ABC denies extraordinary allegation about collusion between Kamala Harris and debate moderators after fury from MAGA
ABC News denies the remarkable allegations that there was collusion between the moderators of the presidential debate and the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Absolutely not,” ABC News reported spokesperson told the Daily Beast“No questions were asked of Harris before the debate.”
Former President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies have stoked conspiracy theories claiming Harris had an edge in the debate.
Most polls showed that Americans thought Harris would deliver the most convincing performance in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
Trump said on Fox & Friends on Wednesday that Harris was “very comfortable” with the questions posed to her by moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.
ABC News denies an extraordinary allegation that Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris asked the debate questions in advance
Moderators David Muir (left) and Lindsey David (right) irked former President Donald Trump’s MAGA allies for fact-checking the former president in real time
On Thursday, the website Leading Report reported that an ABC News whistleblower was “reportedly” coming forward and releasing a statement saying the Harris campaign had been given sample questions in advance and that there were “assurances” that Trump would be fact-checked in real time, The Beast reported.
A source familiar with the matter told the news site that the “insurance” claim is also untrue.
Muir and Davis fact-checked Trump in real time and rebuked some of his most outrageous claims, including that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets and that abortions were occurring after babies were born.
They also had Harris speak out and say that Trump’s claim that she met Russian President Vladimir Putin was untrue.
Trump tried to claim that Harris was such a bad negotiator that Putin invaded Ukraine shortly afterward.
That one-sided criticism seemed biased against Trump’s allies.
“It was three against one. They kept going on and on about so-called fact-checking Donald Trump. They never did that with Kamala Harris,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton complained after the debate, according to Politico.
And the ex-president had laid the groundwork before the debate to make accusations of dishonesty.
Trump criticized ABC News contributor Donna Brazile, who resigned from CNN in 2016 after Clinton campaign emails released on Wikileaks revealed she had shared a debate question with the Democrat’s campaign.
“Will panelist Donna Brazile ask the Marxist candidate the questions she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton?” Trump mused last month. “Will Kamala’s best friend, who runs ABC, do the same? Where is Liddle’ George Slopadopolus hanging out now? Will he be involved.”
The best friend comment was likely a reference to ABC News’ Dana Walden, the co-chair of Disney, which owns ABC. Walden’s husband, Matt, has been a close friend of second gentleman Doug Emhoff for decades.
“George Slopadopolus” is Trump’s nickname for ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, a former adviser to Bill Clinton.
Stephanopoulos was not the moderator of Tuesday’s debate.