WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans complained Wednesday that the previous night’s ABC News presidential debate was unfair toward the GOP nominee.
But the campaigns of Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, also engaged via the news media about the possibility of a second debate before the Nov. 5 election.
Trump and his allies said the ABC News moderators, “World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir and “World News Tonight” Sunday anchor and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis, sided with Harris by fact-checking a few of Trump’s more outlandish claims.
“It was three to one,” Trump said Wednesday in a call to Fox News’ morning program “Fox & Friends,” referring to Harris and the two moderators. “It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be, because when you looked at the fact that they were correcting everything and not correcting with her.”
At the debate Tuesday night, Davis contested Trump’s claim that a former Democratic governor floated the possibility of allowing abortion after a baby is born.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis said.
Muir also challenged Trump when the former president repeated baseless rumors that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating residents’ pets, saying Springfield’s city manager had debunked the claim.
“Terribly moderated debate,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Fox News’ Sean Hannity immediately after the debate. “It was three against one.”
Representatives for ABC News did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the criticism.
Polling on debate
The perception that ABC’s moderators were partial to Harris was not widely shared outside of Republicans.
In a YouGov survey of more than 3,000 adults, 40% said the moderators were fair and unbiased. The second-most common answer was “don’t know,” with 29%, and 27% of respondents said the moderators were biased toward Harris.
A plurality of independents, 32%, and 69% of Democrats also said the moderators were fair. Just more than half of Republicans said Muir and Davis were unfair to Trump.
On his social media platform Truth Social overnight, Trump touted his debate performance and posted several screenshots of right-wing news outlet polls stating he had won the matchup.
“Comrade Kamala Harris is going around wanting another Debate because she lost so badly – Just look at the Polls! It’s true with prizefighters, when they lose a fight, they immediately want another. MAGA2024,” Trump wrote in response to the Harris campaign suggesting a second meeting.
Trump defended his comments about Haitian migrants in Ohio. The false claims have been circulating among right-wing circles, and amplified on social media Monday by Trump’s running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
He posted police audio published by the conservative news outlet The Federalist alleging migrants were seen carrying geese in late August. Trump also republished a video, fact-checked by the Canton, Ohio, newspaper The Repository, of a woman, with no known connection to the Caribbean nation, in Canton, who on Aug. 16 was arrested and charged with animal cruelty for allegedly killing and eating a cat.
Prior to the debate, Trump posted an AI-generated image of him surrounded by and hugging cats and water fowl on his private jet, as well as an army of cats wearing MAGA hats and carrying semi-automatic rifles.
Another debate?
During a Sept. 11 memorial event in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Trump reportedly said he was open to two more debates, hosted by NBC News and Fox News.
The NBC event would be Sept. 25, but Harris has not agreed to it, preferring a date in October.
Fox executives on Tuesday night renewed the network’s offer to host another debate in a battleground state in October.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in an email the former president’s Fox News comment was a reference to a town hall with commentator Sean Hannity earlier this month.
“It was supposed to be on September 4,” Leavitt wrote. “Kamala didn’t show up so it turned into a town hall with Sean Hannity.”
The Harris campaign has said the vice president wants another debate with Trump in October. Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon repeated that in a statement late Tuesday.
“Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump,” O’Malley Dillon wrote. “That’s what they saw tonight and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”
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