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Last week, my colleague Bonchie wrote about the left-wing partisan leanings of C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully, who is the moderator for the second presidential debate – which had been scheduled for October 15th but is now up in the air thanks to debate commission shenanigans involving turning it into a “virtual debate,” with the clear advantage being to Joe “Teleprompter” Biden.
Just to give a quick summary, Scully once worked as an intern for then-Senator Joe Biden and was also a staff assistant for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. He’s also pushed Never Trump op/eds and has published a few pictures on social media of him warmly posing with Biden at Biden family retreats.
After Scully was hit with criticism from Republicans all the way up to Trump, commentators on the left and even some on the right rushed to defend him, and declared he would be a fair and neutral moderator.
I don’t think we’ll be hearing much the same from his defenders after what he did tonight on Twitter (screengrab here in case deleted):
@Scaramucci should I respond to trump.
— Steve Scully (@SteveScully) October 9, 2020
To make matters more intriguing, Scaramucci responded to him openly on Twitter (screengrab here in case deleted):
Ignore. He is having a hard enough time. Some more bad stuff about to go down. https://t.co/cMphfQJELL
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 9, 2020
Needless to say, considering Trump’s and Scaramucci’s history as well as Scully’s own with Biden and other Democrats, this further calls into question Scully’s ability to be an impartial moderator at the second debate, should it even take place.
My vote on him would be a firm “no” — and others agree:
Gives me no pleasure to say this but @SteveScully‘s tweet is disqualifying as a debate moderator. https://t.co/QaHiyDw9K8
— Ross Kaminsky (@Rossputin) October 9, 2020
What? Why is the next presidential debate moderator publicly asking one of Trump’s staunchest critics in Anthony Scaramucci if he should respond to the president? In a related story, Scully once interned for Sen. Joe Biden. Optics here are horrible & underscore mistrust is media. https://t.co/Ipkv0CVUCA
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) October 9, 2020
Former Biden intern and second POTUS debate moderator Steve Scully of C-SPAN appears to be coordinating with Trump hater Anthony Scaramucci, whom Trump fired, about how to attack Trump. Not a great indicator of impartiality heading into the next debate. https://t.co/g9VtAMAhKT
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 9, 2020
Moderator of the next debate reaching out to deranged former WH employee that was fired after 11 days. https://t.co/NcaXlswDTJ
— Watchdog (@LibWatchdog) October 9, 2020
I thought the initial critique of Scully was unwarranted, but then he asked one of the the most vapid blowhards in the game right now for advice on how to respond to Donald Trump. https://t.co/BhE2aYUlT0
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 9, 2020
Wow.
Scully was set to be the moderator for the second debate…
Not a great look. This needs a public explanation. https://t.co/Om3Mt2PLDo
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) October 9, 2020
No explanation needed here, because there’s no other explanation for this other than the obvious one. Trump has even more reason now to play hardball concerning the remaining presidential debates. The debate commission really needs to undergo a serious overhaul, with Republicans refusing to play their deliberately deceptive games until they do. This is outrageous.
Susan Page, the moderator of the VP debate, hosted an off record party for Seema Verma
Steve Scully, the moderator of the next debate, is gossiping with Scaramucci on Twitter about Trump.
It’s time for a shakeup in debate commission leadershiphttps://t.co/HblUdKOi1q
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 9, 2020
Endorsed.
