Chris Wallace
Thursday's Republican presidential debate will moderated by not one, not two, but three Fox News personalities, for triple the fun and triple the ego. One of them, Chris Wallace, is the subject of an extended
Washington Post tongue-bath (he's funny, he likes soup, he's a great father) in which he gives a little look into his debate prep process, and
he's promising his questions will include "some doozies." Really.
Chris Wallace tapped the black three-ring binder resting on the corner of his desk. “I’ve got some doozies in there,” he said, eyebrow raised provocatively. [...]
“I certainly think my style is adversarial,” he said, absentmindedly pushing his penny loafers around under his desk with socked feet.
He's no shrinking violet! Why, he'll stand right up to the candidates and assert his authority over the proceedings. One thing Wallace hopes to avoid is a replay of this:
Near the start of a December 2011 Republican debate in Ames, Iowa, he asked Newt Gingrich how he could be expected to run the government when his campaign was in debt and much of his staff had recently quit.
Gingrich used his response to go after Wallace.
“I wish you would put aside the ‘gotcha’ questions,” the former House speaker said to sustained applause. “I’d love to see the rest of tonight’s debate asking us about what we would do to lead an America whose president has failed to lead, instead of playing Mickey Mouse games!”
Wallace tried to save face but was booed loudly by the crowd.
Later, Wallace was asked by a friend how he felt in that moment. “What do you think? It hurt my feelings,” Wallace told him. But he understood that Gingrich was being strategic.
But with Donald Trump and Chris Christie on the stage, Wallace has reason to be nervous. Then again, the candidates might be so busy taking shots at each other that the moderators are an afterthought. This thing could be the most glorious kind of chaos.