C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, who was slated to host the next presidential debate, is under fire over a now-deleted cryptic tweet about Trump sent to Anthony Scaramucci. The debates commission has claimed he was “hacked.”
The context-less tweet was posted on Thursday night sparking speculation that it was meant to be a private direct message, not a public tweet, as many called into question Scully’s ability to fairly moderate the face-off between Trump and challenger Joe Biden.
Scully deleted the tweet, but the Internet is forever…. https://t.co/jTWsiadTKd
Was this supposed to be a DM?
“Should I respond to Trump” Scully tweeted to Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director, who has since become one of the president’s most vocal mainstream media critics. Many instantly suggested the pair were in cahoots or “coordinating” against Trump.
What? Why is the next presidential debate moderator publicly asking one of Trump’s staunchest critics in Anthony Scaramucci if he should respond to the president? In a related story, Scully once interned for Sen. Joe Biden. Optics here are horrible & underscore mistrust is media. https://t.co/Ipkv0CVUCA
So the next debate “moderator” asks one of the president’s fiercest critics if he should respond to Trump? The debate commission is a corrupt and complicit swamp cabal. https://t.co/19RXsZLhXh
Scaramucci’s response only added fuel to the fire. He replied with his own mysterious tweet, telling the C-SPAN host to “ignore” Trump because he was having a “hard enough time” and that some more “bad stuff about to go down.”
Ignore. He is having a hard enough time. Some more bad stuff about to go down. https://t.co/cMphfQJELL
In a twist, however, Frank Fahrenkopf, co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, told Fox News on Friday morning that the host’s account had been “hacked” prior to it sending the controversial tweet. “He was hacked. It didn’t happen,” Fahrenkopf told the network.
A statement posted by C-Span also stated that Scully did not send the tweeted and believed he had been hacked.
CSPAN is saying Steve Scully’s Twitter was hacked and that he never sent the tweet to Scaramucci. This is not going to go well. If he was indeed hacked, it should be very easy to prove. https://t.co/qVlou4mHt3
Given the fact that the tweet was online for more than 10 hours, however, quite a few commenters had already seized on it, with some suggesting it was “disqualifying” for a moderator to possibly be consulting with a fierce Trump critic.
So the next debate “moderator” asks one of the president’s fiercest critics if he should respond to Trump? The debate commission is a corrupt and complicit swamp cabal. https://t.co/19RXsZLhXh
Others simply mocked him for the Twitter fail.
“If you select me as your moderator, I promise to at the very least not be a sketchy boomer and tweet out my private [direct messages],”quipped conservative host Saagar Enjeti.
Makes me want to see Chris Wallace’s DMs https://t.co/J2P3PMQ2V5
Kind of hilarious a debate moderator is going to be replaced over an errant DM. https://t.co/GTMUTvpgvd
The Twitter backlash marks a second instance of Scully being accused of anti-Trump bias. It was previously revealed that the slated debate moderator had been an intern for Joe Biden when he was a senator in Delaware.
Judging by responses to the claims of hacking on Twitter, most were not buying the excuse, with many saying if he really was hacked, it should be easy to prove.
The second debate was scheduled to take place on October 15 in Florida, but was switched to a “virtual” format by the Commission on Presidential Debates on Thursday, due to Trump’s diagnosis with Covid-19. Trump rejected the notion of a virtual debate, however, saying he wouldn’t “waste his time” on it. It’s unclear when, or even if, the second debate will now go ahead at all.
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