By now you’ve probably heard that there’s a supposed ABC whistleblower saying the debate was rigged, and it is alleged that he signed an affidavit to that effect on September 9 and sent copies to himself registered mail, as well as to others such as Speaker Johnson.
It’s either for real or a hoax, and we don’t know which at this point. I can’t find any statements by Johnson on the matter, for example.
Here’s what ABC debate moderator Linsey Davis has said about pre-debate agreements:
ABC News’ Linsey Davis, one of two moderators for last week’s presidential debate, admitted to the Los Angeles Times that the plan was only to fact-check former President Donald Trump, and not Vice President Kamala Harris.
As Breitbart News noted, Davis and co-moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump seven times — often incorrectly — while never fact-checking Harris once, even when she used hoaxes, such as the Charlottesville “very fine people” hoax.
Davis told the Times that ABC had deliberately targeted Trump — and only Trump — because of perceptions that he had been allowed to get away with false statements in the CNN debate against President Joe Biden in late June.
I can’t get to the LA Times story and see what Linsey actually said, but although I agree that all the fact-checking (much of it false, by the way) was against Trump, and that Harris was allowed to get away with lie after lie after lie, I would be surprised if Linsey Davis flat-out admitted “we only wanted to fact-check Trump.” And sure enough, I see here:
Despite zero fact-checks for Harris, Davis insisted that her team intended to fact-check both candidates throughout the course of the night.
The Times stated, “With co-moderator David Muir, Davis had studied hours of campaign rallies and interviews to prepare for the much-anticipated event at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, and were ready to counter the candidates’ most egregious statements.”
Davis countered accusations of bias by stating that she and Muir could not catch every misstatement, the Times reported, without noting that none of Harris’ incorrect statements received rebukes.
Horse pucky. It would have been simplicity itself to fact-check Harris. She uttered many lies, all predictable. Davis and Muir are either so abysmally ignorant that they should never be allowed on the air again, or would like to pretend to be just that stupid and negligent. It’s ye olde fool versus knave question, and I feel confident in saying that both are operative but almost certainly the “knave” factor is most in ascendance.
ABC has issued a statement on the whistleblower’s allegations, a highly inadequate one:
However, an initial statement from ABC did not address the specific claims made within the document, saying: ‘ABC News followed the debate rules that both campaigns agreed on and which clearly state: No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.’
A spokesperson for the network was subsequently forced to issue a more full-throated denial to the Daily Beast. ‘Absolutely not. Harris was not given any questions before the date,’ the spokesperson said.
But this is a strawman argument. The accusation wasn’t that Harris was given the actual questions flat out. The affidavit actually alleged that, “the Harris campaign was provided with sample questions that, while not the exact questions, covered similar topics that would appear during the debate.” Other whistleblower allegations included that the Harris campaign was assured that only Trump would be fact-checked and not Harris, and that certain topics listed by Harris to be off-limits wouldn’t be asked about. If there really is an affidavit listing these things, and it was truly dated the day before, that absolutely needs investigating.
