> your biases shouldn't have any impact on whether you thought someone performed better or worse than their opponent

That's arguably the definition of bias isnt it? Especially because political debates don't have objective winners or losers, declaring your bias before picking a winner in something that's only subjectively winnable does seem relevant.

This isn't a case of watching a soccer match and concluding "Gosh, I'm German, but I gotta admit Brazil won the 2014 world cup"

I do try and avoid my biases influencing my opinions on things, but almost by definition “bias” implies that I might not be fully aware of the thoughts that might be influencing.

Again, and I do not mean to repeat myself, the fact that I did concede he won the debate despite my distaste for him indicates that I am able to put them aside, at least a bit.

I find this recent kind of artificial “nuance” by simply pretending that having an opinion is somehow “tribalism” to be supremely annoying. It’s not clever, it just comes off people pleasing with the opposite effect.

> your biases shouldn't have any impact on whether you thought someone performed better or worse

That's not how humans work. He's acknowledging this and keeping it in mind to try and get closer to an objective point of view.

You on the other hand, sound like a flailing monkey.

Yeah real heroic getting shot in the face by your own people after asking them to kill democrats.