Former President Trump revived his attacks towards ABC News and its presidential debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis for repeatedly fact-checking him.
Former President Trump took aim at ABC News over its handling of the presidential debate, accusing the network of “violating” its agreement with his campaign about not having fact-checks during the political showdown.
Speaking from Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday, Trump renewed his attacks on the Disney-owned network while addressing crime at the campaign event.
“And during the debate, I mentioned that and David Muir, a real lightweight,” Trump said. “I had one against three, but I think we did great. But David Muir of ABC, fake news, when I said that crime is way up in our country, he corrected me, he corrected me and so much and it was right what I said. He didn’t correct [Vice President Kamala Harris] one time, and what she said was wrong, absolutely wrong. So many different— Charlottesville, she was wrong, all of the different things, almost everything she said, and she was never corrected.
“But he corrected me on crime. He said, ‘No, no, crime has not gone up.’ I said crime has gone up massively. He said, ‘I’d like to state for the record that crime has not gone up.'”
TRUMP SAYS HE REGRETS NOT ‘GOING AFTER’ ABC MODERATORS DURING DEBATE: ‘I WISH I DID’
Trump went on to allege that ABC News broke the “deal” they struck ahead of the debate.
“Now you don’t know this, but we had a deal with ABC that there will be no corrections of any kind, and they violated the deal. Why? Because they’re bad people, and they’re fake news,” Trump said. “So he did it many times to me during the debate. He violated the deal. That’s the deal, because you can take anything and try and make up stories with it. We had a deal where that wouldn’t happen. You could do whatever you wanted as soon as the debate was over, but he did it in total violation of what our agreement was. And a lot of people standing right over there [as he looked toward his staff] will tell you exactly what it was, will show you what it was. David Muir has lost all credibility.”
ABC DEBATE MODERATORS SPARK FURY FOR AGGRESSIVE FACT-CHECKING OF TRUMP, EASY TREATMENT OF HARRIS
The former president also took a swipe at co-moderator Linsey Davis, who provided the first fact-check of the debate against him.
“I never heard of her. I never want to hear of her. She was terrible. I don’t know how she ever got her job in the first place,” Trump said. “But we have a country to save, and we can’t have fake news like that. And his ratings deserve to go down.”
ABC News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital‘s request for comment.
ABC News sparked fury among conservative critics who blasted Muir and Davis for their hostile treatment of Trump while going easy on Harris, fact-checking him five times while not challenging any of the vice president’s claims.
Trump expressed his regret for not going after the moderators during the debate during his appearance on “Gutfeld!” last week.
TRUMP APPEARS TO LEAVE DOOR OPEN FOR SECOND DEBATE WITH HARRIS: ‘MAYBE IF I GOT IN THE RIGHT MOOD’
“I think my only regret is that I wanted to be elegant, and I didn’t want to go after the anchors. I wish I did, in a way,” Trump said.
“I was very unfairly treated by the anchor. I’m not fans of those guys anymore – and his hair was better five years ago,” Trump quipped, referring to Muir, adding, “That happens with the clock.”
Trump has yet to commit to another debate against Harris. The former president appeared to reject a proposed CNN debate set for Oct. 23 that Harris accepted, saying it was “too late” since early voting has started weeks ahead.
That said, Trump left the door open for another showdown, telling Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie, “Maybe if I got in the right mood.”
While Harris appears eager to debate Trump again, she previously did not accept proposed debates by Fox News and NBC News that Trump agreed to prior to the ABC News debate.
