by Jacob Fischler and Ashley Murray, Wisconsin Examiner
September 11, 2024

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans complained Wednesday that the previous night’s ABC News presidential debate was unfair toward the GOP nominee.

But the campaigns of Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, also engaged via the news media about the possibility of a second debate before the Nov. 5 election.

Trump and his allies said the ABC News moderators, “World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir and “World News Tonight” Sunday anchor and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis, sided with Harris by fact-checking a few of Trump’s more outlandish claims.

“It was three to one,” Trump said Wednesday in a call to Fox News’ morning program “Fox & Friends,” referring to Harris and the two moderators. “It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be, because when you looked at the fact that they were correcting everything and not correcting with her.”

At the debate Tuesday night, Davis contested Trump’s claim that a former Democratic governor floated the possibility of allowing abortion after a baby is born.

“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis said.

Muir also challenged Trump when the former president repeated baseless rumors that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating residents’ pets, saying Springfield’s city manager had debunked the claim.

Representatives for ABC News did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the criticism.

“Terribly moderated debate,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Fox News’ Sean Hannity immediately after the debate. “It was three against one.”