ABC's presidential debate co-hosts David Muir and Lindsey Davis fact-checked former President Trump's statements five times throughout the heated 90 minutes of the debate, but failed to correct Vice President Kamala Harris once on Tuesday night.
Beyond the skewed number of fact-checks, many experts noted that Trump was being asked much tougher questions and that ABC's hosts largely ignored Harris on a range of issues, but the bias in the fact-checks was a focal point of criticism of the Disney-owned network.
“ABC is attempting to fact-check on air, which is a huge mistake. They're only proving how biased they are,” Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer wrote on social media.
ABC's Lindsey Davis raises eyebrows with abortion fact-check on Trump: 'You're totally interjecting your opinion'
ABC's presidential debate co-hosts David Muir and Lindsey Davis fact-checked former President Trump's comments four times during the 90-minute debate, but failed to correct Vice President Kamala Harris' comments once on Tuesday night. (ABC News)
Below is a fact check of the ABC presidential debate from the National Constitution Center.
Trump Fact Check
1. Abortion
Asked about Trump's stance on abortion, ABC's Davis noted that Trump had bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade and called himself “the most pro-life president in American history,” but then declared he was committed to protecting women's reproductive rights. Trump also recently said Florida's six-week abortion ban is “too short,” but said he would vote against a referendum to overturn the state's six-week abortion ban.
“The reason I'm voting is because … abortion is allowed at the ninth month. You just look at the governor of West Virginia. [Viriginia]”The former governor — not the current governor, he's doing a great job — the former governor said, 'When the baby is born, we're going to decide what to do with the baby,' meaning, we're going to execute the baby. And so that's what I did,” Trump said.
Davis grabbed attention with the first fact-check of the night.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a newborn baby,” Davis said.
2. Pets
Trump says illegal immigrants are eating people's pets
“In Springfield, they're eating dogs. They're eating people who come there. They're eating cats. They're eating the pets of people who live there. This is what's going on in our country. It's a shame,” Trump said.
Muir countered, “I just want to be clear: You mentioned Springfield, Ohio. ABC News reached out to the mayor there. He said he has had no credible reports of specific allegations that pets have been harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Trump said he saw it on television, but the ABC host didn't seem amused.
“People on TV are saying my dogs were taken and eaten, so maybe that's what he said, and maybe that's a good thing for a mayor to say,” Trump responded.
“This is not information I got from television. This is information I got from the mayor,” Muir said.
“But people on TV are saying that people who went there ate their dogs,” Trump said.
“The mayor of Springfield says there's no evidence of that,” Muir responded.
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Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Screenshot: Fox News simulcast of the ABC News presidential debate)
3. Crime
At one point, Trump said “there's a ridiculous amount of crime in this country,” but Muir quickly fired back.
“Mr. President, as you know, the FBI has said that overall violent crime in this country is going down,” the ABC anchor responded.
“The FBI made false statements. They didn't include the worst cities. They didn't include the cities with the worst crime. It was a fraud, just like the 818,000 jobs they claimed they created was a fraud,” Trump countered.
4. Irony
Trump said it was ironic that he recently said he lost the 2020 election to President Biden.
“I said it sarcastically. You know what I mean? They said, 'Oh, we lost by a hair'. They said it sarcastically. Look, there's plenty of evidence. All you have to do is look at it. And they should have sent it back to Congress for approval. I received about 75 million votes, the most votes ever received by a sitting president. They said there was no way I could have lost with the 63 votes I received in 2016.”
Muir countered, “I watched all of these videos. I didn't see any irony in them.”
Muir then told viewers the judges had said “there was no widespread fraud,” and immediately asked Harris whether she felt Trump was trying to intimidate voters by claiming he would prosecute those who helped steal the election.
5. Pelosi
While they weren't full-blown fact-checks, there were some moments that were perceived as antagonistic towards Trump, such as when Muir quipped that the question wasn't about Pelosi when Trump mentioned her in his response.
“I attended the speech. I said I thought it would be a big rally. I went to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington, D.C., and the mayor, you know, wrote it back. I said, 'This is going to be a very big rally, whatever you want to call it.' And again, that's not what I did. Other people did. I said I would provide 10,000 National Guard or soldiers for you. They rejected me. Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected me,” Trump said.
“If Nancy Pelosi and the mayor of Washington had done their jobs, this would never have happened. I was not in charge of security,” he continued. “Nancy Pelosi is responsible. She didn't do her job.”
“The question is about you as president, not about former Speaker Pelosi,” Muir responded.
ABC debate moderator angered by Trump's hard fact-checking and soft treatment of Harris
Fact Check on Harris
There wasn't any.
Many have pointed out that Muir and Davis failed to correct Harris when she said that Trump once said there were “very fine people on both sides” at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.
Critics of President Trump have long argued that when he called neo-Nazis “very fine people,” he was actually referring to those protesting the Robert E. Lee statue, a notion that President Biden and his allies in the mainstream media regularly promote.
But earlier this year, the left-leaning fact-checking website Snopes confirmed that Trump never called neo-Nazis “very fine people” during a press conference following the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.
“At a press conference after a rally against plans to remove Confederate statues, Trump said of protesters and counter-protesters that 'there are very fine people on both sides.' In his statement, he made no mention of neo-Nazis or white supremacists, whom he said 'are completely condemnable,'” Snopes reported. Written.
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President Trump supported the ABC hosts, telling viewers that Ms Harris' claims were “false”.
A few minutes later, Harris called Trump a “disgrace” and said he should stop putting people down, but the ABC host didn't point that out. Harris linked Trump to Project 2025, but the host failed to point out that Trump has completely distanced himself from the divisive plan.
Ms Harris also misinterpreted, without verification, Mr Trump's “bloody” comments and his stance on IVF, and the ABC host did not question her. Gun bans and forced buybacks There were no active military forces in the combat zone.
