Former President Trump spent a long time at a campaign event on Thursday complaining about the moderators of his debate with Vice President Harris earlier this week, calling them “despicable people” and calling for them to be fired.
Trump held an event in Tucson, Arizona, where his campaign said his speech would focus on the economy and rising prices. Trump spent the first 15 minutes Reflecting on Tuesday's debate with Harris, he repeatedly attacked ABC News hosts David Muir and Lindsay Davis, at one point calling for them to be fired.
“The American people were not fooled. They saw through Kamala's lies and the unprecedented partisan interference by two terrible hosts. They suck,” Trump said, lamenting that the hosts fact-checked some of his inaccurate statements but did not do the same for Harris.
“These two guys are bad people. They kept screaming at me,” Trump added.
Trump called Davis, who is black, “mean” and claimed she looked at the former president “with hatred.”
The former president was kind to Muir.
“I've always liked him,” he said of the “World News Tonight” anchor, “but I don't watch his show anymore because he's not the real deal… and his hair isn't as good as it used to be.”
Republicans expressed frustration with Trump's performance on Tuesday night, in which Harris repeatedly frustrated Trump and successfully deflected his message by attacking his rally attendees, his property and his foreign policy positions.
Trump and his supporters complained for hours after the debate that it was “3-1” and that the moderator had over-reacted to Trump's comments.
During the debate, Muir and Davis fact-checked Trump's false statements about an online conspiracy theory about immigrants abusing pets in an Ohio town, as well as his claim that some Democrats support killing babies after birth, which is already illegal.
Trump complained that the moderators similarly failed to intervene when Harris linked Trump to Project 2025 — a policy initiative that Trump has denied having any involvement in — and when he claimed she warned of a “catastrophe” if Trump lost — remarks that were the subject of Trump's March comments.
The real-time backlash against the former president contrasted with many observers who accused CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of failing to fact-check during the Biden-Trump debate.
