Chris Wallace.
(Image credit: MORRY GASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News' Chris Wallace received mixed reviews for his performance as the moderator for the first 2020 presidential debate. Some analysts blamed him for failing to keep things under control, while others believe he did the best he could. For his part, Wallace said he's "just sad with the way" it all turned out.

In an interview with The New York Times, Wallace spoke candidly about the situation, admitting that he felt desperate while trying to prevent the candidates from interrupting each other. He also said he didn't realize until it was too late that President Trump wasn't planning to stop ignoring the ground rules (Wallace refused to say whether Trump deserved the primary blame for how things unfolded). "I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did," he told the Times, adding that, despite his lengthy journalism career, "I've never been through anything like this."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.