Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, suggested on Newsmax TV that the format for the presidential debates scrap a single so-called neutral moderator for two admittedly partisan questioners which he believes would result in a more fair exchange.
''Let’s stop pretending that these so-called impartial journalists are anything other than left-wing activists, and let’s just openly embrace … and have a conservative and a liberal moderator,'' Cruz said on ''Greg Kelly Reports.'' ''So rather than Chris Wallace, who’s a registered Democrat and did a horrible job moderating the first debate, rather than that, let’s have a debate moderated by Mark Levin and Rachel Maddow.
''And everyone will know. Mark’s a conservative, Rachel’s a liberal. Mark’s going to ask the Democrats harder questions. Rachel’s going to ask the Republicans harder questions. And just own the bias. That would at least be fair rather than what we saw in both of the debates so far which is stacked questions for one side from moderators that are clearly leaning hard left.''
Cruz’s remarks came shortly after the Commission on Presidential Debates cancelled next week’s scheduled second presidential debate, which it announced would be held via conference call and President Donald Trump rejected the change in format.
It also came following the revelation that Steve Scully of C-SPAN, who was supposed to moderate the second debate, had reached out via Twitter to former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who has become a harsh Trump critic. C-SPAN has claimed someone gained unauthorized access to Scaramucci’s Twitter account.
Cruz also repeated his claims from earlier in the day made to CNBC that depending on the mood of the electorate, Trump could win the presidential election in three weeks by a wide margin or Republicans could suffer a ''bloodbath.''
''The election is incredibly volatile,'' the Texas Republican said. ''The spread between the possible outcomes is enormous. I think we could have a very, very good election. I think we could see the president elected with a big margin. I think Republicans could take both houses of Congress.
''On the other hand, I think it could be a terrible election. I think it could be a bloodbath.''
Two factors, Cruz said, will determine which outcome will manifest itself.
''No. 1 is the level of hope and optimism people have,'' he said. ''If people feel good about the future, if they feel like they’re going back to work, if they feel the future is bright, that’s how we have a terrific election. If people feel people feel pessimistic, and hopeless, that’s how we have a terrible election.
''No. 2, and directly related to those, is I think this election comes down entirely to turnout …The hard left, they are going to show up … They hate the president. They’re going to crawl over broken glass to vote. The unknown question is if everyone else will show up. If the rest of us show up, if the rest of America shows up, we’ll have a very good election. But if people, for whatever reason, stay home and don’t vote, that’s how we have we end up with disaster.''
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