Moderator Chris Wallace: Mission Impossible in Fiery Trump-Binden Debate

Considered a veteran and experienced journalist of Fox News Channel, it seems that Mr. Wallace has not fulfilled his important role of "weighing the scales" in the recent fierce "boxing match" well!

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

Immediately after the night of the US's most important debate, Mr. Chris Wallace - the longtime host of "Fox News Sunday" had to exclaim that "this was a regrettable missed opportunity". The moderator admitted that, at first, he was quite reluctant to accept the invitation to host and moderate the first debate betweentwo candidates. Affirming that the debate took place in a chaotic atmosphere, Mr. Wallace recounted,President TrumpWallace also admitted that he was slow to realize that the President would not stop following the rules from the first minute until the end of the argument.

Portrait of Fox News Channel's moderator and host Chris Wallace. Photo: New York Times

“I’m a professional, but I’ve never been through anything like this,” Wallace said, reflecting on his thoughts as he sat on stage in Cleveland with tens of millions of Americans watching live. “I never dreamed it would go as uncontrollably as it did.”

According to Mr. Wallace, Mr. Trump's attitude, which many people call "bullying behavior", is unprecedented. Because journalist Wallace himself once moderated a debate between Mr. Donald Trump and Mrs.Hillary Clintonduring the 2016 presidential campaign, and is no stranger to Mr. Trump’s style. From dimly aware of and then fully aware of the President’s “unusual” strategy, Mr. Wallace recounted that he was quite worried and asked himself that “if I didn’t try to gain control, the whole debate would go off the rails.”

When asked how he felt about pausing a debate that was “going badly,” Wallace replied, “The answer is simple: Desperation!” He was deeply aware of the complexity of the moderator’s role. It is to ensure a balanced debate, avoid taking sides, and allow candidates to express themselves freely while still keeping the discussion substantive. However, instead of playing the role of “invisible man” with the task of connecting and opening up for the candidates, Wallace spent the evening going against his will, forced to intervene in the middle of an increasingly chaotic debate with statements like: “Please do not interrupt the debate,” “Follow the rules,” “This does not serve the country better,” etc.

TV STAR

While there are mixed opinions on whether Chris Wallace was effective in his moderation role, the “Fox News Sunday” star’s presence helped the network reach the largest audience of any network or social network during the debate — with 17.8 million viewers out of a total audience of 73 million. Wallace has been a fixture on Fox News Sunday, which has aired on Fox News Channel and its local channels every Sunday morning since 2003. Wallace also frequently reports for the cable channel on major political events such as elections, conventions, and State of the Union speeches. This isn’t Wallace’s first time moderating a presidential debate. In 2016, he became the first Fox News personality to take on the role.

Journalist Chris Wallace moderated a debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Photo: Getty

Professionally, critics say that Mr. Wallace always exudes integrity and this style is reflected in many impressive interviews, which are also no small challenge for many leaders. A prominent example is the interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July 2018, which helped Mr. Wallace win the prestigious Emmy Award. Born in 1947 in Chicago, Chris Wallace is the son of legendary journalist Mike Wallace and producer and editor Norma Kaphan. His parents divorced when he was only one year old, and young Wallace lived with his mother and stepfather Bill Leonard. This character later became President of CBS News from 1979 to 1982. For many years until the age of 14, Wallace had much contact with his biological father, journalist Mike Wallace.

After graduating from Harvard, Wallace was accepted to Yale Law School for a job but decided to work for the Boston Globe. He then went on to work for WBBM-TV, a CBS News affiliate in Chicago, before moving to WNBC in New York in 1975. The moves continued as he moved to the NBC News bureau in Washington, where he was credited with hosting “Meet the Press.” In 1989, Wallace moved to ABC News as a senior correspondent for programs such as “Primetime Friday” and “Nightline,” before moving to Fox News.

DISLIKED BY THE PRESIDENT

Despite his reputation and experience, and his work at a television channel close to President Donald Trump, Mr. Wallace is not a favorite of Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump has tweeted about the journalist Wallace a total of 46 times since August 2014, some of which were positive but some were not. For example, on Mr. Wallace's birthday in October 2014, Mr. Trump tweeted: "Happy belated birthday Chris Wallace! Chris does a great job every week on Fox News Sunday. Like father, like son!" However, in June 2015, Mr. Trump sent a completely different message with the tweet: "A great Mike Wallace, he covered me in a much more professional way than his son - Chris Wallace of Fox News. Mike is the professional!"

By April 2020, President Trump had criticized Wallace for several interviews with officials.Republican Party, and called Wallace an “annoying” and “disgusting” host. However, Trump has given several interviews to journalist Chris Wallace. The most recent was in July when Wallace questioned the President about racial unrest and even candidate Joe Biden. Meanwhile, Wallace only interviewed Biden once in March during this year’s election. During the 12-minute interview, the two discussed Biden’s victory in the South Carolina primary and preparations for Super Tuesday.

Scene of the first debate between the two candidates, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Photo: AP

Returning to the recent debate, the representative of the Commission on Presidential Debates gave much praise to the performance of moderator Chris Wallace. Of course, after what happened, the Commission said that it is considering some changes to the organization format for the next two debates on October 15 and October 22. One notable proposal is the possibility that the moderator will have the right to mute the candidates' microphones. However, according to Mr. Wallace, this is not really effective, because even if the President's microphone is muted, Mr. Trump will still interrupt. With a loud and resonant voice, Mr. Trump's voice is completely captured by his opponent's microphone, and interruptions or chaos will still be inevitable!

Therefore, according to Mr. Wallace, the technical changes will only be a small part to perfect the debate process of the candidates. The success or smoothness will depend largely on the ability to improvise and skillfully handle all possible situations of the moderator. And the next two characters to take on this role are Steve Scully of C-SPAN and Kristen Welker of NBC News. With the painful experience he just went through, Mr. Wallace gave his colleagues a simple advice: "When you start to enter the debate, you quickly realize what is really happening. Unfortunately, I did not receive any warning about this before!"