ABC News faced intense backlash during and following Tuesday night’s presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The bias was on display from the moment the debate began with co-moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis peppering Trump with follow-up questions while letting Harris dodge questions with no pushback.
The moderators both repeatedly needled Trump with fact-checks that at times bordered on absurd while they allowed Harris to lie with impunity.
Coming into the debate, it was obvious that Trump was not going to get a fair shake given that Davis had tried to falsely suggest that Trump had ties to the KKK last month and an analysis found Muir gave Harris 100% positive coverage and Trump 93% negative coverage.
“ABC is making a huge mistake trying to fact check this live,” said former White House Press Secretary Ari Fletcher. “They’re only proving how biased they are. Harris fabricated an attack on Trump over IVF. ABC sat there and said nothing.”
ABC is making a huge mistake trying to fact check this live.
They’re only proving how biased they are.
Harris fabricated an attack on Trump over IVF. ABC sat there and said nothing.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 11, 2024
Even leftist Glenn Greenwald slammed ABC News: “David Muir is criticizing and attacking Trump more than Kamala is. Kamala can relax because the ABC ‘moderators’ are handling the debate for her.”
David Muir is criticizing and attacking Trump more than Kamala is.
Kamala can relax because the ABC “moderators” are handling the debate for her.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 11, 2024
“This debate is no longer about trump vs harris; it’s about moderators obediently picking a side,” said Fox News host Greg Gutfeld. “ABC is a s*** show.”
Muir and Davis allowed Harris to lie about her own record when Trump highlighted how she supported defunding the police and she claimed that it was not true.
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As the Trump campaign noted, ABC News even covered how Harris wanted to “redirect” police resources in 2020.
Kamala shook her head and said "that's not true" when President Trump highlighted her support for defunding the police.
She lied and ABC didn't call her out on it.
Here is ABC's story: Harris, in 2020, said 'we have to redirect resources' from police https://t.co/YK9fbR27i9 pic.twitter.com/SiV9svMPvr
— Alex Pfeiffer (@__Pfeiffer) September 11, 2024
Also, the very post that Trump was talking about, in which Harris did raise money for those involved during the 2020 riots, is still live on social media.
“If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota,” Harris wrote in the 2020 tweet.
If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota. https://t.co/t8LXowKIbw
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020
“It isn’t ‘fact-checking’ when you are only fact-checking Trump and allowing Harris to lie with impunity,” said National Review editor Philip Klein.
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro posted on X: “ABC’s moderators are a disgrace to their profession.”
Shapiro then highlighted numerous lies that Harris was allowed to tell lies with no pushback: “‘Fine people on both sides’ lie. ‘Stand back and stand by’ lie. ‘Bloodbath’ lie. Where are the ABC moderators fact-checking? Or are their heads too far up Kamala Harris’ a** to speak at this point?”
“Why did the moderators need Kamala Harris there at all?” asked Sirius XM host Megyn Kelly.
“ABC/Disney has done its best to help VP Harris,” said syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt. “It’s astonishing how badly moderated it has been. It may help her but because former President Trump hit the border and the Biden/Harris weakness against everyone often and managed to remind everyone of the Trump economy it will not move the numbers.”
“Trump could have put the election away and didn’t,” he added. “But she is so awful she still couldn’t win with both moderators so obviously, terribly biased. Neither of them won but ABC/Disney lost half the country.”
Other notable responses included:
Tonight’s ABC moderators are a total disgrace, obsessed with their left-wing agenda instead of giving Americans a fair debate.
It’s no wonder Americans distrust the legacy media.
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) September 11, 2024
90 minutes in we get a question about Kamala Harris supporting ending private health insurance.
And she escapes without giving any explanation for her change in position.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) September 11, 2024
Fact check: Harris repeatedly promised to ban fracking, she co-sponsored a bill to outlaw private health insurance, and she endorsed a “mandatory buyback” on guns. If she ‘no longer believes’ those things, she hasn’t explained why. At all.
Any ABC follow up on any of that?
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 11, 2024
We told you that ABC was the worst network covering these elections – 93% anti-Trump and 100% pro-Harris. Now the world can see it.
— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) September 11, 2024
Hey @ABC – grocery prices are 50% more now than in 2020, inflation is out of control, housing interest rates are through the roof and record number of terrorist are coming across the border.
ARE YOU GOING TO ASK ABOUT ANY OF THIS? #Debate2024
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) September 11, 2024
So 3 against 1. This is how freedom dies.
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) September 11, 2024
Moderator to Trump: “Why are you such a bad person, and how do you sleep at night?”
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) September 11, 2024
I would guess that 75% of tonight’s moderator questions have been the left’s greatest hits against Donald Trump.
— Lisa Boothe 🇺🇸 (@LisaMarieBoothe) September 11, 2024