Newsmax's Debate Stenography
Despite occasional stabs at balance, Newsmax's coverage of the Trump-Harris and Vance-Walz debates were heavily skewed toward promoting the Republican and bashing the Democrat.
After Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Newsmax was quick to promote posturing from the Trump campaign about debates — and, surprisingly, there was an actual attempt at balance. An Aug. 2 article by Sandy Fitzgerald actually featured the Harris campaign calling out Trump’s debate reluctance:
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign Friday accused former President Donald Trump of being “too scared” to face her in a debate and said he should “man up.”
“He’s got no problem spreading lies and hateful garbage at his rallies or in interviews with right-wing commentators,” Harris for President co-Chair Cedric Richmond said Friday, reports The Hill. “But he’s apparently too scared to do it standing across the stage from the Vice President of the United States.”
And, Richmond added, “Since he talks the talk, he should walk the walk and — as Vice President Harris said earlier this week — say it to her face on September 10. She’ll be there waiting to see if he’ll show up.”
His comments come in response to Trump insisting in an interview that he wants to debate Harris, but he sees little reason to.
[…]
His comments come in response to Trump insisting in an interview that he wants to debate Harris, but he sees little reason to.
A Republican lackey appeared on Newsmax TV, as described in an Aug. 2 article by Solange Reyner:
Former President Donald Trump is not hesitant to debate and wants to have “multiple debates” with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, said Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley.
“I think that any opportunity we have to get him side-by-side with Kamala Harris is going to be a win for President Trump,” Whatley said Friday on Newsmax’s “National Report.”
“The fact that Kamala Harris would actually have to stand there and talk without a teleprompter would be very good news, right? Because she has refused to do that since she became the nominee. Not one single unscripted comment, not a tough question from any reporters whatsoever, she needs to have that scrutiny. I think that that’s an essential part of running for it.
Rreyner surprisingly added the other side of the story:
The Democratic National Committee’s newest advertising campaign, launched Friday, taunts Trump for not committing to a debate with Harris.
The DNC has purchased large ads that dominate the digital homepages of major local newspapers in states where Trump plans to campaign in the coming weeks. The ads say “the convicted felon is afraid to debate” and question if that is due to his stance on abortion.
An Aug. 3 article by Eric Mack spun things for Trump in trying to change the terms of the debate:
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wants to debate Kamala Harris, but this time “with a full arena audience,” and he now suggests he won’t debate the vice president if she doesn’t agree to the Fox debate he has proposed.
“I have agreed with FoxNews to debate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, September 4th,” Trump posted Friday night on Truth Social.
“The FoxNews Debate will be held in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, at a site in an area to be determined. The Moderators of the Debate will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and the Rules will be similar to the Rules of my Debate with Sleepy Joe, who has been treated horribly by his Party — BUT WITH A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!”
Harris and Democrats attempted to use the delay in agreeing to the debate location and format as suggesting Trump did not want to debate, but Trump campaign officials and Trump both said the debate will happen but on new terms.
Mack made no reference to Trump’s shifting claims about debates.
An Aug. 4 article by Fitzgerald got back to what it does best, uncritically parroting narratives from Trump lackeys:
Vice President Kamala Harris is “gaslighting” the American public by refusing to debate former President Donald Trump in a Fox News venue, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told Newsmax on Sunday.
“Harris is out there saying, ‘man up, let’s go ahead and debate any time, any place. Let’s get it on. Let’s go and rumble. Let’s get this debate happening,’ but it can only be on one certain day with an outlet that is currently in litigation with President Trump,” Miller told Newsmax’s “Sunday Agenda.”
Harris insists that she will only debate Trump in an ABC News-hosted debate on Sept. 10 that he’d already agreed to when President Joe Biden was still in the race.
Trump, however, says he’s agreed to a Fox News-hosted debate on Sept. 4, and will not appear on a debate sponsored by ABC News.
Meanwhile, Miller questioned why Harris has not given any one-on-one interviews or answered press questions, even though she’s the presumptive Democratic Party nominee.
The apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy played the right-wing media bias card on ABC in an Aug. 12 article:
The co-chair of ABC News’ parent company is a longtime, personal friend and campaign donor of Vice President Kamala Harris, whose upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump will be hosted by the network.
Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment, has known Harris since 1994. Their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, have known each other since the 1980s, according to The New York Times.
Trump, on the other hand, recently sued ABC News for defamation.
Still, the network insists Harris, the Democrat [sic] presidential nominee, won’t have any advantage when she debates Republican nominee Trump on Sept. 10.
By refusing to use the correct word “Democratic,” McCarthy showed his own media bias.
An anonymous Aug. 17 article served up more Trump debate posturing:
Former President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters at a Saturday rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, that he looks forward to debating challenger Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I look forward to debating her, by the way: She’ll be easier,” he said, referencing President Joe Biden.
“She’ll be easier than him. Her policies are so bad. Remember, her father was a Marxist economics professor,” he said during the rally, which aired live on Newsmax and simulcast on the Newsmax2 online streaming platform.
Trump said Harris “is not what we want in this country.”
“I believe she will be easier to beat than him because she’s a truly radical-left lunatic,” he said.
And it wouldn’t be a full Republican posturing operation if Dick Morris didn’t weigh in, which he did in an Aug. 17 TV hit:
The polling numbers are close between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris for now, but all that will change after their first debate on Sept. 10, which will be a “massacre” in Trump’s favor, political strategist Dick Morris told Newsmax on Saturday.
“I think that’s going to be a massacre, a wipeout, not just a debate,” Morris told Newsmax’s “Saturday Report.”
“I think that’s because it’s not just a question of Harris’ delivery or Harris’ issues or her beliefs. It’s a question of her level of information.”
Writer Fitzgerald failed to tell her readers that Morris is a Trump adviser — something Newsmax frequently fails to disclose.
The apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy served as an uncritical mouthpiece for a Trump mouthpiece who insisted in a Sept. 2 article that Harris is “terrified” to face Trump:
Former President Donald Trump’s debate preparation has not changed from when he was running against President Joe Biden, Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez told Newsmax on Monday.
Alvarez, while appearing on “Wake Up America,” told co-host Christina Thompson that Republican presidential nominee Trump hasn’t really changed his routine now that he’ll face Vice President Kamala Harris in ABC’s Sept. 10 debate.
[…]
Alvarez said Harris’ team likely will “spoon-feed her because they’re terrified that she won’t have a teleprompter.”
“She will have to stand on her own two feet, without [vice-presidential nominee Tim] Walz as a security blanket beside her and talk about her record and talk about the issues and President Trump is ready for just that,” the adviser said.
Post-debate pro-Trump posturing
In a Sept. 7 Newsmax TV appearance, Trump adviser (though not identified as such) Dick Morris insisted that questions about muted microphones meant “she was trying to get out of the debate.” Morris then read “the script that I’ve sent President Trump that I’m urging him to do.” Again: Newsmax did not identify Morris as a Trump adviser. This was followed by a Sept. 8 article by Eric Mack touting that “Trump leads The New York Times/Siena College poll going into Tuesday’s lone debate.”
After the debate, Newsmax served up the expected pro-Trump, anti-Harris spin:
Daily Express US Poll: Trump Won Debate, 45 Percent to 34 Percent (meaningless snap poll)
Ric Grenell to Newsmax: Debate Moderators’ Bias Against Trump a Gift
Sen. Marsha Blackburn to Newsmax: Harris Fumbled, Punted on Questions
Rudy Giuliani to Newsmax: Would Dems Side With Terrorists on Another 9/11?
Right-wing attacks on ABC’s performance in hostring the debare were also echoed:
Newsmax also let Trump serve up his own spin unchallenged:
In fact, conservatives such as Andy McCarthy, Frank Luntz, Karl Rove and even Robert Kennedy Jr.— as well as a Fox News voter panel — agreed that Trump lost the debate to Harris. The only hint Newsmax offered that the debate may not have gone well for Trump is an article quoting Sen. Lindsey Graham saying it was a “”missed opportunity” for Trump. There was also a column by John Gizzi claiming that “a group of historians and seasoned debate experts who spoke to Newsmax shortly after the nationally televised clash between the two major party candidates” insisting the debate won’t affect anything.
Michael Dorstewitz served up his own faulty spin in his Sept. 13 column:
Vice President Kamala Harris gave a better-than-expected performance at Tuesday night’s ABC presidential debate, and details are now emerging that may help explain her success.
First of all there may have been a conflict of interest between Harris and one of the ABC News debate moderators, Linsey Davis — they’re college sorority sisters at Aloha Kappa Alpha, Inc.
It’s actually Alpha Kappa Alpha. Dorstewitz then promoted a conspiracy theory:
It prompted at least another person to ask, “So, who slipped Kamala’s team the questions?”
Whether that question was serious or meant as a joke, an independent journalist promised yesterday that before the weekend is over, he’ll come into possession of and release an affidavit from a lawyer who represents an ABC News whistleblower.
He alleges that the whistleblower will affirm, among other things, that ABC News gave “sample questions” to the Harris campaign prior to the debate, and those questions were ultimately asked Tuesday night.
He claims the affidavit will also state that ABC promised not to fact check Harris, but would do so against Trump.
In fact, that purported affidavit was completely unsubstantiated and even its promoters now admit it’s fake, and the source of the claim has deleted his Twitter/X account. Don’t expect Dorstewitz to correct the record, though — right-wingers rarely do.
(It was later revealed that despite the account bearing the name “Black Insurrectionist,” it was operated by a white guy who is known for defrauding investors and owing millions of dollars in back taxes.)
Instead, Dorstewitz pushed the idea of having another debate at the place that publishes his column:
Let’s give Harris her debate.
But at the same time, let’s give the new kids on the block a chance.
Let’s schedule the first-ever Newsmax Presidential Debate in recognition of their rising star status, and hold it on Sept. 25 — the date that was set for the NBC debate.
Same rules as before: The participants stand throughout the 90-minute event, no audience, no notes, no open mics when the other debater is speaking.
And Newsmax has the perfect moderators, “The Record” anchor Greta Van Susteren, and Newsmax White House Correspondent James Rosen.
They each have the qualities necessary to be good presidential debate moderators: They’re intelligent, quick, fair, and tough without being obnoxious. And any debate they moderate will not be a “three-against-one” struggle aimed at either candidate.
And finally, neither Van Susteren nor Rosen is Kamala Harris’ sorority sister.
While Newsmax likely appreciates Dorstewitz’s enthusiasm for it, Trump was beaten so badly by Harris that he adamantly refused to take part in another debate.
Vice presidential debate
Newsmax headed into its coverage of the vice presidential debate with a Sept. 27 wire article on how the moderators won’t fact-check the candidates. Then, a Sept. 29 article by Mark Swanson hyped a claim that “Democrat [sic] Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz is battling nerves heading into the upcoming debate against Republican JD Vance.” An article the same day by Sandy Fitzgerald touted a right-wing congressman claim that Vance will “do great because he’s got the issues on his side,” and a Sept. 30 article by Solange Reyner cheered that “Donald Trump says he will be doing a ‘personal play-by-play'” of the debate. Oddly, there was also some pre-emptive spin by Mike Huckabee insisting that while the debate “‘ought to be fun,’ it probably won’t move the needle much in terms of the election.”
The day of the debate, Newsmax published wire articles previewing the debate. After the debate, Newsmax ran a couple of wire articles summarizing it. Then came the biased anti-Walz and pro-Vance Newsmax-bylined stuff, with more balanced wire articles mixed in:
Walz, Vance Clash on Middle East at Outset of Debate (wire article)
CBS Cuts JD Vance’s Mic as He Calls Out Moderator for Debating Him
Walz on Abortion: Women’s Rights Can’t Be Based on Geography
Walz, Vance Go After Each Other’s Running Mates (wire article)
After that an opt-in reader poll on the debate winner and an article by Kate McManus touting the debate’s ratings, the usual gang of talking heads pushed Republican talking points about the debate:
Fmr Sen. Rick Santorum to Newsmax: Vance a ‘Tour de Force’ in Debate With Walz
Sen. Marshall to Newsmax: Vance ‘Mopped the Floor’ With Walz, But Civility Was Clear
Karoline Leavitt to Newsmax: Vance Exceeded Expectations in Debate
Fmr Va. Gov. James Gilmore to Newsmax: Debates Are ‘Setup’ Against GOP
Jason Miller to Newsmax: Vance Called His Shot on Fake-Checks
Marsha Blackburn to Newsmax: Vance Proved the Better ‘Number Two’ in Debate
John Gizzi gushed in an Oct. 2 article:
No sooner had J.D. Vance and Tim Walz shaken hands after concluding the lone vice presidential debate of the year Tuesday night than the verdict from Newsmax’s panel of political scientists came in and was unanimous: the night belonged to Ohio’s Republican Sen. Vance.
Given that vice presidential debates rarely have a major impact on the presidential contest, it is unclear whether Vance’s performance will boost the polling performance of the Republican ticket led by running mate Donald Trump.
But clearly the debate enhanced Vance’s standing as a political figure.
Then it was Newsmax columnists’ duty to declare Vance the winner. Fred Fleitz huffed in his Oct. 2 column:
Even though almost all post-debate assessments and polls showed Vance was by far the stronger debater and won the evening, CBS’s laughable self-conducted poll said it was a tie.
Like the last presidential debate, this was another three-against-one debate for a Republican candidate, with the debate moderators slanting their questions and follow-ups heavily in favor of the Democrat.
Although there was not supposed to be “fact checking” by the moderators, they did so, against Vance.
When Vance challenged them, they cut off his microphone.
[…]
Despite CBS’s efforts to rig the vice-presidential debate against JD Vance to ensure that he lost, Vance’s superior debating skills and his powerful message made him unbeatable.
Judd Dunning gushed in an Oct. 4 column:
Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, powerfully shined in his debate against Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn.
Senator Vance’s calm, collected, and rational performance resonated with voters seeking substantive conservatism.
Vance’s demeanor contrasted sharply with Gov. Walz, who appeared uncomfortable, fumbling through his notes, openly criticizing himself when pinned down, revealing a deep lack of confidence on the national stage.
[…]
Vance’s victory was for the GOP itself, reminding voters that principles of hard work, personal responsibility, and law and order should guide America. The November election is fast approaching, and the choice has never been clearer.
The tide is turning toward the rational right.
Larry Bell, meanwhile, started off by surprisingly criticizing both sides in his Oct. 4 column:
The two debates, one between presidential contenders U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the other with vice president hopeful Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., engaging Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, provided blizzards of talking point fodder and scads of style point commentary that shed little light upon the single most important voting consideration of all.
With myriad national issues and challenges, are you better off now than you were four years ago?
The rest of his column, however, was filled with pro-Trump talking points.