C-Span recently announced that they would be suspending political editor and former Joe Biden intern Steve Scully after lying about his Twitter feed being hacked after being confronted about an exchange with former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci.
Scully had reached out to the former White House communications director and blamed conservative news outlets and President Trump for lying after “relentless criticism” in his role as moderator for the second presidential debate. On the day that he was supposed to moderate the second debate between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, the news broke about Scully’s Twitter hack controversy and President Trump would not agree to a virtual format. Biden then withdrew from the debate as well.
President Trump had been consistently pointing out Scully’s errors as a fault on Presidential Debates. “I was right again! Steve Scully just admitted he was lying about his Twitter being hacked. The Debate was Rigged! He was suspended from @cspan indefinitely. The Trump Campaign was not treated fairly by the “Commission”. Did I show good instincts in being the first to know?” President Trump tweeted.
The Trump 202 communications director, Tim Murtaugh, also spoke out against the controversy. He said that Scully’s anti-Trump slant is one of the biggest problems with the biased Commission on Presidential Debates and only protects Joe Biden every step of the way.
“These actions have let down a lot of people, including my colleagues at C-SPAN, where I have worked for the past 30 years, professional colleagues in the media, and the team at the Commission on Presidential Debates. I ask for their forgiveness as I try to move forward in a moment of reflection and disappointment in myself,” Scully issued in a statement following his suspension.
This isn’t the first time Scully has blamed “hackers” for posts on his Twitter account. Dating back to 2012 and 2013, the political editor had also blamed tweets regarding weight loss on hackers.
C-Span issued an official company statement regarding Scully’s fabrications. They said they were very saddened by the news, but do not condone his actions. They announced that they have placed Scully on an administrative leave.
Others also wonder if the Presidential Debates Commission used Scully’s false claim to quickly cancel the second debate. No effort was made to find an alternative date, even though the viewership was estimated to have 70-75 million people.
If Scully’s credibility as an unbiased moderator was ever questioned, we already know the answer by now. But then again, it’s the “hacker’s” fault or President Trump’s, never his.
