The hashtag #goodriddance was among the top trends Sunday on Twitter as anti-Trump host Chris Wallace announced he is leaving "Fox News Sunday" for CNN's streaming service.
"He'll be controlled by the radical left," then-President Donald Trump said about the prospect of facing Wallace as moderator in the one and only 2020 presidential debate. "They control him."
Former Trump adviser Steve Cortes tweeted his testy exchange with Wallace after that debate, where Wallace was blasted for "haranguing" Trump and "his incredibly biased performance as debate moderator."
"Chris, the way you're trying to harangue me now actually reminds me of what you did to the president during that debate on Tuesday night, when he had to debate not just Joe Biden," Cortes told Wallace in October 2020.
"He had to debate not just Joe Biden, but you as well," Cortes continues after Wallace's interruption in the "Fox News Sunday" clip shared by Cortes. "You were not a neutral moderator then."
Among those appearing in the Twitter stream hailing Wallace's departure was Act for America founder Brigitte Gabriel, who tweeted: "Good riddance to Fake News Chris Wallace!"
Conservative podcast host Todd Starnes mocked Wallace being "thrilled" to join the "lowest-rated cable news network."
Among Wallace's many defenses of Biden was a false claim the candidate did not support a defunding of police, despite wide reporting to the contrary.
"Biden wants to defund the police," Trump said in an interview with Wallace.
Wallace claimed: "No, sir, he does not."
Wallace apparently missed the ballyhooed interview earlier during the presidential campaign with liberal commentator Ady Barkan's podcast.
Barkan asked Biden: "Do we agree that we can redirect some of the [police] funding?"
Biden responded: "Yes, absolutely."
That interview came just a few months after Trump had called out the writing on the wall for an adversarial Wallace in the early stages of the 2020 presidential general election season that April.
"Just watched Mike Wallace wannabe, Chris Wallace, on @FoxNews," Trump tweeted from his now censored Twitter account, as Vox reported. "I am now convinced that he is even worse than Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd of Meet the Press(please!), or the people over at Deface the Nation. What the hell is happening to @FoxNews. It's a whole new ballgame over there!"
Trump already knew of Wallace's bias for Democrats when Wallace asked then-candidate Trump if he would commit to a peaceful transition of power in the 2016 presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.
Trump responded he would "leave you in suspense," but that response ignored the fact Trump was asked that question from Wallace when Republicans were not in power in the White House. Former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, was and the president was endorsing his opponent, Clinton.
Wallace did not ask the Democrat if she would commit to a peaceful transition of power. Months later, the Obama White House, National Security Council, Justice Department, and FBI would be exposed by Trump for having investigated their political opponent during the campaign, in the transition, and continuing those investigations through most of the Trump presidency.
Trump had projected Wallace's eventual ouster at Fox News, having issued a statement as such from his Save America PAC this past June:
"Why does Fox News keep Chris Wallace?" Trump wrote. "His ratings are terrible, he's 'almost' radical left, he was acknowledged to have failed badly as a presidential debate moderator (except for Biden who he totally protected!), and so much else. Usually, these are not the qualities of a long-term stay!"
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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