ABC’s “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir may have alienated some viewers after the Disney-owned network upset conservatives during last week’s presidential debate.
Muir and co-moderator Linsey Davis fact-checked former President Donald Trump five times without issuing any corrections for Vice President Kamala Harris. That led many conservatives to argue that the debate was biased. Additionally, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America demanded a correction after Davis fact-checked an abortion claim made by Trump, which the organization labeled as “100% inaccurate.”
After the debate, ABC’s “World News Tonight” anchored by David Muir, averaged 6.7 million viewers on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday—the three episodes following the debate—down from a 2024 average of 7.6 million viewers leading up to the event.
The 12% decline in viewers for “World News Tonight” is more pronounced than the minor decreases experienced by “CBS Evening News” and “NBC Nightly News” when comparing the three episodes following ABC’s debate to their year-to-date numbers. Nevertheless, Muir’s newscast continued to hold the position of the No. 1 broadcast evening newscast, Fox News reported.
Although it’s unclear whether Trump supporters have stopped watching ABC’s newscast after the debate, the former president has criticized the network as “one-sided.” In an interview with Fox News, Trump stated that he believed Vice President Kamala Harris should have been fact-checked on numerous claims.
“Every one of them should have been questioned by David Muir, who I’ve lost a lot of respect for. Everyone’s lost respect for him,” Trump said last week. “It was so … one-sided,” he continued. “It was one against three.”
What’s more, some of the ‘fact checks’ of Trump weren’t even accurate.
After the Justice Department released new crime statistics, Trump’s campaign issued a sharp statement on Thursday Muir. During the debate, Trump asserted that crime rates, particularly those involving illegal immigrants, have surged under the Biden-Harris administration. In response, Muir fired back, “As you know, the FBI reports that overall violent crime is coming down in this country.”
What Muir claimed is not true, however.
The Trump campaign spotlighted figures from the Justice Department’s “National Crime Victimization Survey,” released on Thursday. The survey revealed a 37% increase in violent crime from 2020 to 2023, with rape rising by 42%, robbery by 63%, and stranger violence by 61%, Just the News reported.
“If Kamala is given another four years and the chance to implement her weak-on-crime, defund the police, no cash bail policies, America will continue to turn into a crime-ridden hellhole for illegal immigrants, Venezuelan gangsters, and drug dealers,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Only President Trump will restore law and order, protect our police, secure the border, deport illegal immigrants, and prosecute criminals to the fullest extent of the law. If you want to be safe, VOTE TRUMP,” she noted further.
Former Fox News star Megyn Kelly took to her top-rated SiriusXM podcast platform after the debate to rip the moderators over their blatant anti-Trump bias.
“I’m disgusted. I’m ashamed of those moderators at ABC News. They did exactly what their bosses wanted them to do. The person who runs ABC News is a close personal friend of Kamala Harris and is responsible for Kamala Harris and her husband meeting. They did Dana Walden’s bidding tonight. It was three against one on that debate stage this evening,” Kelly said.
“It was three against one. It’s very easy to look like you know what you’re doing when both moderators are entirely on your side. Trump did the best he could under the circumstances, but it really was like three fighters in the ring pummeling one opponent, and Trump tried to take them all on. He did fine. He did the best he could. He was thrown off a few times, to the point where he was unnecessarily defensive and getting angry. And so was I. Were you?” she continued.
“This was a mistake to trust ABC News with this debate. The Republicans must learn from this mistake the same way the Democrats never, ever agree to do anything with moderators they don’t entirely trust. This should be the last time the Republicans ever do this because those two moderators tried to sink Donald Trump tonight,” Kelly noted further.
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