When Chris Wallace said yesterday that he wanted to be “invisible” at last night’s first Presidential Debate, I knew that was a promise he wasn’t going to keep. His animosity toward Trump is no secret. It’s also no secret that he’s been very friendly with Joe Biden, even as Biden has spit in his face and refused to grant an interview.

The debate was about what you would expect. Trump was overly aggressive while Biden lied and relied on the moderator to save him continuously. That wasn’t supposed to happen. This was Fox News, and Chris Wallace is supposed to be a serious newsman. He was anything but that, though.

As the night wore on, Wallace grew more and more hostile, refusing to let Trump answer questions at times, asking slanted questions that benefitted Biden, and not bringing up topics that would have been beneficial to the President. At one point, Wallace even joked with Biden about Trump supposedly ranting, which was really just Trump trying to answer a question, in what was one of the most unprofessional displays by a moderator I’ve seen.

Biden: "I can't keep track of all his ranting"

Wallace: *laughs* "I'm having trouble myself"

the mask is slipping, Chris #Debates2020

— Jessica O’Donnell (@heckyessica) September 30, 2020

Here’s some more of the play by play to give you an idea if you didn’t watch it yourself.

Chris Wallace interrupted President Trump 76 times.

He interrupted Biden only 15 times.

— Abigail Marone 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) September 30, 2020

Biden doesn’t support the Green New Deal.

Oh, Wallace got that out of him?

No, Trump did.

Oh, well, did Wallace clarify what’s parts of Green New Deal Biden is against?

No, needed to move on …

— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) September 30, 2020

Chris Wallace is now reading Biden's energy plan back to him to remind Biden what's in his plan.

I have never, never seen anything like this from a moderator.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 30, 2020

Ok, I don’t generally nitpick moderators, but Chris Wallace asking Joe Biden about the “very fine people” thing without bringing up that it’s a flat-out lie is an absolute embarrassment.

— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) September 30, 2020

One of the worst moments of the night was Chris Wallace pretending as if he doesn’t know what Critical Race Theory is and trying to needle Trump for opposing it.

Chris Wallace calling critical race theory “racial sensitivity training” is totally ignorant of what’s being taught. It is racist and anti-American. Appalling.

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) September 30, 2020

Strong, strong, strong answer by @realDonaldTrump interrupted by Wallace. “They were teaching people to hate our country and I’m not going to let that happen.” Defining moment.

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) September 30, 2020

But perhaps the biggest abdication of Wallace’s duty involved the very beginning of the debate. Biden was asked if he supports packing the court, one of the most damaging, consequential possibilities in modern American history. When Biden refused to answer the question, Wallace simply moved on.  When Trump tried to press, Biden told him to shut up and Wallace just let it happen. It was astonishing to watch.

Joe Biden On Whether He'll Pack The Supreme Court: 'I'm Not Going To Answer The Question. Will You Shut Up?' https://t.co/Fy3ZbpZQKZ

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 30, 2020

There are many more examples to give. When they talked about the California fires later in the debate, Trump gave the scientific answer that it was due to bad forest management, not some sudden, tiny shift in temperature that magically starts fires. Instead of letting him finish, Wallace interrupted and tried to chastise Trump.

Before that, though, Wallace refused to have a discussion on why Biden’s son got a $3.5M wire transfer from a Russian oligarch’s wife. Trump tried to bring it up multiple times and the Fox News anchor simply refused, repeatedly changing the subject.

I feel like I'm a broken record here, but Chris Wallace just interrupted Trump again to rescue Joe Biden from having to explain why his son Hunter got $3.5 million from the Moscow mayor's wife.

"I want to talk about climate change," Wallace said.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 30, 2020

You got that? Bringing up white supremacy for the 100th time was worthy of a full segment, but talking about one of the biggest political scandals in recent memory is something that they needed to move on from before Biden was made to answer.

As to Fox News itself, they don’t deserve any leeway here. They could have chosen someone like Bret Baier, who has repeatedly shown himself to be a fair moderator. Instead, they went with a known hack like Wallace, who may not always be predisposed to oppose Republicans in general, but has clearly shown his disdain and hate for Donald Trump over the years.

To be clear, I don’t say any of this in this article because I think Trump “lost.” I actually think he got some good punches in and held his own in a two-on-one fight. But it shouldn’t have to be that way.

I’ll end with this comment, because I think it perfectly encapsulates the awful job Wallace did.

Wallace in a nutshell: Excuse me! Excuse me! Nobody cares about the things you're talking about, Mr. President. The American people want to know where the two of you stand on the issues that matter to them. Now, Mr. President, how much did you pay in taxes in 2016?

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) September 30, 2020

At some point, Republicans are going to have to get wise to the game and stop playing it.

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)