The country awakened this morning following the worst debate performance by an incumbent president in television history to find that we are basically back in the same place we were before last Thursday night. Polls taken immediately following the debate show that almost 70 percent of the country say Trump won the debate, but most of the head to head polls taken since the debate show Trump with the same slight lead he had before the stammering Biden said “we finally beat Medicaid.”
The media has been driving the train to get Biden to drop out but the President and his party are saying no to that. Dr. Jill Biden is pledging to fight on, so we are now seeing a revised narrative from the legacy media. After insisting last week that Republicans “used misleading videos to attack Biden…” because of his age, we are now being told that while Biden is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed, Trump lied about virtually everything during the debate. Their bottom line is that even though Biden can’t string two sentences together, he’s better than Trump.
A six column headline in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal screamed “Falsehoods Mark Trump’s Debate Night.” CNN’s so-called “Fact Check” said Trump lied 30 times during the debate. As usual, the legacy media is using the term “lie” pretty loosely. Most voters who listened to Trump heard much of what he said as truth. Take a look at the “Fact Check”:
Abortion – WSJ and CNN said Trump falsely claimed that “every legal scholar” wanted Roe v. Wade overruled. Granted you can never say “everyone,” but it is worth noting that legal minds across the political spectrum, including the liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsberg, have long expressed strong reservations about the notion that a right to an abortion is somehow enshrined in the Constitution. Trump cogently laid out the argument for leaving the issue to individual states. Serious people will not score that as a lie.
Immigration – WSJ and CNN also hit Trump for suggesting that illegal immigrants are collecting public benefits, noting illegals wouldn’t qualify for Social Security or Medicare. Their loud objection misses the point. Americans can see that illegal immigration has resulted in massive drains on public resources. Just ask New York City Mayor Eric Adams who has budgeted $12 billion for 2024 after spending $10 billion in 2023 for a mere 175,000 illegals who have been bused from Texas. Talk to the people in South Texas or Southern California where hospitals, health clinics and schools buckle under the strain of massive numbers including 7.2 million more who have entered illegally since Biden rolled back Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” and other border security policies. Taxpayers are paying billions for illegal immigration and they know Trump is telling the truth about that.
January 6 – Clearly the media expected that re-litigating January 6 during the debate would be a slam-dunk for Biden, but Trump used it as an opportunity to remind the country about the violent and destructive protests that have been going on since the October 7 attack on Israel as left-wing pro-terrorists protesters denounce Biden’s policies in Israel. January 6 was an awful day in our history, but destructive protests at Columbia University and across the country have been going on for months now, culminating in the images of blood red hands on the White House gates put there by pro-Hamas protesters calling out “Genocide Joe.” Before that, Black Lives Matter protests destroyed portions of Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and New York with virtually no media outcry. That’s what Trump said during the debate and nobody believes it is a lie.
Economic Policy – CNN and others quibbled about Trump’s characterization of the deficit and the timing on inflation, but polls show that Trump has a double-digit advantage over Biden when it comes to handling the economy. Many polls reflect the findings of this recent Ipsos Poll which reported only 16% of Americans believe they are better off economically under Biden than they were under Trump. Biden can keep trying to convince voters that isn’t true, but they believe he’s the one who is lying, not Trump.
Taxes – Critics also say Trump was wrong when he said Biden plans to quadruple tax rates, but they don’t deny that Biden not only says he wants to raise taxes, he is also committed to letting the Trump Tax Cuts expire in 2025. Maybe tax rates under Biden in a second term would only double or triple – but the salient point is that he wants to increase them – Trump wasn’t lying about that either.
The legacy media must hate the findings in a CBS poll released yesterday which reported that, on reflection, “voters widely believe that in the debate, Trump presented his ideas more clearly, appeared more presidential, inspired more confidence [and] explained his policies better…”
I spoke to Texas Tribune Editor in Chief Sewell Chan on Friday morning following the debate to get his take on the debate and his media outlet’s coverage of Texas issues. Conservatives have many issues with the coverage of public policy by the Texas Tribune, but my purpose wasn’t to debate him, but to provide insight on his view of Texas and the world.
While we mostly see journalists these days who are thinly veiled advocates for progressive views, I believe Sewell is a man of principle who has an exemplary resume in journalism. He’s leaving Texas to become the Executive Editor the Columbia Journalism Review. I think you’ll enjoy our conversation. Listen here:
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.