Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly was widely criticized after she melted down in a profane rant about ABC debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checking Trump's lies in real time, blaming them for his poor debate performance.
A CNN snap poll found that 63% of debate-watchers believed Vice President Kamala Harris won the debate, compared to 37% for Trump, while a YouGov poll showed Harris leading 54% to 31% among registered voters who watched at least part of the debate, with 14% undecided.
It's no wonder: at one point, for example, Muir swiftly corrected Trump when he repeated the debunked claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been stealing and eating local pets. This conspiracy theory gained traction online after right-wing social media accounts spread the unsourced story, despite no actual evidence supporting it.
Muir pointed out that Springfield officials, including the city manager, confirmed no such incidents of cat-eating had occurred. “Well, I’ve seen people on television!” Trump shouted, and even though he made several attempts to provoke Harris, Trump struggled to recover his momentum after his outburst.
But to hear Kelly tell it, Trump cannot be blamed because both moderators were "biased" against him, implying they'd colluded so Harris could win the debate and suggesting the thin-skinned convicted felon was no match for "three against one."
You can hear her remarks in the video below.
She said:
“I’m disgusted. I’m ashamed of those moderators at ABC News. It was three against one on that debate stage this evening. This was a mistake to trust ABC News with this debate. The Republicans must learn from this mistake."
"The same way the Democrats never, never agree to do anything with moderators they don’t entirely trust. This should be the last time the Republicans ever do this. Because those two moderators tried to sink Donald Trump tonight.”
“Trump did the best he could under the circumstances, but it really was like three fighters in the ring against one opponent. And Trump tried to take them all on. He did fine. He did as best as he could. He was thrown a few times to the point where he was unnecessarily defensive and he was getting angry. And so was I.”
At one point, she accused ABC News of employing an "obvious tactic" to hurt Trump:
“‘Do you have any regrets or thoughts on how terrible you were?’ Trump answers. ‘Vice President Harris, how bad is Trump?’ And then she’d answer. It happened over and over again. That was the format. ‘Mr. Trump, you’re a piece of s**t.’ ‘Kamala Harris, isn’t he a s**t? Thank you.’ It was incredible.”
“Anything Trump said, fact check, fact check, fact check… and their fact checks were full of s**t."
She also expressed frustration with ABC News, accusing the network of a conflict of interest due to Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney—ABC’s parent company—and her personal connections to Harris, who is a longtime friend:
"[ABC] did Dana Walden’s bidding tonight."
Trump recently sued ABC News for defamation and, along with his allies, is often quick to accuse media outlets of bias when dissatisfied with their coverage.
ABC News has dismissed any claims of a conflict of interest involving Walden, stating that while she oversees 18 businesses within Disney, her involvement with the news division is limited to corporate matters such as budgets and staffing, with no influence over editorial decisions.
Kelly concluded by suggesting ABC's perceived efforts would blow up in the network's face and cast Trump as a sympathetic figure:
“I actually think the American public is going to see through this, and there’s probably going to be some empathy for Trump.”
But many were quick to point out just how ridiculous she sounded considering how much Trump got in his own way.
Trump and Kelly have had an infamously volatile relationship.
During a 2015 debate, which Kelly was moderating, she brought up derogatory remarks Trump has made about women and Trump lashed out, saying that Kelly had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever." Trump later backtracked on the comment, tweeting that he was referring to her nose.
Trump's comments at the time drew considerable attention to his long history of misogynistic and sexist remarks as well as his documented history of sexual harassment.
Kelly would later note that Trump, because of his unrepentant behavior, managed on his own to keep allegations of sexual misconduct by multiple women front and center in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election.
She based this on a leaked Access Hollywood videotape from 2005 in which Trump appeared to advocate and admit to sexual assault, issued his now-infamous "grab 'em by the pussy" remarks, and bragged about the perks of being rich, famous, and largely unaccountable.
