Former President Donald Trump again attacked ABC News as he continues to lay the groundwork for a last-minute withdrawal from the next debate, saying the network is unfair and employs “terrible” journalists.
“ABC is probably the worst in terms of fairness,” Trump said during a friendly interview with Fox News’ Mark Levin that aired Sunday. “George Flopadopoulos, the people they have are just, they’re just terrible, Jonathan Karl.”
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ABC News is set to host the next presidential debate on Sept. 10 in Philadelphia, the first time Trump will face off against Vice President Kamala Harris in what will be her first debate appearance since she won the Democratic nomination. Anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate.
Trump has repeatedly suggested he may duck out of the faceoff as it inches closer. Late last month, he said ABC was “fake news” peppered with a “panel of Trump-haters.” And he previously said the network was “very biased” while complaining that he had already spent “time and money” challenging President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race in favor of his vice president.
Trump said later Sunday on Truth Social that he was looking forward to challenging Harris on the debate stage after officials said an Israeli-American hostage taken captive during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel was among those found dead this weekend.
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“The Hostage Crisis in Israel is only taking place because Comrade Kamala Harris is weak and ineffective, and has no idea what she’s doing,” Trump wrote. “I look forward to seeing her at the Debate!”
The two candidates were jostling over debate rules up until last week. ABC recently told both campaigns, however, that there will be no live audience, microphones will be muted when a candidate is not speaking, and there will be no previously written notes allowed. Harris’ campaign had strongly pushed for microphones to be live during the entire event to allow “substantive exchanges between the candidates,” although her team says those discussions will continue.
Trump told Levin on Sunday that he liked to debate and had “won a lot of debates” in the past, “otherwise I wouldn’t have been president.” He went on to lament his last performance, which was a catalyst for Biden’s exit from the race.
“I think I did a very good job,” Trump said of his performance in June. “And maybe I did too good a job.”
