When Donald Trump brazenly broke the rules during last week's Fox News debate, instead of reining him in, Fox allowed the other candidates to break the rules, too.
According to CNN, Trump has repeatedly violated debate rules by consulting with his campaign manager during breaks in the debate. But on Thursday night, Trump’s rule-breaking reached “a new extreme.”
At multiple debates, Trump has consulted with his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski backstage even though it was expressly forbidden by the networks.
Thursday night’s debate in Detroit marked a new extreme, however, as Lewandowski went directly onto the stage to meet with Trump during the commercial break. As in previous debates, Fox News had explicitly informed the campaigns that candidates were not allowed to communicate with their campaign staff during commercial breaks, the sources said.
When Lewandowski was asked by Fox News staff to leave the stage, he refused to do so, according to a source at Fox News.
Instead of revealing this misbehavior to the viewers of the "we report you decide" network, Fox told Trump’s rivals they could do as he did.
Unable to get Lewandowski off the stage, Fox News representatives informed the other three campaigns that, because the Trump campaign had broken the rules, they too could consult with their candidates.
To date, Fox News is the only network to try to remedy the situation by inviting other campaigns backstage.
Sorry, CNN, but I consider that enabling, not a remedy.
And yet Fox’s Chris Wallace, who was one of the debate moderators, had the nerve to challenge Mitt Romney for “legitimizing” Trump.
Donald Trump caricature by DonkeyHotey via Creative Commons license.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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