At this point we don’t know if there’s going to be a second presidential debate. Allahpundit will have more on that situation shortly, but yesterday something odd happened which called into question the impartiality of planned debate moderator Steve Scully. Scully tweeted this brief message to Anthony Scaramucci:

Interesting tweet from debate moderator Steve Scully to Anthony Scaramucci. https://t.co/3iRN9lidR6 pic.twitter.com/gImyfTCz9C

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 9, 2020

That really is interesting. Why is the debate moderator asking a vocal Trump opponent for advice? Scully’s tweet has since been deleted but Scaramucci’s response is still up:

Ignore. He is having a hard enough time. Some more bad stuff about to go down. https://t.co/cMphfQJELL

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 9, 2020

You probably noticed immediately that this doesn’t sound like a conversation that was intended for public consumption. It sounds like there was an ongoing private conversation between the two of them and at some point Scully accidentally sent a public tweet instead of a private DM. The fact that Scully later deleted the tweet only adds to the suggestion that this wasn’t supposed to be public in the first place.

Scaramucci’s answer hints at future political hits, i.e. more things that are circulating privately but aren’t known publicly yet. He’s basically saying, you don’t need to respond to Trump because the resistance is going to hit him with something. Again, none of this sound like something you say to someone in public, out of the blue. It sounds like part of an ongoing private conversation.

Was there more to this either before or after Scully’s tweet? We don’t know but it raises plenty of questions. And today the story took another twist. Scully is apparently now claiming that he was hacked. That’s what Commission on Presidential Debates co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf is telling people:

Just in- @debates co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf says debate #2 moderator Steve Scully's twitter account was hacked: "Apparently something now that's being on television and on the radio saying that… he's been talking to #Scaramucci. He was hacked. It didn't happen"

— Rocco Aloe (@Rocco__News) October 9, 2020

Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf tells me that he was told debate moderator Steve Scully's Twitter account was hacked but adds he has no direct knowledge.

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) October 9, 2020

No direct knowledge. So what is this claim based on then? C-Span is also repeating this now:

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

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 9, 2020

Scully “believes” his account was hacked.

Forgive me for being very skeptical but I’ve heard this excuse before from progressives who get in trouble online. Remember when Anthony Weiner claimed his Facebook account was hacked? We all know how this story ended:

Tivo shot. FB hacked. Is my blender gonna attack me next? #TheToasterIsVeryLoyal

— Anthony Weiner (@repweiner) May 28, 2011

In 2018, Joy Reid claimed her blog was hacked by some unknown person who inserted comments critical of gays into her blog. She even reported the hack to the FBI (so she claimed). That excuse was good enough for MSNBC obviously, since they recently promoted her, but I didn’t buy it then and still don’t.

For his part, the Mooch is fully satisfied with Scully’s explanation and considers him an “objective journalist.”

I accept @SteveScully at his word. Let’s not cancel anymore people from our culture for absolutely something like this. It’s insignificant. He is an objective journalist.

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 9, 2020

Sean Spicer is also backing Scully’s hacking claim:

I spoke w @SteveScully Only interactions w Scaramucci he has had are a June 2018 tv & 2019 radio @cspan interview. He did not send the tweet. Steve is good man & will make an excellent @debates moderator. CSPAN does an amazing job of giving people unfiltered access #Debates2020

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) October 9, 2020

One person who is not taking Scully at his word is President Trump:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1314589397388529664

Again, the fate of the 2nd presidential debate remains uncertain at this point but I don’t see how you can go forward with Steve Scully as the moderator. The only way I’ll believe he was hacked is if Twitter publishes documentation proving it happened and specifically identifying who did it. It could happen. If he was genuinely hacked it should be easy for Twitter to provide documentation. Short of that, Scully just blew up his credibility and needs to step aside.

Update: He’s made this claim at least twice before. “…darn those hackers.”

Tweets from 2012 and 2013 pic.twitter.com/jdeKqq7UEW

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 9, 2020

Update: Does anyone on the debate commission actually support Trump?

The Commission on Presidential Debates is supposedly bipartisan w/ an equal number of Rs and Ds. I know all of the Republicans and most are friends of mine. I am concerned that none of them support @realDonaldTrump. A biased Debate Commission is unfair.

— Senator Bob Dole (@SenatorDole) October 9, 2020

Update: Something is happening…Maybe this is part of a Twitter investigation? Or maybe this is just panic?

womp womp pic.twitter.com/BlxXNTbdWD

— Jessica O’Donnell (@heckyessica) October 9, 2020

This has been referred to the FBI by the commission on debates. But don’t forget the co-chair already said he has no direct knowledge. So Scully reported to them and they reported to the FBI and now everyone is looking into it. Maybe that has something to do with the account going down.

Steve Scully notified us that his Twitter account was hacked. CPD reported the apparent hack to the FBI and Twitter, and we understand that the federal authorities and Twitter are looking into the issue.

— CPD (@debates) October 9, 2020

Update: Well, I guess that’s the end of it.

JUST IN: The second presidential debate between former Vice President Joe Biden and Pres. Trump was canceled.

The second debate had been scheduled for Oct. 15, in a virtual format. https://t.co/1oTKt8mwdy

— ABC News (@ABC) October 9, 2020

Scully’s account is still down. I wonder if we’ll ever get a definitive answer on this alleged hacking now.