MAGA Attacks ABC Moderators After Debate: ‘Three on One’

Donald Trump and MAGA supporters have criticized the moderators’ performances in the first debate between the former president and Kamala Harris, which aired on ABC on Tuesday night.
David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked and corrected Trump four times, but they did not correct Harris once, AP reported, during the event in Philadelphia in which the candidates sparred over the economy, abortion, foreign policy and immigration.
“I thought that was my best Debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, suggesting moderator bias against him.
Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly, a former Fox and NBC host, wrote on X: “These moderators are a disgraceful failure and this is one of the most biased, unfair debates I have ever seen. Shame on you @ABC.”
Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman who endorsed Trump earlier this month, echoed his remarks: “This debate is three vs one — the ABC moderators clearly shilling for Kamala Harris,” she wrote on X.
Meanwhile, conservative media pundit Ann Coulter, who was one of Trump’s most vocal supporters before turning on him, added: “It’s great to have 3 Democrats debating Trump tonight. Thanks, ABC!” while former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claimed that “the ABC moderator decided to inject herself into the debate.”
Donald Trump Jr. also weighed in, posting on X: “Weird how the hack moderators at @abcnews are only ‘Fact checking’ Trump and allowing Kamala to lie nonstop. The Fake News is the enemy of the people!”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently exited the presidential race and endorsed Trump, joined the criticism of the moderators for not fact-checking Harris. “The moderators were clearly biased. They were constantly fact-checking Donald Trump but none of these whoppers that the Vice President was saying. They simply sat there on the sidelines,” he told Newsmax in an interview.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who ran against Trump in the primaries before dropping out and endorsing him, added that it was “disappointing” that Harris’ “feet were not held to the fire” by the moderators.
“It was a three on one debate. It was disappointing that she didn’t have her feet held to the fire by the moderators. They went out of their way to try to do that to Donald Trump,” he told Fox News.
“But I think people that take away from this debate, even with all that, Donald Trump is the candidate that’s going to change things. Kamala Harris the candidate that, as president Trump said in his closing statement, she’s been there 3 and a half years. Why hasn’t she fixed any of those problem during that time? She does not have an answer to that question,” he continued.
Their criticism came after Trump was fact-checked for falsely claiming that a former governor of West Virginia was in favor of legalizing the “execution” of babies after they are born. He also falsely claimed that Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has said “execution after birth is OK.”
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis clarified during the debate.
Trump was fact-checked again during a discussion on immigration for repeating a false viral claim about illegal immigrants abducting and “eating the pets of the people that live” in Springfield, Ohio.
Muir shot back: “I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Trump objected to Muir’s fact-check, arguing that the baseless claim was true because he had “seen people on television” making the claim, before suggesting that the denial was “a good thing to say for a city manager.”
“I’m not taking this from television. I’m taking it from the city manager,” Muir responded.
The third fact-check came minutes later from Muir, who corrected the former president after he claimed that crime rates are “through the roof,” but down in the rest of the world.
“President Trump, as you know, the FBI says that overall violent crime is actually coming down in this country,” Muir said.
There is no evidence to suggest crime is on the rise under Joe Biden. Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows the national violent crime rate was down 6 percent in 2023 compared with the same period the year before, AP reported. Murders also dropped 13 percent in the last three months of 2023.
Nonetheless, Trump dismissed Muir’s fact-check, claiming that the FBI statistics are “defrauding statements.”
A third of the nation’s 18,000 police departments do not provide crime statistics to the FBI following a change in reporting requirements in 2021, according to The Marshall Project.
Muir fact-checked Trump one more time, after the former president falsely claimed that there was “so much proof” that he did not legitimately lose to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
“We should just point out here as clarification … 60 cases in front of many judges, many of them Republican, looked at it and said there was no widespread fraud,” Muir said.
Dozens of courts, Republican state officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there was no evidence that fraud tipped the race or that the election was stolen.
Separately from the actions of Muir and Davis during the debate, ABC News fact- checked the performance of both candidates online Tuesday.
Among the 11 Harris claims fact-checked online, two were rated “false,” two “true,” one “partly true,” one “mostly true,” four “needs context,” and one “true, but needs context.”
Trump was fact-checked online eight times, with six of the claims being rated “false,” one “mostly false” and one “true, but needs context.”
Harris’ chances of winning the presidential election in November improved with 20 leading bookmakers after the debate.
Meanwhile, a snap poll by CNN on Tuesday night revealed that 63 percent of viewers thought Harris won the debate, while 37 percent said the same for Trump.
Prior to the event, the same voters were evenly split on which candidate would perform more strongly, with 50 percent saying Harris would do so and 50 percent that Trump would.
The poll marks a shift from June, when voters who tuned in for the debate between Trump and Joe Biden said, 67 percent to 33 percent, that Trump outperformed his Democratic rival, according to CNN. The debate eventually led to Biden ending his re-election campaign amid concerns over his age and cognitive ability.
CNN did not fact-check the debate in June, which was moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. The decision prompted a wave of criticism on social media.