ABC presidential debate co-moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked former President Trump five times during the heated 90-minute event and did not correct Vice President Kamala Harris even once Tuesday night.
In addition to the uneven number of fact-checks, many experts said Trump was given much tougher questions and that ABC moderators gave Harris a free pass on a variety of issues. But the uneven fact-checking caught the attention of critics of the Disney-owned network.
“ABC is making a huge mistake by trying to fact-check live. They are just proving how biased they are,” Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer posted on social media.
ABC's Linsey Davis Calls Out Anti-Trump ABORTION FACT-CHECKER: 'IT WAS COMPLETELY MISTAKEN'
ABC presidential debate co-moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked former President Trump four times during the 90-minute event and did not correct Vice President Kamala Harris even once Tuesday night. (ABC News)
Below are fact checks from the ABC presidential debate from the National Constitution Center:
Fact Checks on Trump
1. Abortion
Trump was asked about his stance on abortion, and ABC's Davis noted that the former president has boasted about overturning Roe v. Wade and called himself “the most pro-life president in American history,” but has since said it would be great for women's reproductive rights. Trump also recently said Florida's six-week abortion ban “is too short,” but said he would vote against a bill that would overturn the state's six-week abortion ban.
“The reason I'm voting is because… they have ninth month abortions. They even have them, and you can see the governor of West Virginia [Viriginia]“The previous governor — not the current governor, who is doing an excellent job, but the previous governor — said, ‘The baby will be born and we will decide what to do with it,’ in other words, we will execute the baby. And that’s why I did it,” Trump said.
Davis raised eyebrows with the first fact check of the evening.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after birth,” Davis said.
2. Pets
Trump said illegal immigrants are eating people's pets
“In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people who came here. They're eating the cats. They're eating… they're eating the pets of the people who live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a disgrace,” Trump said.
Muir responded: “I want to clarify that you mentioned Springfield, Ohio. ABC News reached out to the city manager. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being hurt, injured or mistreated by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Trump said he had seen it on television, but the ABC host was not amused.
“People on TV are saying that they took my dog and used him for food. So maybe he said that and maybe that's a good thing for a city manager to say,” Trump responded.
“I'm not hearing it on television, I'm hearing it from the city manager,” Muir said.
“But people on TV say their dog was eaten by the people who went there,” Trump said.
“Once again, the Springfield city manager says there is no evidence of that,” Muir responded.
FOX NEWS MEDIA PROPOSES A SECOND HARRIS-TRUMP DEBATE, MODERATED BY MARTHA MACCALLUM AND BRET BAIER
Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Screenshot: ABC News presidential debate simulcast on Fox News)
3. Crime
At one point, Trump said, “Crime in this country is through the roof,” but Muir quickly pushed back.
“President Trump, as you know, the FBI says that violent crime in general is declining in this country,” the ABC anchor responded.
“The FBI was falsifying their claims. They didn't include the worst cities or the cities with the highest crime rates. It was a fraud. Just like the 818,000 jobs figure they claimed to have created turned out to be a fraud,” Trump responded.
4. Sarcasm
Trump said he was being sarcastic when he recently said he lost the 2020 election to President Biden.
“I said it sarcastically. You know that. It was said, 'Oh, we lost by a hair.' That was said sarcastically. Look, there's so much evidence. All you have to do is look at it. And they should have sent it back to the legislatures for approval. I got almost 75 million votes. The most votes any sitting president has ever gotten. I was told if I got 63, which is what I got in 2016, I couldn't be defeated.”
Muir replied: “I watched all those video clips. I didn't detect the sarcasm.”
Muir then told viewers that the judges said there was “no widespread fraud” and immediately asked Harris if she felt Trump was trying to intimidate voters with claims that he would prosecute anyone who helped cheat in an election.
5. Pelosi
There were other moments that weren't complete fact checks but were seen as hostile moments against Trump, such as when Muir joked that a question wasn't about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when Trump evoked Pelosi during an answer.
“I showed up to make a speech. I said I think it's going to be a big thing. I went to Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington, D.C. And the mayor put it in writing, as you know. I said, 'You know, this is going to be a very big rally or whatever you want to call it. ' And, again, I didn't do it. Other people did. I said I would like to give them 10,000 National Guardsmen or soldiers. They turned me down. Nancy Pelosi turned me down,” Trump said.
“This would never have happened if Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington had done their job. I was not responsible for security,” he continued. “Nancy Pelosi was responsible. She didn't do her job.”
Muir responded: “The question was about you as president, not about former Speaker Pelosi.”
ABC DEBATE MODERATORS FACE FURY OVER AGGRESSIVE FACT-CHECKING ON TRUMP AND EASY TREATMENT OF HARRIS
Fact checks on Harris
There were none.
Many have pointed out that Muir and Davis did not correct Harris for saying Trump once said there were “very fine people” on both sides of the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally.
Trump’s critics have claimed for years that he called neo-Nazis “very fine people” when he was actually talking about people protesting a statue of Robert E. Lee, and President Biden and his allies in the mainstream media have regularly promoted that idea.
But earlier this year, the left-leaning fact-checking website Snopes acknowledged that Trump never called neo-Nazis “very fine people” during his press conference following the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally.
“At a press conference after the rally protesting the planned removal of a Confederate statue, Trump said there were 'very fine people on both sides,' referring to the protesters and counter-protesters. He said in the same statement that he was not talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists, whom he said should be 'totally condemned,'” Snopes wrote.
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Trump helped ABC moderators by informing viewers that Harris' claim had been “debunked.”
Harris said we need to stop belittling people and called Trump a “disgrace” minutes later, but ABC moderators did not point that out. Harris also linked Trump to Project 2025, but moderators did not point out that Trump has completely distanced himself from the polarizing plan.
Harris also mischaracterized Trump's “bloodbath” comment and Trump's stance on IVF without being fact-checked, and ABC moderators failed to question Harris about gun bans and mandatory buybacks and that no active military personnel were in a combat zone.
