Well, this is awkward for ABC. 

Mark Penn, the former Clinton aid and current Chairman of the Harvard CAPS Harris Poll didn't mince words, even though he thinks Harris has run a good campaign. But he thinks ABC did a horrible job and that it might have been planned. 

Breaking: Former top Clinton adviser Mark Penn calls on ABC to launch internal probe into whether debate was rigged https://t.co/lXyXqiR0Rw

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) September 12, 2024

As you know, ABC has been roundly criticized for its debate performance. Not only did they put their thumbs on the scale for Kamala Harris, they lied to Americans during their all-too-many "fact checks" of Donald Trump. 

Anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis moderated the first debate between Harris and Trump, which drew 67.1 million viewers, making it the most watched presidential debate since 2008. But it has drawn scorn from both Republicans and Democrats for giving the appearance of bias.

"I actually think they should do a full internal investigation, hire an outside law firm. I don't know how much of this was planned in advance," Penn told the John Solomon Reports podcast.

"I don't know what they told the Harris campaign. I think the day after, suspicion here is really quite high, and I think a review of all their internal texts and emails really should be done by an independent party to find out to what extent they were planning on, in effect, you know, fact-checking just one candidate and in effect, rigging the outcome of this debate. I think the situation demands nothing less than that," he added.

Ouch. As I said, he didn't mince words, and since he is such a prominent Democrat and sits at the top of the heap as the Chair of the Harvard Harris polling organization, his words carry more than a little weight. 

There can be no fair game or debate no matter what the score when the referees put their fingers on the scale.

What ABC did in poorly fact checking one side while letting the other side repeat serial falsehoods meant that one side had to do its own defense.

It robs all sides…

— Mark Penn (@Mark_Penn) September 11, 2024

Penn hasn't been shy this election cycle speaking about many issues in way that leftists might consider favorable to conservatives, not because he has become conservative himself but because the left has gone totally insane. His free speech stance stood out to me, for instance. 

If even France is arresting people who run free speech platforms, speech is in danger everywhere — it’s J’accuse all over again as speech laws are used to jail those who refuse to bend to the state. It’s not up to social to become a police arm of the state but up to the state to…

— Mark Penn (@Mark_Penn) August 25, 2024

Penn clearly is not a fan of Kamala Harris or how she became the nominee. I can't speculate about why he is speaking out, but he is hardly the only liberal who is exasperated by both the current direction of the Democrat Party and the mainstream media. Don't expect him to become a Trump supporter as Kennedy and Gabbard did, but he clearly is willing to put some political capital on the line to have his opinions heard. 

One interview. One debate. Some rah rah stump speech you read over and over. And voila you have a 50 per cent chance of being president.

Good gig if you can get it. No 3 debates. No 2 years of primaries, coalition building, no detailed policy development, and no daily press…

— Mark Penn (@Mark_Penn) September 4, 2024

Penn is apparently of the old school--politics is a hardball game with high stakes, but one that should be played by the rules (mostly). For all the talk of "norms" and "muh democracy," the current strategy of the Democrat Party is all hoaxes all the time. The media is spending its own political capital with abandon, apparently believing that the Harris administration's policy of censorship will bolster their flagging fortunes. 

Is Penn on our side in the fight for the soul of America, even if he remains a Democrat? I hope so.