The real loser: CNN blasted for unhinged debate with little fact checking on Trump’s lies and Biden’s rambling

CNN received just as much heat for its Thursday night debate performance as the two presidential candidates as viewers slammed the network moderators’ hands-off approach, which allowed President Joe Biden to ramble and former President Donald Trump to lie without pushback.

Viewers groaned over each performance that often ended with a “thank you” from moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper.

Many onsocial media dubbed CNN the real “loser” in Thursday night’s debate. The network’s decisions to exclude real-time fact-checking and not have the moderators pushback at candidates’ answers created chaos and a disservice to Americans watching, viewers argued.

One unnamed CNN journalist even told Mediate the network “blew it.”

“There should have been some fact-checking,” the source told the outlet.

The candidates sometimes dodged answering the question asked, and even began arguing about golf. Moderators also did not interject to correct Trump, who made30 false claims during the debate while the president made nine, according to an online fact check by CNN — an important service that was wholly absent during the live debate.

Trump repeated familiar lies about abortion, the January 6 Capitol attack and that Biden fabricated the “losers and suckers” remark Trump made about the military. Meanwhile, Biden mixed up the figures when describing Medicare policies, falsely claimed no troops had died during his term, and exaggerated Trump’s 2020 bleach antidote for Covid-19.

Bash and Tapper instead thanked each candidate for their responses, without offering follow-up questions or giving them a chance to clarify — or speak up, in the case of a hoarse Joe Biden.

Many viewers took to social media to voice their disappointment around the