Chris Wallace of Fox News declared his goal as the evening’s moderator: “My job is to be as invisible as possible.” . . .

View Comments (5)

With. . . President Trump relentlessly interrupting his opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Wallace struggled to keep the proceedings coherent, reduced at times to pleading with the president to pause and allow the Democratic presidential nominee to speak.

“Mr. President, I am the moderator of this debate, and I would like you to let me ask my question and then you can answer it,” Mr. Wallace, sounding more headmaster than moderator, instructed Mr. Trump early on.

Known for his sharp interrogations of political figures, Mr. Wallace — the veteran Fox News anchor who at 72 was the youngest of the three men onstage — succeeded in keeping Mr. Trump more or less in check during his first go-round as moderator four years ago, when pundits declared him a clear winner of the night.

On Tuesday, Mr. Wallace was facing harsher notices, as viewers assessed his performance on social media. . . .

Editor’s Note: At one point, Wallace was even yelling to quite the candidates. So President Trump responded by saying:

“I guess I’m debating you, not him, but that’s OK, I’m not surprised,” Mr. Trump said after one Wallace query he disliked.

Mr. Wallace did something unusual for a presidential moderator: He effectively called the debate to a temporary halt. . . .

Editor’s Note: He asked the candidates to allow one another to speak without interruptions so that the “country would be better served.” . . .

It was a far cry from Mr. Wallace’s stated goal for the debate. “I’m trying to get them to engage, to focus on the key issues, to give people at home a sense of ‘why I want to vote for one versus the other,’” he had said beforehand.

(Excerpt from The New York Times. Article by Michale M. Grynbaum. Photo Credit: Getty Images.)

How do you think Chris Wallace did moderating the first debate? Share in the comments. . .