If you watched the vice presidential debate on Wednesday or looked at the subsequent news coverage, you might already be aware of the tactic the left-wing corporate media is using to deflect from Sen. Kamala Harris’ ignominious defeat. Progressives are attempting to divert attention from the disaster by accusing Vice President Mike Pence of “mansplaining.” 

Oh, and they have also been obsessing over a fly. But that’s neither here nor there. 

Instead of analyzing where Harris went wrong or at least focusing on the parts of the debate when she held her own, members of the press are hoping to influence American opinions by essentially saying, “Don’t focus on what happened during the debate! Look at how that big meanie was totally mansplaining to Kamala. You are getting very sleeeeepy…”

ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos and CNN’s Jake Tapper attempted to push the mansplaining narrative after the debate. Unfortunately for them, they received some strong pushback from female journalists who aren’t exactly Republicans. 

In her appearance with Stephanopoulos, journalist Martha Raddatz pushed back against the notion that Pence’s behavior was inappropriate during the debate. “When I hear people talk about mansplaining, and talk about these things with Kamala Harris, and a man shouldn’t interrupt her, and it’s going to look bad,” Raddatz said. “Kamala Harris is a vice presidential candidate, she should be able to stand up for herself.”

The journalist asserted that a female candidate should be willing to stick up for herself despite her gender. “But a man can interrupt another vice presidential candidate. It is up to that candidate to talk back, to interrupt themselves, or to hold on to that debate in any way they could,” she argued. 

Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle also destroyed the mansplaining narrative when she went after Tapper, who implied that Harris might have felt that she couldn’t push back against Pence because she feared “offending some segment of the electorate.” 

McArdle responded on Twitter: “Jake Tapper is suggesting that Harris was not able to be aggressive because she’s a woman. That was … not my impression of how that debate went,” she observed. “I wish people would stop explaining every meh debate performance by a woman as a function of gender. Yes, there are challenges, but Elizabeth Warren is a good debater! Not all women are great debaters being held back by their sex–some of us, like some men, are just bad debaters,” McArdle added.

She concluded, “Stop grading us on a curve. We can make the grade.”

As the fallout from the debate continues, you can expect that the progressive left and their close friends and allies in the establishment media will keep trying to steer the conversation towards sexism and gender. It is nothing more than a ploy to distract from Harris’s dismal performance.

The left’s reaction to the debate is a prime example of them crying bigotry when they find themselves unable to counter an argument. The truth of the matter is that Pence won that debate handily, and there is no other way to spin it. 

But the American public isn’t stupid. 

People can easily see that Harris didn’t perform up to the level that was expected of her. Indeed, even those pretending that her gender had anything to do with her loss are only doing so because they know they can’t rationally argue that she was the victor. 

To put it simply, the left knows that she lost, but they wish to ensure that the rest of the nation doesn’t notice. So they are attempting to distract us with flies and fallacious fables about mansplaining. In the end, the only ones who will fall for the ruse are those who want to fall for the ruse. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Follow me on Twitter: @JeffOnTheRight