ABC has been accused of bias for airing an episode of Four Corners that suggested Donald Trump is a threat to democracy just days after an assassination attempt.
The first of a two-part series on Trump titled “Retribution: The Battle for Democracy” aired on Monday night, hosted by journalist Mark Willacy, who traveled to the United States for the program.
Trump, the 45th US president who is seeking the White House again this year, survived an assassination attempt on July 13 when a bullet grazed his ear during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where one rally-goer was killed and two were wounded.
Despite the incident, ABC aired the hour-long program in which Willacy tells viewers that if Trump is re-elected, “the great American experiment in democracy could give way to increased political violence.”
“In Donald Trump’s vision for America, centuries-old institutions are there to be dismantled, and the checks and balances established by the founding fathers are impediments to absolute power,” Willacy said.
The show warns viewers that Trump wants to “rebuild America in his own image.”
One viewer addressed X after the show to declare it a “successful job” from the “opening statement” and said he was turned off.
Another said the tone of the show was along the lines of ‘‘Dictator, authoritarian, danger, end of democracy’ and criticised the taxpayer-funded channel, saying it should ‘at least pretend to be impartial’.
Four Corners aired an episode calling Trump a threat to democracy just 48 hours after the Republican presidential candidate and former president was shot in the ear by a bullet on Saturday.
ABC’s flagship current affairs program was previously accused of bias following a 2021 report on Fox’s coverage of the Trump presidency.
One person asked on X if ABC had “any intention of pulling” the “nobody asked for” sequel to “Orange Man Bad” given the attempted murder.
“I don’t think it is necessary to further agitate tolerant leftists,” they said.
Another person wrote that it was “an absolute disgrace that our national broadcaster is producing this rubbish 48 hours after a botched assassination.”
The Four Corners Facebook page did not allow comments on a post promoting the episode.
A centerpiece of the program is Project 2025, a 900-page book written by conservatives that contains policy proposals should Trump be re-elected.
Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025 (although some of his advisers are involved), but Four Corners insists it is a model for how Trump intends to “reform democracy.”
Among the stated goals of Project 2025 is to “deconstruct the administrative state” by, among other measures, increasing the number of political appointees to senior bureaucratic positions, eliminating the Department of Education, and increasing the president’s authority over the Department of Justice.
The Biden campaign has called Project 2025 “a threat to the United States.”
But Trump claimed on social media in early July: “I know nothing about Project 2025.”
Among those interviewed on the Four Corners programme are staunch Trump critics such as John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser who has written a book about his time in the White House in which he claims Trump is “unfit” to be president.
Also interviewed are former CIA Director Leon Panetta, who served on the White House staff under both Clinton and Obama, and Anthony Scaramucci, who had a highly publicized feud with Trump after he was ousted as his communications director after 11 days.
Trump and Bolton in the White House when Bolton was his national security adviser in 2018
Anthony Scaramucci was Trump’s communications director for 11 days and then compared him to a Game of Thrones villain
The Four Corners program also features a clip of Trump recounting a conversation with a fellow NATO leader.
Trump said he was asked whether the United States would continue to defend the country if it were attacked by Russia, but he failed to meet the required quota of two percent of GDP spent on NATO defense.
“You didn’t pay, are you delinquent? No, I wouldn’t protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever they want… You have to pay your bills,” Trump said.
Four Corners had already received severe punishment for a similar two-part report in 2021 titled “Fox and the Big Lie,” which analyzed Fox News’ coverage of the Trump presidency.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), in response to a complaint from Fox, found that the show hosted by Sarah Ferguson “omitted information… in a manner that materially misled the audience.”
The ACMA concluded that the report “came close to meeting the impartiality standards of the code, but did not breach them”.
Trump headlined the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee following the assassination attempt.
Lawmakers are alarmed by how the would-be assassin was able to open fire from a rooftop 500 feet from the former president and want to know what additional security requests the Trump campaign or protective team has made since November 2022.
President Joe Biden also ordered an independent review of security at the rally.
The shooter was killed by Hawkeye Secret Service agents, their rapid response team.
Secret Service agents surround Trump (left) after shots were fired at a campaign rally Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The assassination attempt has forced Joe Biden’s campaign to tone down its attacks, with the US president admitting he was wrong to say his rival should be targeted.
But Biden has more broadly defended his rhetoric in describing his Republican predecessor as a threat to democracy, and is signaling he won’t hold back for long in criticizing the man he beat in 2020.
When Biden urged Americans to “lower the temperature” in a rare Oval Office address Sunday after Trump’s shooting, it seemed like it might deprive him of his main line of attack.
The 81-year-old had sought last week to refocus his campaign on his Republican rival after weeks of turmoil in the Democratic Party over his age and health following a disastrous debate performance.
In light of Trump’s attack, Biden told NBC on Monday that it was a “mistake” to say on a call with donors a week ago to “put Trump on the spot.”
The Democrat said he was referring to how the party should “focus on what it’s doing” rather than calling for him to resign after the disastrous debate.
Republicans have particularly pointed to the pointed comment as they accuse Biden himself of contributing to the political conditions that led to a shooter trying to kill Trump, ignoring their own candidate’s record of encouraging violence.