During Wednesday's broadcast of Newsmax TV's “The Record,” Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., co-founder and co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates and chairman of the Republican National Committee, said that hosts David Muir and Lindsey Davis' performance was “the worst I've ever seen” and that they “clearly overdid it in the way they handled” former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, while “trying to do everything in their power to help” Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.
“One of the things that really shocked me last night was how the hosts handled it,” Fahrenkopf said. “We always explain to our hosts that their job is to facilitate — and I've hosted 33 times since 1988 — that they're not supposed to intervene. This isn't like bringing someone on the show and asking them a question and then correcting them if they answer something different than what they said a month ago. But hosts shouldn't do that. The debate is between candidates, not between a candidate and a host. And as far as I'm concerned, these hosts performed the worst I've ever seen. And I mean, like I said, I've done this 33 times over the years. I don't know what they were thinking, but I think they were clearly overthinking it. I think they did everything they could to help her, given the way they handled the former president and the current vice president.”
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