Many political personalities and commentators sounded off on ABC News in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s September 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, a debate hosted by the network. Particularly, critics, including former President Trump and his new ally, RFK Jr., contended that the network had been quite biased against Trump.
Speaking to Newsmax, the conservative website and news channel, in the wake of the debate, RFK Jr. sounded off on what he described as the co-moderators, Linsey Davis and David Muir, being “clearly biased” in favor of Kamala and against Trump, particularly in terms of how Trump was continually fact checked whereas Kamala got away with huge lies, such as the “fine people” hoax.
Speaking to Newsmax on the contrast in how the ABC News co-moderators dealt with the former president and his claims and how they dealt with the Vice President and her claims, RFK Jr. first said, “Unfortunately, we had moderators who were clearly biased, who were constantly fact-checking Donald Trump.”
Continuing, the 70-year-old former independent presidential candidate commented on how VP Harris didn’t face the same sort of hostile fact-checking, saying, “But none of these kinds of whoppers that the vice president was saying, and none of her failure to really explain that answer, that first question, that very, very critical first question.”
Mr. Kennedy also pointed to VP Harris’ “inability to answer that really important question in the beginning.” He said, describing the question and the real answer, “Are Americans better off than they were four years ago? There was a very, very evasive, clearly scripted answer.” Mr. Kennedy continued, “But the answer to that, I think, if you polled the American people, as I would say, 95% would say no, they’re much worse off than they were four years ago.”
Similarly, former President Trump, speaking to Fox & Friends, called for ABC News to be stripped of its TV license over the “rigged” debate. That came when he was asked, “And the bloodbath, you were talking about the economy. It’s a term that’s used a lot when people are talking about a bad economy. What’s your reaction to why didn’t the moderators correct her?”
Trump said that ABC is dishonest and should lose its news license, saying, “Because they’re dishonest and because I think ABC took a big hit last night. I mean, to be honest, they’re a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that. Bloodbath was referring to the economy. Everybody loved the term because as soon as they heard the word, iit’s a sort of a vicious word. But referring to the economy, they have created an economy — bloodbath was the word that I used, and it was fine in that context. And they were trying to make it sound like it was a riot or something, and it was a bloodbath.”
Continuing, he added, speaking about another fact-check dispute with Muir, “IVF, I was a leader on IVF. The IVF — the IVF, which is fertilization. I was a total leader on that. When I first heard about it, like, right from the beginning, I was one of the leaders on it, and the Republican Party has been a leader on it. She tried to say it was just the opposite. The whole thing with abortion, what he said. I mean, it was incredible. I think he corrected me 6 times, and each time I was right.”
