Whistleblower alleges biased ABC News gave Harris sample campaign questions ahead of the debate
By isabelle // 2024-09-17
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Many viewers were understandably concerned about the unfair treatment of former President Donald Trump during last week’s debate, and now former Clinton strategist Mark Penn is calling for an investigation into whether ABC News coordinated with the Harris campaign to stack the odds in her favor based on a tip-off he received from a whistleblower. Penn said he received an affidavit from an ABC whistleblower and he intends to release it soon. He announced: “The affidavit states how the Harris campaign was given sample questions which were essentially the same questions that were given during the debate and separate assurances of fact checking Donald Trump and that she would NOT be fact checked. Accordingly, the affidavit states several other factors that were built into the debate to give Kamala a significant advantage.” It was clear from the beginning that there would be no pretenses of appearing fair and balanced on the part of ABC, with the debate moderators pressing Trump with follow-up questions on numerous occasions while letting it slide when Harris refused to answer questions. The same bias could be seen when it came to fact checking, with Trump being fact-checked repeatedly and Harris not being called out even once for misrepresenting facts. Penn said that he believes a “full internal investigation” is in order and that an outside law firm should be hired to conduct it. In comments to Just The News’s John Solomon, he said: “I think the day after, suspicion here is really quite high, and I think a review of all their internal texts and emails really should be done by an independent party to find out to what extent they were planning on, in effect, you know, fact-checking just one candidate and, in effect, rigging the outcome of this debate. I think the situation demands nothing less than that.” He outlined how much this could impact the election in an interview with Fox News, where he asked what might have happened if the moderators had actually challenged Harris on the many falsehoods she stated during the debate. “If they said, ‘that’s not right what you said there about Charlottesville.' We don’t know how she would have reacted and then Trump wouldn’t have to spend all his time on the defense,” he pointed out. “I think they did a real disservice to the voters of America when they did that and they put in jeopardy the institutions of debate.”

ABC News accused of propping up Kamala in debate

There are several other circumstances that add to the appearance of favoritism, including the fact that co-moderator Linsey Davis was a member of the same sorority as Harris and the connections between Harris and the co-chairman of ABC News owner Disney, Dana Walden. According to the New York Times, Harris and Walden are neighbors and Walden has made donations to Harris’s political campaigns in the past. Shortly after the debate, Trump told Fox & Friends that Harris seemed “awfully familiar with the questions,” implying that she had been privy to what would be asked despite debate rules prohibiting the sharing of questions and topics in advance with candidates or campaigns. The debate, which attracted 67 million viewers and was the most-watched debate since 2008, was the first between Trump and Harris and likely the last. Although Harris has claimed she is up for a rematch, Trump has declined and believes that Harris’s interest in debating again is a clear sign he dominated their last encounter. Sources for this article include: X.com WesternStandard.news
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