Posted on 08/11/2015 10:34:48 AM PDT by Conscience of a Conservative
But many conservative commentators, led by Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, have criticized Fox over the debate. What’s telling is that some portion of the Fox audience, at least according to Twitter and Facebook, is also unhappy.
Now some of these are fierce Trump partisans who are ticked when anyone challenges him on anything. Others were disappointed with the overall tone of the Cleveland event.
“The only reason Fox had high ratings was because of TRUMP and he’s the very one they tried to tear down. Thanks for Trump for your ratings, it sure wasn’t the so-called journalists,” one person said.
Another wrote that “those questions were inappropriate and vicious by Fox.”
These were offset by many others who praised the moderators’ performance, but let’s look at what some found “vicious.”
Trump was asked whether he would pledge to support the GOP nominee (after raising the potential for an independent bid in numerous interviews); about his own derogatory words about women; why he once supported single-payer health care; his evidence that Mexico is sending rapists into the United States; the Iran nuclear deal, and why he once supported abortion rights.
Jeb Bush was asked what he would say to families of those who died in “your brother’s war.” Scott Walker was asked about flip-flopping on immigration. Ben Carson was asked about his political inexperience. Marco Rubio was asked if abortion should be allowed in cases of rape and incest. And on and on.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
1. Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter. However, that is not without its downsides, in particular, when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” ... 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, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?
2. Mr. Trump, it has not escaped anybody’s notice that you say that the Mexican government, the Mexican government is sending criminals — rapists, drug dealers, across the border. Governor Bush has called those remarks, quote, “extraordinarily ugly.” I’d like you — you’re right next to him — tell us — talk to him directly and say how you respond to that and — and you have repeatedly said that you have evidence that the Mexican government is doing this, but you have evidence you have refused or declined to share. Why not use this first Republican presidential debate to share your proof with the American people?
2a. Mr. Trump, I’ll give you 30 seconds — 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.
3. Mr. Trump, ObamaCare is one of the things you call a disaster. ... Now, 15 years ago, uncalled yourself a liberal on health care. You were for a single-payer system, a Canadian-style system.Why were you for that then and why aren’t you for it now?
4. Mr. Trump, it’s not just your past support for single- payer health care. You’ve also supported a host of other liberal policies. Use — you’ve also donated to several Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton included, Nancy Pelosi.You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business-related favors. And you said recently, quote, “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.” ... So what specifically did … they do?
5. Mr. Trump, you talk a lot about how you are the person on this stage to grow the economy. I want to ask you about your business record. Trump corporations — Trump corporations, casinos and hotels, have declared bankruptcy four times over the last quarter-century. In 2011, you told Forbes Magazine this: “I’ve used the laws of the country to my advantage.” But at the same time, financial experts involved in those bankruptcies say that lenders to your companies lost billions of dollars. Question sir, with that record, why should we trust you to run the nation’s business?
5a. No, but the concept sir… that’s your line, but your companies have gone bankrupt.
5b. Well sir, let’s just talk about the latest example … which is Trump Entertainment Resorts, which went bankrupt in 2009. In that case alone, lenders to your company lost over $1 billion and more than 1,100 people were laid off. ... Is that the way you'd run the country?
6. Mr. Trump, in 1999, you said you were, quote, “very pro- choice.” Even supporting partial-birth abortion. You favored an assault weapons ban as well. In 2004, you said in most cases you identified as a Democrat. Even in this campaign, your critics say you often sound more like a Democrat than a Republican, calling several of your opponents on the stage things like clowns and puppets. When did you actually become a Republican?
7. Mr. Trump, 30 seconds to respond (to Jeb Bush's original question, which related to Trump's name-calling)
8. Candidates, you may not have seen the late developing news today our Fox Pentagon team broke earlier this evening about a top Iranian general traveling to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. His name is General Qassem Soleimani, he's blamed for hundreds of U.S. troops death in Iraq, and Afghanistan. His trip to Russia appears to directly violate U.N. Security Council resolutions to confine him to Iran. So, Mr. Trump, if you were president, how would you respond to this?
9. Mr. Trump, closing statement, sir.
Of these, really only #5 seemed out of place. #1 was aggressive, sure, but (as Kelly noted) it is an issue that Clinton (or whoever is the Dem nominee) will surely raise, so I see no problem asking Trump how he would respond to that...
The establishment like Kurtz has no clue what was wrong with that debate.
Pray America is waking
We need an honest debate where the issues are fairly framed and the debaters (not the moderators) do the rebutting. Let's see who's willing to take on whom, who's willing to take a position on which issues, what are those positions, what are the oppositions to those positions.This is what the Fox moderators stole from the candidates and the viewers on Thursday night. They usurped the role of rebuttal and made the candidates individually argue their positions with themselves instead of the other candidates. And then knowing this was going to be the format, they staged meaningless personal questions that had no viable rebuttal opportunities from the other candidates.
What candidate is going to interject in the middle of a crude mysogeny question? What candidate is going to rebut an "any word from God" question? What candidate is going to jump into Megyn Kelly's question to Jeb Bush that "your brother's war was a mistake" or the Bush dynasty question?
There were a half-dozen questions where one candidate was asked to attack another candidate.
With questions like that, how can we truly see the positions of each candidate? When the questions are lowball and undeserving of the stature of Governors, Senators, and business leaders, then why should we take seriously the fallout from such a farce?
- Wallace to Rubio: Could you please address Governor Bush across the stage here, and explain to him why you, someone who has never held executive office, are better prepared to be president than he is...
- Wallace to Cruz: Senator Cruz, your colleague, Senator Paul, right there next to you, said a few months ago he agrees with you on a number of issues, but he says you do nothing to grow the party...
- Wallace to Trump: Governor Bush has called those remarks, quote, “extraordinarily ugly.” I’d like you — you’re right next to him — tell us — talk to him directly and say how you respond to that...
- Kelly to Christie: Do you really believe you can assign blame to Senator Paul just for opposing he bulk collection of people’s phone records in the event of a terrorist attack?
- Baier to Rubio: Senator Rubio, why is Governor Bush wrong on Common Core?
- Wallace to Christie: Governor Huckabee says he can save Social Security and Medicare without doing any of that. Is he lying?
- Kelly to Bush: Governor Bush, I want to ask you, on the subject of name calling of your fellow candidates, a story appeared today quoting an anonymous GOP donor who said you called Mr. Trump a clown, a buffoon...
A true debate should let the candidates engage each other. A better format would have been this:
1. A question is taken from a candidate's campaign speeches and asked in a neutral way. What would you do about unemployment?
2. Candidate gets 1 minute to speak.
3. Each other candidate, chosen randomly, gets 1 minute to rebut.
4. Original candidate gets final 30 seconds to close out the question.
That's 10 1/2 minutes, assuming 10 candidates. Add another minute or so for overages and call it 12 minutes. With each candidate drawing one question from their own campaigns and getting an equal opportunity to respond to the other candidates, that's 120 minutes for 10 candidates. Add another 30 minutes for breaks and you have a two and a half hour event. Each candidate gets 10 and a half minutes to speak across all issues.
No moderator interruptions or arguing back to the candidates. It's the candidates vetting each other's policy positions.
-PJ
“Jeb Bush was asked what he would say to families of those who died in “your brother’s war.” Scott Walker was asked about flip-flopping on immigration. Ben Carson was asked about his political inexperience. Marco Rubio was asked if abortion should be allowed in cases of rape and incest. And on and on.”
How about this question Mr. Kurtz. “Today is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Knowing hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, why would Obama let a nation hell bent on destroying Israel and America develop the same weapons?”
Howard always licking Me-GYN’s behind when not bleeding. A few of her other sidekicks do the same!!!
Blah blah blah
15 more months of this bee-ess?
The title is misleading it is not just Trumps fans as they call it, it is every American who frustrated by the Progressive Liberal Democrat/Rino Communist Uni-Party and their minions in the media and the corporate government cronies.
It may be a longer title but it is most accurate!
Care to respond to the actual article instead of just slinging personal insults? (I know, I know, it's what your leader does).
Unless someone WATCHED the actual debate and the manner in which these questions were posed, they can’t get the pure hostility by the Gotcha panel. Not only was their treatment of Trump shabby, but so was their treatment of the other conservatives. They handed Bush saoft questions which were engineered to allow him to weasel out of prior statements on subjects losing him support. Questions at Trump and the conservatives (Kelly to Cruz; “Has God spoken to you”) were couched in a hostile and angry tone.
Kelly is not a conservative. Now I alos know she is not a lady and certainly not a fair moderator. Wallace is a DEMOCRAT. Baier has been pushing Bush on the FOX station.
But, hey, this isn’t just me. Even Mark Levin and thousands of other people who weren’t Trump supporters were offended but the hostile, gotcha nature of this farical production.
Reporters have a right to be peristent on questions of significant policy when speaking to potential candidates. They have no right to use gotcha questions on candidates that framed in such an insulting manner and so irrelevant to the major issues confronting this country. And Levin has said as much.
The mere fact that FOX put this statement out indicates they have been stung by their conservative listeners who are sick and tired of this pushing the RINO crap - whether its Bush or a Kasich or whoever.
A professional moderator would ask questions without bias imbedded in the question.
Obama wasn’t one of the Republican Presidential candidates on the stage.
People are sick of the media and politicians in general. They’re a bunch of liars and con men.
Yes! We need to truly identify the America haters! They are not liberals, that is a misnomer.
They are America haters/Globalists.
This election is about allegiance to the United States!
#1 was out of place. It was a personal question without context or specifics. When Trump mentioned Rosie O'Donnell, Kelly took it over the line and got more personal saying there were others. Also, the reference to the incident on Celebrity Apprentice was taken out of context and refuted by the contestant. Kelly was intentionally trying to brand Trump as anti-women using inflammatory language. It could have been less confrontational and accusatory.
You left out the first question asked of all, but certainly directed to Trump. It set the stage for the personal attacks to follow. Any objective person could see the agenda of Fox. They wanted to take him out.
Trump is leading the pack yet he is the one being asked whether he will pledge his support of the nominee regardless of who or he/she is. So far, he has deferred. I am glad he was honest. I certainly as a conservative Republican and voter cannot make that pledge.
This article and your take on it are so ridiculous to me. The idea that this debate was reasonable and good is something straight out of the movie “idiocracy”.
What about the big lie of the article that only Trump voters were upset by the lack of integrity of the questioning and moderators?
I’m not a Trump voter but you must be totally mindless not to realize they were out to get him, having put considerable time and effort into the hatchet job.
How about Chris Wallace, where he directly criticized the candidates answer, and even spent the next two questions asking other candidates to criticize Trump.
Chris Wallace raped the role of moderator.
The moderators had no respect for candidates nor for the role of moderator. Could you tell the moderators opinions and biases? Oh yes you can, and you absolutely shouldn’t be able to.
I could go on about the questions asked were dismissive and accusatory instead of dealing with substantive policy issues, but it’s so self evident that I feel silly typing it.
The “debate” was an atrocity.
exactly!
Thing is this was Fox’s first major debut for a debate and they attack the very candidates they should be supporting to win against the Democrats. Watch any CNN debate of the Dems and I doubt any will get hardball questions. There may be a softball question to Clinton about her emails or Benghazi but she wilkl laugh it off and the moderator will move on.
that is the way a debate should be run no doubt.
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