Trump says ABC will provide Harris with debate questions in advance

Attacks on ABC and other broadcast networks are nothing new for Donald Trump, but tonight the former president took open aim at the Disney-owned network, its boss and its star reporter.

Before ABC News' debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on September 10, Trump declared, “ABC is the worst network on television.” Doubling down, as he always does, Trump then aired his grievances at the highest levels and suggested that next week's debate was already rigged.

“I agreed to do it because they wouldn't do it on any other network,” Trump insisted of the long-scheduled debate between ABC News and Sean Hannity tonight during a pre-recorded town hall on Fox News.

“The other thing is, her best friend is the head of the network,” Trump said in a gesture of disapproval to the Fox audience. While Trump never actually said Dana Walden’s name, it was pretty clear that the Disney Entertainment co-chairwoman and possible successor to Bob Iger was his target.

It’s true that the vice president and former Fox executive Walden have been friends for 30 years. It’s also true that over the years, Walden has donated to the Democrat’s campaigns. In fact, as recently as April 2022, Walden hosted a fundraiser for the vice president at her Brentwood home.

Disney executive Dana Walden onstage at the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation's 27th Annual “Taste for a Cure” on May 10, 2024

Neither ABC News nor Disney responded to Deadline's request for comment on Trump's attacks on Walden. However, the news service has previously said that Walden has no influence over the direction of its coverage. “All editorial decisions are in the hands of ABC News management and ABC's veteran journalists and producers, who are held to the highest journalistic standards,” the network said last month about the possibility of Walden cozying up to its White House hopeful friend.

But not content with attacking Walden, whose name has not been revealed, Trump tonight attacked her husband, producer Matt Walden, and added a wild allegation as the cherry on top of the toxic cake.

Citing Walden’s friendship with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, which spans more than 40 years, Trump then proclaimed that Walden would ensure Harris had the upper hand in the debate moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis next week. “Her husband’s best friend is married to the head of the network, and they’re going to get the questions that I’ve heard before,” he said, without providing any evidence.

“They will receive the questions in advance.”

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Getty Images

Shifting from topic to topic with Hannity's encouragement, the former Celebrity Apprentice host unleashed one lie after another and sly attacks on his poll-surging rival Wednesday. Trump's attacks on ABC, the vice president and the Waldens come the same day his team reached an agreement with Harris' advisers on the final rules for the showdown.

In a similar vein, Trump went on to tell a sympathetic Hannity that ABC was “the most dishonest, meanest, meanest network.” Additionally, in telling a story about a 2016 ABC poll that had him down 17 points in Wisconsin (which he won), Trump essentially accused the network of rigging the numbers to discourage Republican voters.

Additionally, taking a swipe at GMA co-anchor and anchor George Stephanopoulos, whom he mocked as “George Slopodopoulos… he’s a mean guy,” Trump ridiculed Stephanopoulos’ July 5 interview with President Joe Biden. “That was like the sweetest interview I’ve ever seen,” Trump proclaimed of Stephanopoulos’ sit-down with Biden after the POTUS’ disastrous June 27 debate with Trump on CNN. Moving on to the Democrat he’s now running against for the White House, and a recent on-air conversation Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, had with CNN’s Dana Bash, Trump added of the July 5 interview, “That was sweeter than Kamala’s interview on CNN… but they’re very mean.”

Network sources have grown accustomed to Trump's attacks on ABC News in recent weeks.

Tonight’s remarks may have gone further than his previous ones, but that’s hardly surprising, given that Trump has lashed out at debate moderators during the 2020 and 2016 debates, as if to lay the groundwork for potential accountability if things didn’t go well during the events. Trump and his campaign notably attacked CNN and Jake Tapper before the June presidential debate, though the former president had some positive words for Tapper and co-moderator Bash afterward. That debate, of course, was a nightmare for Trump’s rival, President Biden — who dropped out of the race at the end of July.

Trump has also claimed in recent weeks that ABC News is biased given his ongoing litigation with the network and Stephanopoulos. He filed a defamation lawsuit in March over an interview Stephanopoulos gave to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-NC). On This Week, Stephanopoulos said a jury had found Trump “liable for rape.” In fact, the jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, but the judge in the case made comments that appeared to equate the verdict with rape.

However, an attempt by ABC and Stephanopoulos to get the defamation lawsuit dismissed failed, with a federal judge in Florida allowing the case to proceed in July.

That said, Trump agreed to participate in the ABC News debate in May, months after filing a lawsuit against the network. Who will watch the first and perhaps only face-off between Harris and Trump is now a point of contention for some cable subscribers. In a dispute over a new carriage deal with DirecTV, Disney saw 16 of its channels on the satellite cable provider disappear on September 1, including ABC. If no deal is reached by next Tuesday, 11 million DirecTV subscribers will have no choice but to watch the debate simulcast on any channel except ABC.

This could hurt more than any indiscreet attack on Walden and Stephanopoulos.

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