CBS News moderators will not fact-check Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz when they host a debate between the two major party vice presidential candidates Tuesday, leaving it up to the two to do it themselves during the broadcast.
The 90-minute debate, helmed by Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan and CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell, will break from ABC's presidential debate held earlier this month when moderators stepped in to challenge false statements by former President Donald Trump.
ABC co-moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir were praised by many for calmly interjecting to point out falsehoods, although conservatives alleged bias since Trump was mostly targeted (Trump has a consistent track record of deliberately making false claims in public appearances).
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CNN, which hosted the first presidential debate of the campaign cycle between Trump and President Joe Biden—who dropped out of the race following a disastrous performance—was put on the defensive for allowing the Republican nominee to repeatedly make false statements without being challenged.
CBS said its moderators “will facilitate” opportunities for Vance and Walz to challenge one another over claims during rebuttals. The broadcaster also told The Daily Beast, in a statement, that it will provide live fact-checking on its website during the debate and on-air once the debate is over: “CBS News will provide real-time fact-checking via [in-house fact-checking unit] CBS News Confirmed during the debate online on our live blog and on social and in post-debate coverage.”
The lack of fact-checking could be cause for concern for Democratic vice presidential nominee Walz, already reportedly nervous about his pending debate performance against the tenacious Vance. Walz will have to contend with his GOP opposite’s record of seizing on and embellishing unfounded conspiracies, as he did in recent weeks when he repeatedly and falsely claimed Haitian migrants were eating people’s pets in Ohio.
CBS, meanwhile, has a lot at stake. The Associated Press noted O’Donnell is set to step down from the Evening News anchor chair after the presidential election, while Brennan is seen as a contender to the throne. And the network’s flagship news magazine, 60 Minutes, is trying to get Trump and Harris to agree to sit-down interviews.
