Thread by @jlakely

Catching up on the Biden town hall now. Can't help but notice how often Guthrie on NBC interrupted and pressed Trump. George on ABC was a potted plant. As he was supposed to be. George often interrupted to help Biden make his point better. Pathetic.

Gotta hand it to the guy from Pittsburgh (my home town) asking Biden why he will raise his taxes. Biden's answer was a jumble of fog about plans that didn't answer the question. Oh, and a lie that the dude's taxes wouldn't be raised.

Let's be clear about the differences between the two town halls. Biden got a question from a self-identified "progressive Democrat" from Harrisburg. No "conservative Republican" asked a question to Trump.

Guthrie spent the first 20 minutes grilling Trump. Fine. Even if the Qs were on stupid shit like masks, QAnon, and the 100th time Trump denounced white supremacy. Trump handled the grilling well.

But considering the ENORMOUS stories that broke in the last 24 hours — Hunter Biden leveraging his father's VP post for the purpose of enriching the family — it was incumbent upon George to OPEN with that. He passed, of course. And the subject never came up.

And I noticed during Biden's answer to the "progressive Democrat" question, the old man started to ramble and talk himself into the wilderness. As he does. So George stepped in: "Did you get your question answered?" George was trying to help Biden.

And, because Biden is Biden, he didn't take the help. He rambled on and got deeper into the wilderness. But that didn't stop George from trying to cut Biden off to stop him from rambling. He did it several times.

There are many examples of when a real "town hall" moderator should have challenged Biden the way Guthrie challenged Trump. But, c'mon man! (As Biden says), how can you not challenge his statement that he doesn't want to defund police?

I previously tweeted that a fair dueling town hall set-up demanded that Dana Perino or Bret Baier handle Trump's side. Both would have been tougher than the tongue bath George gave Biden tonight. So ... Hannity handling Trump's town hall would have been most-fair.

DC Swamp Media gets OBSESSED when a politician deviates even a smidge from a previous statement. Biden now says he will give voters his view on SCOTUS packing depending on how the obvious ACB vote goes.

This is after Biden arrogantly said that voters "don't deserve" to know his view on fundamentally changing SCOTUS forever until after the election. An open and arrogant insult. George just lets it pass, allowing Biden to again deny he's for court-packing. 🙄

OMG ... 58 mins into Biden town hall, we get a Q on fracking from a voter from Western PA. And the question is not about sustaining the greatest economic engine for the region since steel's hey day. It's about how to shut it down. LOL. @TheFrackingGuy @JustinTHaskins

@TheFrackingGuy @JustinTHaskins And Biden's answer is about how many jobs he's going to create by shutting down the industry in Western PA. Surely a great comfort. I give credit for George saying many union members don't want fracking shut down. But he let Biden get away with a non-answer.

Props to ABC allowing a genuine conservative ask a question saying Trump deserves credit for his foreign policy with "peace breaking out all over." After brief Q, Biden critiques it dishonestly with no interruptions from George. Of course.

These town halls were more proof that the traditional way of handling public "debates" among our prez candidates is broken and must be discarded. The CPD @debates are done. Especially after the #ScullyLied debacle.

@debates Our legacy media has been in the tank for decades for the Dem side, and social media is, too. So it's time for Thunderdome! #JoeRogan is still young, so this will work for the next cycle, at least, to break this slanted and antiquated structure. @joerogan

@debates @joerogan No more presidential debates "moderated" by our corrupt legacy media. Their day is done. If the candidates can't agree on a true independent — not a fake one like C-SPAN former Biden intern Steve Scully, which the CPD @tried to sneak past us — then it's just 1-on-1.

@debates @joerogan @tried In fact, as much faith as I might have in @joerogan to moderate fairly, his facilitation of a fascinating discussion would not be without bias. Even #JoeRogan would admit that. So let's stop pretending that our media is objective and just get bias on both sides.

@debates @joerogan @tried Let's have presidential debates in which Biden picks his questioner for Trump, and Trump picks his questioner for Biden. The choice of questioners from each side would reveal a lot, even before the debate began. And their performance would reveal even more.

@debates @joerogan @tried Let's say Biden in this cycle picked Rachel Maddow and Trump picked @marklevinshow. That would say a lot at the drop, and we'd see how well each candidate did in judging questioners. The questions they'd pick would reveal a lot to voters about priorities.

@debates @joerogan @tried @marklevinshow Both Maddow and Levin would challenge their political opposites on the questions that ACTUALLY challenge their positions. And we'd see how well each candidate does with those challenges. Right now, only Republican candidates are actually challenged.

@debates @joerogan @tried @marklevinshow Wouldn't you like to see Trump take on Maddow? Shouldn't Biden have to take on Mark Levin? Shouldn't each side have to deal with the arguments of the other? That would be a real debate, and would do a lot more to clarify positions and competence than the rigged game we have now.

@debates @joerogan @tried @marklevinshow We could have parts of the debate in which the candidates question each other, as well, Lincoln/Douglas style. But having an advocate for each side also in the Q mix is a nod to the reality that we don't live in that world anymore. But this is the modern version of it.

@debates @joerogan @tried @marklevinshow Voters would learn so much more about who they are voting for and why with such debate rules. Partisans on both sides would better see what their candidate is made of. And independents would see the true measure of the candidate because he/she was truly challenged.

@debates @joerogan @tried @marklevinshow It would also be GREAT TV. Three runs in Thunderdome, with each side on equal footing. Two candidates enter (with their questioners), one candidate leaves on Election Day.

@debates @joerogan @tried @marklevinshow The legacy media will never go for it, so to hell with them. No more "partnerships" with legacy media. Do this online, and make the networks come to the event, begging to simulcast. It would be on all the networks at once.

@debates @joerogan @tried @marklevinshow Legacy media and antiquated CPD @debates (average age of board member is 71) need to be left behind. Dems still benefit from this broken system, but the next GOP presidential candidate must insist on this. Let's go around the "system," for the good of the American people. /end