Conservatives Criticize ABC Moderators Following Trump-Harris Debate

Former President Trump’s inner circle is fuming over the handling of Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris by ABC’s moderators.

Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, criticized the moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, accusing them of bias. “Weird how the hack moderators … are only ‘fact-checking’ Trump and allowing Kamala to lie nonstop. The Fake News is the enemy of the people,” Trump Jr. remarked.

Former Representative Tulsi Gabbard also weighed in, alleging on X (formerly Twitter) that the debate felt like a “three vs. one” scenario, with the moderators evidently favoring Harris.

Trump himself echoed the “three against one” sentiment in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity shortly after the debate. Hannity, too, took aim at the moderators, contrasting their performance unfavorably with the moderators from the CNN debate between Trump and President Biden. Notably, Trump was widely perceived as the victor of that debate, prompting some Democrats to criticize the moderators at the time. However, opinions shifted following Tuesday night’s debate, with many now viewing Harris as the winner and the criticism of moderators swapping sides.

Minutes after leaving the debate stage, Trump, who had previously voiced strong objections to ABC’s coverage and debate rules, expressed his frustration on social media. “I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) joined the criticism, labeling Muir and Davis’s performance as “an embarrassment to journalism.” Rubio noted during a Fox News appearance, “Literally the question to Trump was why did you do the horrible thing, while the question to Harris was what do you think about the horrible thing Trump said.”

The moderators fact-checked Trump on several misleading claims regarding internet conspiracies about migrants and Democratic positions on abortion, among other issues.

This real-time fact-checking stood in contrast to the perceived lack of scrutiny during the Biden-Trump debate moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

ABC had not responded to requests for comment on the criticism by late Thursday night.

Meghan McCain, former co-host of ABC’s “The View,” also weighed in, criticizing the debate questions as detached from the American people’s pressing concerns. “These are elite Manhattan debate questions – the American people are suffering and can’t pay for groceries and deserve answers on how it will get better,” McCain commented. “I don’t know what the hell this is, but these moderators are doing the American people a grave disservice.”