ABC Moderator Straight Up Admits They Had To Tip The Scales Against Trump
ABC News anchor Linsey Davis revealed in a post-debate Los Angeles Times puff-piece profile how she, ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir and ABC producers schemed to ambush President Trump with ‘fact checks’ at Tuesday night’s presidential debate in Philadelphia with Kamala Harris after watching Trump crush and knock Joe Biden out of the race in their June debate.
The fact checking at the debate was one-sided, with Trump being interrupted by Muir and Davis several times with ‘fact checks’ while Harris was not ‘fact checked’ once.
Going into the debate, there was concern about Harris’ friendship with a Disney executive who oversees the ABC News division (NY Post excerpt):
Dana Walden, a senior Disney executive whose portfolio includes ABC News, is one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ “extraordinary friends,” according to a report in the New York Times.
Walden and Harris have known each other since 1994, while their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, have known each other since the 1980s.
Dana Walden has donated to dozens of Democrats and contributed to Harris’ political campaigns since at least 2003, when she ran for district attorney in San Francisco.
She went on to donate to her subsequent campaigns for California attorney general and US Senate, as well as her 2020 White House bid.
Harris even credited Dana and Matt for her marriage at a fundraiser in April 2022, which was held at Walden’s home in Los Angeles.
ABC told the New York Times that Walden, who is Disney’s highest-ranking television executive, does not weigh in on editorial decisions.
After the debate it was revealed that ABC did not disclose that Davis is an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sister of Harris.
Davis went viral for a ‘fact check’ of Trump on abortion, where she falsely claimed it is illegal to kill babies after they are born and then abruptly turned to Harris for a reply without giving Trump the courtesy of a chance to respond.
WOW — Linsey Davis fact-checks Trump awful lies about abortion. Kamala hammers the point home that Trump is a liar. pic.twitter.com/5thDmNYmM0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 11, 2024
In actuality, babies who survive abortions in the home state of Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), are allowed to be left to die without lifesaving care–thanks to Walz.
FACT-CHECK: Babies born alive in failed abortions are real, and both Kamala Harris & Gov. Tim Walz refuse to protect them — including 8 babies in MN that died on Walz’s watch.
cc: @LinseyDavis @ABC https://t.co/L2hcMze0x5
— SBA Pro-Life America (@sbaprolife) September 11, 2024
The comments by then Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) referenced by Trump:
Gov. Ralph Northam (D) endorses killing born-alive infants: “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired” pic.twitter.com/gIwFDQ8raC
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 30, 2019
The day after the debate, Davis proudly gushed to the Los Angeles Times how the scheme to ambush Trump was put in action (excerpt):
…Davis, wearing pink glasses while speaking to The Times over breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia, said the decision to attempt to correct the candidates was in response to the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and President Biden, whose poor performance led to his exit from the race.
“People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis said.
Muir and Davis divided up the topics to study, and Davis fully anticipated that Trump’s erroneous abortion claim would come up when she questioned him on the issue.
“That was an obvious thing to get on the record,” Davis said.
In the weeks before the debate, various scenarios were played out in table read-like settings where the anchors and ABC News producers tested their questions and played out the possible responses.
Trump sharply criticized the ABC moderators in remarks at a rally in Tucson, Arizona on Thursday, reported The Hill (excerpt):
Trump held an event in Tucson, Ariz., where his campaign said he would deliver remarks focused on the economy and rising costs. He spent the first 15 minutes recapping his Tuesday debate with Harris and repeatedly targeted ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, at one point calling for the two to be fired.
“The public was not fooled. They saw right through it, Kamala’s lies and unprecedented partisan interference of two low-life anchors. They’re low lives,” Trump said, bemoaning that the moderators fact-checked a few of his inaccurate statements but didn’t do the same for Harris.
“These two people were bad news. They kept screaming at me,” Trump added.
Trump called Davis, who is Black, “nasty” and claimed she looked at the former president “with hatred in her eyes.”
The former president was kinder to Muir.
“I always liked him,” he said of the “World News Tonight” anchor. “I’m not going to watch him anymore. Because he’s not legit … And his hair is not as good as it used to be.”