one is saying anything different. But let’s have another debate. Let’s see what happens on a different night. Let’s see whether, you know, Donald Trump continues to lie over and over to deny his role in January 6th, to proudly say that he increased the deficit more than any other president by reducing taxes on the super-wealthy. He is blatantly mischaracterizing the disaster that was his presidency and that got a lot of attention and didn’t get a lot of pushback."
Goldman continued, "But let’s have another debate where, actually, the moderators will push back on Donald Trump’s lies. He intimidated your network, unfortunately. And there was no pushback. He was given free rein to jus"t lie as much as he wants and that’s not helpful to the American public either.