ABC News denies extraordinary allegations of collusion between presidential debate moderators and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
“Absolutely not,” he told ABC News. The spokesperson told the Daily Beast‘Harris did not receive any questions before the debate.’
Former President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies have fueled conspiracy theories that Harris had an advantage in the debate.
Most polls showed Americans believed Harris had a more standout performance on stage Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
Then, on Wednesday, Trump said on Fox & Friends that Harris was “awfully familiar” with the questions posed to her by moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis.
ABC News denies extraordinary allegation that Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris had debate questions ahead of time
Moderators David Muir (left) and Lindsey David (right) riled up former President Donald Trump’s MAGA allies by fact-checking the former president in real time
On Thursday, a website called Leading Report promoted that an ABC News whistleblower would “allegedly” come forward and publish an affidavit saying the Harris campaign received sample questions in advance and “assurances” that Trump would be fact-checked in real time, Beast reported.
A source familiar with the matter told the news site that the claim there were “guarantees” was also false.
Muir and Davis fact-checked Trump in real time, debunking some of his most outrageous claims, including that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets and that abortions were occurring after babies were born.
They also allowed Harris to intervene and say that Trump’s claim that he had met with Russian President Vladimir Putin was false.
Trump tried to insist that Harris was a bad negotiator and that Putin invaded Ukraine shortly afterward.
That unbalanced rebuke appeared to be a one-sided gesture toward Trump’s allies.
“It was three to one. They kept fact-checking Donald Trump. They never did that with Kamala Harris,” complained Republican Sen. Tom Cotton after the debate. According to Politico.
And the former president had laid the groundwork before the debate for accusations of injustice.
Trump has had issues with ABC News contributor Donna Brazile, who resigned as a CNN contributor in 2016 after Clinton campaign emails published on Wikileaks showed she had shared a debate question with the Democratic campaign.
“Will panelist Donna Brazile ask the Marxist candidate the same questions she did with corrupt Hillary Clinton?” Trump mused last month. “Will Kamala’s best friend, who runs ABC, do the same? Where is little George Slopadopolus now? Will he participate?”
The BFF comment was likely in reference to ABC News’ Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney, which owns ABC. Walden’s husband, Matt, has been close friends with the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, for decades.
‘George Slopadopolus’ is Trump’s nickname for ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, a former Bill Clinton aide.
Stephanopoulos did not moderate Tuesday’s debate.