Photo: Associated Press In June, according to the CNN team, Donald Trump uttered more than 30 untruths on June 27.
Billy Mccarthy – Agence France-Presse in Washington
Published at 9:38 am
- United States
Should Donald Trump's lies be highlighted live? ? With the Republican's return to the stage of a televised debate on Tuesday against Kamala Harris, American fact-checkers are once again faced with the difficulty of the exercise.
In June, CNN was widely criticized for failing to fact-check, live on set, the former president’s repeated lies to Joe Biden, whose disastrous performance ultimately led him to withdraw his candidacy.
According to the network’s fact-checking team, Donald Trump made more than 30 false statements on June 27, including the fact-free accusation that Democratic-run states allow babies to be “executed” at birth.
To meet the challenge, American newsrooms are investing significant resources.
In June, the prestigious New York Times had a digital investigation team made up of 29 journalists.
For fact-checking site PolitiFact, it was 27 people. “We have our biggest numbers on debate nights, so we’re going all-in on the numbers,” its editor-in-chief, Katie Sanders, told AFP.
Her team is preparing for Tuesday by reviewing Democrat Kamala Harris’s attack lines and Donald Trump’s regular lies. “Behind the live fact-checking on debate night, there are days, weeks of fact-checking the candidates every day.” »
Read also
- Trump campaigns in a key state, Harris prepares for the debate
- Harris in Pennsylvania to prepare for her debate with Trump
- Trump and Harris Neck and Neck in Three Key States
- Trump Campaigns Play on Resentment of Wounded Masculinity
“Lies as Strategy”
But the difficulty with Donald Trump is that by breaking all the rules of American politics, he regularly invents false or misleading assertions, in addition to his repeated lies. He also continues to wrongly claim that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud.
During his term as president, between 2017 and 2021, the Washington Post counted 30,573 false or misleading statements by Donald Trump.
Having set out to conquer the White House again, he “deliberately uses lies as a campaign strategy,” Alan Schroeder, author of a book on the debates, told AFP. “There has never been a presidential candidate like Mr. Trump.”
And this professor emeritus recalls that in 1976, a factual error by Gerald Ford on the Soviet Union during a debate is seen today as one of the reasons for his defeat.
But Donald Trump, by “throwing so many untruths into the dialogue”, makes it “impossible to provide, live, corrections or context”, believes Alan Schroeder.
“All the candidates lie”
And even if they did, doing so while trying to appear balanced would put the debate moderators “in an impossible position,” he said. “Any time spent refuting or clarifying false claims during the debate takes away time from the substantive issues.”
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000ABC News, which is hosting the debate Tuesday, has not said whether the moderators plan to weigh in live on potential questionable claims. In June, CNN did not do so, but its website did include PolitiFact’s fact-checks throughout the evening.
The short articles that debunk the candidates’ untruths “always arrive several minutes later,” Linda Qiu, a fact-checker at the New York Times, told AFP. Her team has been working for weeks to prepare with the candidates’ talking points.
But, even late, “as a journalist, it's a public service to inform the general public about the truth behind the rhetoric,” insists Glenn Kessler, the head of fact-checking at the Washington Post, to AFP. And to remind that “all the presidential candidates lie.”
The rules of the Trump vs. Harris
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will confront their two radically different visions of the future of the United States on Tuesday in a highly anticipated debate in the race for the White House.
After weeks of back-and-forth over the location, day, and terms of their televised contest, ABC has announced the rules that will be in effect and that have been accepted by both camps.
Where and when ?
The debate will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a large metropolis in Pennsylvania in the eastern United States. This state was not chosen at random: it is widely considered the most important of the swing states, those states that could swing from Democrat to Republican in November.
The candidates will take the stage Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. local time for a 90-minute debate broadcast live, with two commercial breaks.
On the stand to moderate the discussions: ABC anchors Linsey Davis and David Muir, in a room without an audience.
Micros muted
The question of whether or not to mute a candidate’s microphone when he or she is no longer speaking—as was the case during the debate in late June between Joe Biden and Donald Trump — has been the subject of heated discussions in recent weeks.
Kamala Harris’s team wanted to keep the microphones open, hoping that her Republican rival would interrupt her untimely and launch into his usual digressions—and thus show himself in an unpresidential light.
But Donald Trump’s team flatly refused, accusing the Democrats of wanting to change the rules they had already agreed on.
Each side therefore accused the other of being cowardly on this issue.
But ABC ultimately ruled, and the microphones for both candidates will only be open when they are given the floor.
Only the debate moderators will be allowed to ask questions, and no topic or question will be shared in advance with both sides.
Who speaks when ?
The candidates will not present opening remarks, diving straight into the question-and-answer portion. Each will have two minutes to answer a question, while the opponent will have two minutes to respond.
An additional minute will be allowed for any “additional remarks, clarifications, or responses,” according to the rules.
At the end of the debate, the candidates will have two minutes to present their closing remarks. After a coin toss, Donald Trump won the right to choose to speak last.
No props
The vice president and former president will stand behind lecterns for the entire debate. Props to support demonstrations such as prepared notes will not be permitted.
They will each have a pen, sheets of paper, and a bottle of water.
Candidates' advisers will not be allowed to contact them during commercial breaks.
Agence France-Presse, in Washington