MAGA Loses It Over Game-Changing Announcement on Biden-Trump Debate

Talia Jane
·2 min read
8.9k
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Trump supporters are outraged that Thursday’s presidential debate will be fact-checked. On Wednesday, CNN senior reporter Daniel Dale posted that he’d be live fact-checking the debate, an extension of the work he already does fact-checking things Biden and Trump say.

Twitter Screenshot @ddale8: Hello old pals! It’s been a delightful many months of not-tweeting, really couldn’t recommend more highly, but I’ll be tweeting some fact checks during the debate. I’ll also be on CNN TV post-debate, and our team will have a detailed running fact check on the CNN site and app.
Twitter Screenshot @ddale8: Hello old pals! It’s been a delightful many months of not-tweeting, really couldn’t recommend more highly, but I’ll be tweeting some fact checks during the debate. I’ll also be on CNN TV post-debate, and our team will have a detailed running fact check on the CNN site and app.

Dale’s post sparked immediate outrage from Trump supporters, who insinuated that facts aren’t real if they come from CNN. Stephen Miller, Trump’s white nationalist former adviser, went so far as to claim the process of fact-checking the debate is an effort to “smear and spin for Biden.”

Twitter Screenshot Stephen Miller: CNN pledges to “fact check” Trump all night — i.e. lie, smear and spin for Biden.
Twitter Screenshot Stephen Miller: CNN pledges to “fact check” Trump all night — i.e. lie, smear and spin for Biden.

One user who described CNN as the “Communist News Network” asserted that CNN gave “Joe robbin’ ya Biden” the questions and that makeup artists will be implanting a “listening device” on Biden to help him remember his answers.

Twitter Screenshot @FBrobertson73: Lol. CNN aka Communist News Network had 0 intention to be fair. I’m sure they gave Joe robbin’ ya Biden all the questions this past week to memorize answers for, & work in makeup artists to highly implant a listening device since he’d fail at memorization. My confidence is in DJT
Twitter Screenshot @FBrobertson73: Lol. CNN aka Communist News Network had 0 intention to be fair. I’m sure they gave Joe robbin’ ya Biden all the questions this past week to memorize answers for, & work in makeup artists to highly implant a listening device since he’d fail at memorization. My confidence is in DJT
Twitter Screenshot: @PJoeJ1964: CNN & fact checker that is an oxymoron. So you lie on the lie your network tells
Twitter Screenshot: @PJoeJ1964: CNN & fact checker that is an oxymoron. So you lie on the lie your network tells
Twitter Screenshot: @vjeannek Meme with Marilyn Monroe asking: What's it called when the people doing the
Twitter Screenshot: @vjeannek Meme with Marilyn Monroe asking: What's it called when the people doing the

It’s a charming fable, but pretty far outside the bounds of reality. Debate questions tend to focus on each campaign’s platform, recent news items, and public statements. In addition, there’s no indication from Dale’s post that CNN will be interrupting the debate to provide the fact-checks or altering on-screen information to publicize a fact-check, just that one of the best fact-checkers in the business will be posting fact-checks as the debate happens.

Trump has a track record of lying prolifically, but that doesn’t mean Biden never gets fact-checked on CNN or that doing the heavy lifting of catching all of Trump’s lies in real time is a bias for Biden. It’s just that a leaky faucet isn’t as noticeable when placed next to an exploded water main. The simple truth is if Trump said fewer factually untrue things, he wouldn’t get fact-checked all the time.

This latest outrage over live fact-checking comes after weeks of Team Trump insisting Trump’s going to lose the debate, with excuses ranging from claims Biden will be doped up on hard drugs and that moderators are biased against him as he struggles to not be a “raging asshole.”

The New Republic will also have a live watch party for the debate. You can tune in at 9 p.m. E.T. here.