Former President Donald Trump promoted a viral claim that ABC News rigged the presidential debate between him and Vice President Kamala Harris by providing Harris an advanced set of sample questions and ensuring that Trump would be fact-checked in real time while she would not be.
ABC News has strongly denied the rumors.
"Absolutely not,” an ABC News spokesperson told the Daily Beast. "Harris was not given any questions before the debate."
The claims stem from an X post by the right-wing news aggregator Leading Report, which has previously been accused of sharing misinformation.
"BREAKING: ABC whistleblower allegedly will release an affidavit claiming the Harris campaign was given sample questions that were 'essentially the same questions that were given during the debate,' as well as assurances that Trump would be 'fact-checked' and she would not," Leading Report's post on Thursday claimed.
The post, which did not link to any additional information about the alleged forthcoming affidavit, caught the attention of many high-profile figures.
"!!" replied Elon Musk.
"Not surprised one bit, democrats cheat!" replied one prominent right-wing account.
"This is huge," wrote another right-wing influencer.
"If this turns out to be true, this is a serious breach of journalistic ethics and a death blow to [ABC News'] reputation," weighed in billionaire Bill Ackman.
And, of course, the report was amplified by Trump himself on Truth Social.
"People are saying that Comrade Kamala Harris had the questions from Fake News ABC," Trump wrote in a second post. "I would say it is very likely. The two so-called 'Anchors' were a disgrace to Modern Day Journalism."
He added that "despite having to debate three people, Polls firmly state that I won, and EASILY." (He later shared screenshots of two X polls from right-wing accounts as evidence of this.)
"No Politician should ever do a Debate with ABC News," Trump continued. "They have proven NOT WORTHY, and hopefully an investigation will be done as to whether or not they gave the Debate questions to Comrade Kamala, whose best friend is a top ABC Executive. If she did give the questions to Kamala, ABC’s license should be TERMINATED. Remember, Donna Brazile works for ABC, and she gave the questions to Hillary Clinton!"
But the source behind the Leading Report post appears dubious.
Some internet sleuths traced the apparent origin of the claim to an account with the name "Black Insurrectionist--I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS."
"I will be releasing an affidavit from an ABC whistleblower regarding the debate," reads the Thursday post that set off the firestorm. "I have just signed a non-disclosure agreement with the attorney of the whistleblower. The affidavit states how the Harris campaign was given sample question 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 post goes on, "the affidavit states several other factors that were built into the debate to give Kamala a significant advantage. I have seen and read the affidavit and after the attorney blacks out the name of the whistleblower and other information that could dox the whistleblower, I will release the full affidavit. I will be releasing the affidavit before the weekend is out."
Even some right-wing accounts are skeptical of the veracity of the claims, with one posting that he "would be hesitant with this report."
Fox News commentator Tammy Bruce stated her belief Harris was not given advanced questions because she gave "wordy non-answer[s], filled with platitudes."
"Bottom line: When you have no intention of genuinely answering any question, you don't need the questions in advance," Bruce added.
But the original account has since doubled and tripled down on the allegation, pledging that the affidavit "will hold water" and that he may do a joint release with the Gateway Pundit "as long as they will protect the identity of the whistleblower and their attorney."
"I could care less about the left saying I am a liar. The left does nothing but lie," he added.
"There is a reason other nationally known people called for an investigation into ABC yesterday," he continued, referencing a former Clinton adviser's calls for an internal ABC News investigation. "My understanding is that there are a few people at ABC who are upset with what happened with the debate. Personally, I believe there will be more than 1 whistleblower when this is over.
In a later post on Friday, the account promised to release the affidavit, writing: "Has ABC denied anything about my tweet yesterday? I have not seen them deny anything. Yet, I am getting multiple death threats and have had two leftist attorneys send me DMs about bringing me to court if I release the whistleblower affidavit. Under these circumstances, I must now be forced to make a difficult decision--Y'all can pound sand. I am releasing it."
While some conservatives are promoting the claims, others remain hopeful but dubious about its veracity.
"I've been seeing the same rumor all day long about the ABC news whistleblower. I hope this is true," wrote one account. "I've not seen anything that confirms this, and I think we are being led into a trap. Why don't we wait for the actual whistleblower to come forward before we all look like fools?"
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