After the vice-presidential debate, rules analyst Kristin Arnold visited us and pointed out there was no debate. She points out why.
Kristin Arnold: Debate was not a debate.
Kristin Arnold set the tone of the interview at the beginning. I asked her opinion of the debate.
“Debate? Was it really a debate?” Arnold asked. “I thought it was a barrage of questions.”
Arnold thought the barrage of questions was equitable. She saw the debate for was, for the most part, fair.
It was clear that the Susan Page gave deferential treatment to Vice-President Mike Pence and was stricter with Senator Kamala Harris. In fact, immediately after the debate, I wrote a blog stating,
Susan Page, the 2020 vice-presidential moderator, was biased as she showed reverence to a rule-breaking mansplaining vice-president. She was clearly sterner with Kamala Harris as opposed to vice-president Mike Pence.
Pence went much longer on every question that Susan Page asked him. Many times as he spoke way past his two minutes, she allowed him to go on.
Every so often, Senator Harris would be finishing up a sentence or paragraph at the two-minute mark, and Page would be stricter with her than she was with Pence. It was not hard to see at all.
There was one exchange where Susan Page offered Pence the opportunity out of cycle to respond to Senator Harris. She gave him one minute. Of course, he took more.
When Harris demanded equal treatment to respond to Pence’s lie, Page gave her 30 seconds and attempted to hold her to that time. The bias was clear.
I also felt that Pence bullied his way into more time than Harris. Arnold said her timing reflected that Pence only spoke about a minute more than Harris. She also thought the moderator did the best she could under the rules she had.
Watch the entire interview, as Ms. Kristin Arnold provides a necessary perspective. Maybe she should moderate one of the debates.