—–

As my RedState colleague Bonchie reported Monday, the push is on in certain circles to encourage Joe Biden not to debate President Trump in advance of the November election.

The calls have come entirely from Democrats, including from liberal columnists at the New York Times and the Washington Post, as well as prominent Democrats like former Clinton official Joe Lockhart.

People who watch CNN exclusively and/or who primarily pay attention to what the “journalists” at the network tweet likely wouldn’t know that such pleas for Biden not to debate Trump were coming from left-wing circles, however, because the two people assigned to the media beat at CNN are telling people the push is coming from the right.

It started with a tweet from Townhall.com’s Guy Benson, who wondered if all the speculation about Biden and the debates was no more than a “media tempest”:

This ‘Biden shouldn’t debate’ boomlet is just a media tempest, right? Right?

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 4, 2020

Brian Stelter, CNN’s chief media correspondent – and one who also doubles as a Biden campaign spokesman, chimed in by stating that “it is mostly a right-wing media tempest, fueled by hour after hour of Fox commentary (not reporting)”:

It is mostly a right-wing media tempest, fueled by hour after hour of Fox commentary (not reporting), far removed from campaign reality… https://t.co/nQd4b312vX

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 4, 2020

Unfortunately for Stelter, Benson came prepared with receipts to counter that false narrative:

Via @ReaganBattalion, it seems as though this notion wasn’t invented out of whole cloth by conservatives. It’s an idea that has been floated by left-leaning figures/outlets… pic.twitter.com/Ce4s8cnPhh

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 4, 2020

It was then and only then did Stelter backtrack, pretending he hadn’t said what he just said. LOL:

i'm well aware. but it's a mistake to spend lots of precious time yakking about what leftie columnists are suggesting in this case. obviously biden will debate. why imply otherwise to viewers, hour after hour?

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 4, 2020

Stelter’s sidekick Oliver Darcy was also called out for doing the exact same thing:

Just how dishonest is @cnn and @oliverdarcy? This dishonest. pic.twitter.com/B3BL24uijQ

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) August 4, 2020

In fairness to Stelter and Darcy, unclear if they're intentionally lying here. Could simply be that like everyone else they never tune into CNN. pic.twitter.com/HsqqGIadEg

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) August 4, 2020

Twitter user Stephen Miller summed things up accordingly:

25 journo columnists in the New York Times, Wash Post, Newsweek along with CNN contributors suggest Biden should not debate Trump.

Fox News reports on this.

“Fox News is talking about this thing we created.”

All in a days work for the Media’s janitor @brianstelter

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 4, 2020

For what it’s worth, Biden said in June that he could “hardly wait” to debate Trump. In contrast to what Stelter and Darcy want people to think, most of us on the right can hardly wait for it either – but for much different reasons than CNN’s resident Keystone Cops.