Obviously regretting his Orange Messiah’s impulsive decision to accept Joe Biden’s challenge to a debate without agreeing to the disadvantageous terms first, right wing radio dipshit Hugh Hewitt on Thursday tried to “work the refs” in a Fox News opinion piece with the subhed of “There are questions and phrases we should not hear tonight from CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper tonight.”

Lol. “Suspicion of the media is omnipresent and comes from both sides of the yawning divide between red and blue America. Which is why the category of questions that should not be asked tonight all begin with some variation of ‘That’s not true Mr President,’ or ‘Are you saying, Mr President, that [this or that] isn’t true?'” Hewitt writes to set his goalpost (for now) on whether the debate’s been “rigged” against the fat convicted felon or not… subject to change, of course.

“Fact checking has no place during a presidential debate. Fact checking by the moderators tonight or other moderators later in this cycle is anathema to productive debates. Asking straightforward questions should be the goal. A thousand analysts will descend on the statements made immediately after the conclusion of the debate (and throughout it online),” Hewitt continues. We’ll give him that part at least. CNN has already declared that moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper won’t be fact-checking in real time during the debate which, as frustrating as that might sound, leaves it to Biden to call Trump out and for Trump to flail while attempting to do the same. That’s how Biden’s going to win without making it look like Bash and Tapper gave him an assist.

But to demand the two don’t at least frame their questions about whether X or Y is true gives away how nervous Hewitt is and correctly so because that would seriously fuck up Trump.