Chris Wallace says he still wonders what he could have done better in Trump-Biden debate

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said this week he still wonders if and how he could have better moderated a frenetic debate last year between President Biden and former President Trump. 

“Well, for a landlord, I’m really doing well living rent free in his brain,” Wallace said during an appearance on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program when asked about a recent attack he faced from Trump.

Trump, while appearing on Hewitt’s show a week earlier, called Wallace “a disgrace” who did a “terrible job” during the debate hosted by Fox News in September 2020. 

“He wants to be just like his father, but he doesn’t have the talent,” Trump said of Wallace, whose father is the late longtime “60 Minutes” reporter Mike Wallace.

“All I wanted was a good, even-handed debate as I did in 2016 … if I were he … I would have let Biden talk, the more Biden talks the more Biden gets in trouble,” Wallace said, pointing out that Trump interrupted Biden and him more than 100 times that night. 

“When you’re doing a general election debate, the pressure you give to it … you just want it to be great, it’s not about the moderator,” Wallace continued, saying of Trump repeatedly interrupting Biden: “I didn’t think it was a constructive thing. I was trying to restore some order and let them go by the rules they agreed to.” 

The longtime TV anchor and political analyst called the debate that night “a mess” and revealed he will “occasionally wake up at night and think, ‘What could I have done better on the night of Sept. 29, 2020?’ “

At one point during the debate, Wallace pressed Trump to explain his health care plan, saying the then-president was seeking to repeal the Affordable Care Act but didn’t have a backup.

“Mr. President, I’m the moderator of this debate and I’d like you to let me ask my question,” Wallace said after Trump attempted several times to cut him off.

“I guess I’m debating you, not him,” Trump responded.

Trump repeatedly attacked Fox News and Wallace during the final weeks of his administration, complaining that the network was covering him too “negatively.”