Ahead of Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, Trump is already pushing conspiracy theories that the event is being “rigged” in Harris’ favor.
In recent days, Trump has promoted a number of baseless conspiracy theories claiming that ABC News, which will host the debate, is essentially in cahoots with Harris’s campaign. But this is just one of numerous conspiracy theories the former president has promoted in recent weeks, and his tirades to the press, online and in fundraising emails have included baseless accusations about immigrants flooding the country to vote, claims that the election will be fraudulent and the idea that Harris became the Democratic nominee in a “coup.”
These conspiracy theories appear to be front and center for Trump when he takes to the debate stage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday night. And given his willingness to repeatedly promote misinformation during the June debate with President Joe Biden, it’s possible Trump will continue to promote many of these false narratives.
“I am entering into very hostile territory with ABC, … (who) I think is the worst of all,” Trump told reporters on Saturday. “The reason I’m doing it is that she’s the only one I would do it with, because her best friend is the head of ABC.”
Trump was referring to Dana Walden, a Disney executive whose portfolio includes ABC News. Walden and her husband have been friends with Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, for more than 30 years, and the Waldens have donated significant amounts of money to Harris’s previous campaigns, as well as to several other Democratic candidates.
However, ABC News is one of 18 brands Walden oversees at Disney, and his involvement with ABC News does not extend to the editorial level, but instead focuses on corporate matters such as budgets and staffing. “All editorial decisions are in the hands of ABC News management and ABC’s experienced journalists and producers, who are held to the highest journalistic standards,” the network said in a statement to The New York Times last month.
On Sunday, on Truth Social, Trump shared a link to an article on the right-wing website Just the News highlighting the relationship between Harris and Walden. Alongside the link, Trump wrote: “Armed?”
In a fundraising email, Trump’s campaign promoted the idea that Harris would be asked questions before the debate: “Do you think ABC will give Kamala all the questions beforehand? We already know her liberal media cronies would do ANYTHING to keep her from being embarrassed like Biden!”
Trump has spent the past week posting about other debate-related conspiracy theories as well. On Saturday morning, he posted on Truth Social that Kamala Harris might use “artificial boxes or lifts” on the debate stage to make herself appear taller.
“We had already discussed this with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg when he was in a debate and was not allowed to be brought in,” Trump wrote. “It would be a form of cheating, and the Democrats cheat enough already.”
