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First Presidential Debate 2020 ‘Trump vs Biden’: Chris Wallace 'sad' as Internet blames him for going off track

'I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did. I’ve read some of the reviews, I know people think, Well, gee, I didn’t jump in soon enough,' Wallace said

After getting criticized for moderating the first Presidential debate on Tuesday, September 29, the way he did, 'Fox News Sunday' anchor Chris opened up about regretting the fact that he let the face-off between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden "go off the tracks" as it led to a "terrible missed opportunity." 

This was not the first time that Wallace had moderated a debate. In fact, he had moderated one of the Presidential debates back in 2016 when Trump was pitted against then-Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and did so to some acclaim. Even though he had prior experience dealing with Trump and he admitted that he was a "pro" he also accepted that he had not been "through anything like this.”

In a telephonic interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, September 30, the moderator said, “I’m just sad with the way last night turned out. I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did. I’ve read some of the reviews, I know people think, Well, gee, I didn’t jump in soon enough. I guess I didn’t realize — and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.”

The anchor said that when Mr. Trump initially engaged directly with Mr. Biden, “I thought this was great — this is a debate!” However, he grew more and more alarmed as the night progressed and Trump showed no signs of backing off. “If I didn’t try to seize control of the debate — which I don’t know that I ever really did — then it was going to just go completely off the tracks,” he said. Wallace ended up interrupting Trump 76 times compared to only 15 times he cut off Biden mid-speech. 

During Tuesday’s debate, Wallace interrupted Trump at one point, telling him, "I think that the country would be better served if we allowed both people to speak with fewer interruptions.” When he was asked during the interview what was going through his mind at that point, he said, "Desperation.” When asked if he would like to elaborate, he said, “No. To quote the president, ‘It is what it is.’” At another point, Wallace was forced to address the president directly again saying, “I’m the moderator of this debate and I’d like you to let me ask my questions.” To that, Trump said, “I guess I’m debating you, not him. I’m not surprised.” To the question, if Trump had derailed the debate, Wallace replied, “Well, he certainly didn’t help.”

“You’re reluctant — as somebody who has said from the very beginning that I wanted to be as invisible as possible, and to enable them to talk — to rise to the point at which you begin to interject more and more,” Wallace said. “First to say, ‘Please don’t interrupt,’ then ‘Please obey the rules,’ and third, ‘This isn’t serving the country well.’ Those are all tough steps in real time, at that moment, on that stage.”

We have previously reported how Wallace was slammed by social media users from both sides - as Trump supporters thought he interrupted their candidate far too many times which gave Biden leverage and the liberals said that Wallace should have railed in the president's interruptions from the start of the debate, which he did not, giving him more air time. Admitting that he should have done a better job did not earn him any brownie points with debate watchers. 

"Chris, just say 'I fucked up.' You'll feel better. But I did think your questions were generally pretty good. And thank you for asking about climate change, though it was a pretty obvious one as the U.S. suffers through bad natural disasters," one wrote, while another opined, "He acts like he was so shocked at the way it went that he didn't know quite what to do. Give me a break. We all knew what Trump would do. He should have nipped it in the bud immediately."

There were those, however, who sympathized with Wallace. "Has anyone ever tried to moderate a debate for a six-year-old? Maybe someone scarier like Jesse Ventura or Simon Cowell would have been more effective," one said, while another wrote, "I honestly don't know what he could have done better? Never in the history of debates was the moderator so wilfully ignored as he was yesterday by Trump. Unless they give him the option to cut Trump's mic, I don't know what he could do about that."