The Late Show host Stephen Colbert was not a fan of his CBS colleagues’ decision to refrain from fact-checking during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. However, his concerns were one-sided because he implicitly approved of Tim Walz not being fact-checked about his claim that a Donald Trump victory means pregnant women will have to register with the federal government. Later, when MSNBC’s Chris Hayes joined the program, he claimed it was “delicious” when the moderators went back on their word and started to pick a fight with JD Vance on immigration.
Colbert’s feelings were clear from a cold open that compared the lack of fact-checking to an NFL game where the players enforce the rules, “This weekend it's the NFL on CBS. All your favorite hard-hitting gridiron action, but with a new twist. The players call penalties no now. Why let the competitors play by the rules when they could be enforcing them? Heck, why have rules at all?... The NFL on CBS: we just hope both teams have fun.”
Moderators, like referees, exist to enforce the rules, not help one team, which is an idea Colbert should get behind because later, he recalled, “the conversation turned to reproductive rights. Tim Walz brought up Project 2025, leading to this question for Vance.”
[See NewsBusters for more]