Congress is demanding that ABC News and Vice President Kamala Harris hand over any communications with the network and campaign team related to the debate earlier this month.
It comes after a sworn affidavit emerged from a whistleblower claiming to be staffer with knowledge that ABC gave Harris an advantage in the debate with Donald Trump by providing her the questions ahead of time.
Trump claimed before the debate that Harris would somehow find a way to cheat since she is close friends with Disney executive Dana Walden.
And Sen. J.D. Vance told DailyMail.com on Tuesday it would be a ‘national scandal’ if the whistleblower claim is true.
‘On debate night, it became abundantly clear that ABC News and its respective moderators had a biased agenda,’ Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) wrote to ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic and Harris’ Campaign Manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez.
Congress is demanding ABC News and Kamala Harris turn over any communication between the network and campaign team regarding the September 10 debate with Donald Trump
Besides just whether questions were provided to Harris, Marshall is also questioning whether ABC intentionally left subjects off the table to seem more favorable to Harris.
He also pointed to the real-time fact-checking of Trump by moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir and whether that was meant to negatively affect the former prescient’s performance on September 10.
‘The American people deserve transparency and accountability from the mainstream media and a full accounting of whether ABC News coordinated with the Harris campaign to skew the debate’s questions and face-checking in favor of the Vice President,’ Marshall wrote.
Asked to respond to preconditions detailed in the sworn whistleblower affidavit, Vance told DailyMail.com: ‘If it happened, it’s disgraceful. It should be a national scandal.’
An ABC News whistleblower claims that the network provided Harris the questions ahead of time and that the moderators were told to avoid certain topics
Vance told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that it would be a ‘disgrace’ and ‘national scandal’ if the ABC whistleblower claims are true
Vance, however, said that he will still participate in his upcoming debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hosted by CBS – even if he thinks it won’t be a fair showdown.
The Ohio Senator is set for the vice presidential debate with Harris’ running mate on October 1. The faceoff will be hosted by CBS News in New York City .
But even if the network cheats and leaks information to Gov. Walz, Vance is remaining committed.
‘You know, on my own debate, the attitude that I take – and I know President Trump takes – is we should go anywhere, we should talk to everybody,’ Vance told DailyMail.com.
‘And if that means that there’s going to be a slightly biased debate, I don’t care,’ he added. ‘That’s the price of doing business.’
‘And if that means that there’s going to be a slightly biased debate, I don’t care,’ he added
Vance was in Sparta, Michigan on Tuesday for a rally at a barn where he aired the campaign’s grievances about the ongoing Democratic rhetoric leading to another assassination attempt on Trump over the weekend.
He told reporters on the tarmac in Sparta that the main issue with Democrats is that they keep calling Trump a ‘threat to democracy.’
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did so again on Tuesday.
Democrats ‘haven’t learned a damn thing’ he said at his rally with a few hundred MAGA supporters in the key swing state.
‘I think it’s time to say to the Democrats… cut it out or you’re going to get somebody killed,’ the Republican vice presidential candidate said in his remarks.
Vance will debate Walz in their one and only showdown on October 1. It will be moderated by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell and Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan.
The ABC News whistleblower document in question is allegedly a sworn statement penned by a staffer at the network. It was first published Sunday by an X account with the name ‘Black Insurrectionist.’
The unverified document, said to be a sworn affidavit signed by a notary public on September 9, has sparked controversy as it has spread online
Pictured are some of the purported agreements reached by the two parties
The document, said to be a sworn affidavit signed by a notary public the day before the debate, says the network gave Harris questions ahead of time while agreeing to a series of other preconditions to give the vice president an advantage over Trump.
Prohibited at the debate were inquiries about Harris’ stint as California Attorney General, as well as any questions involving her brother-in-law, Tony West, according to claims made in the document.
It includes several other stipulations, as well as redactions protecting the whistleblower’s identity.
‘ABC News followed the debate rules that both campaigns agreed on… No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates,’ the network said in a statement where it did not address the specific claims.
The whistleblower said in the affidavit: ‘I have worked for ABC news for over 10 years in various technical and administrative positions.
The alleged staffer, who says they do not support Donald Trump, claims they ‘observed significant transformations in the nature of news reporting at the organization’ within that span, as well as a ‘shift from unbiased reporting to a model influenced by external factors.’
They state the intent of the affidavit is solely to ‘address concerns regarding perceived biases within news reporting within my employer’s debate.’
