The purpose of the Trump Harris debate was to help American voters understand the issues at stake this election year and the candidate’s positions on them. 

By that measure, the ABC debate was a miserable failure. The moderators were horribly biased. They peppered Trump with gotcha questions, but ignored all Harris’s sticky issues—and there are plenty. Worse: Too many questions focused on elite obsessions like January 6th, race and climate change. They didn’t flesh out the candidate’s plans on the issues that normal people really care about—like inflation, the economy, job creation, immigration and wars. 

Regular Americans know that the Beltway crowd is disconnected from and contemptuous of their lives by refusing to drill down on the issues that matter to them. The ABC moderators failed not only their audience, but the great democratic process they claim to cherish.