Trump calls ABC News the “meanest” broadcaster shortly before the debate

Ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate, former President Donald Trump once again attacked ABC News and its veteran anchors, calling the network the “worst” and “most dishonest” on television.

“ABC is the worst network when it comes to fairness,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during a “town hall” event on Wednesday. “They’re the most dishonest network, the meanest, the nastiest, but that’s what was presented to me. I was presented with ABC, George Slopadopoulos. He’s a nasty guy.”

Trump has repeatedly criticized ABC, which has hosted the presidential debate since Vice President Kamala Harris won the Democratic nomination, complaining that he will not run against President Joe Biden, who ended his re-election campaign after the June 27 debate. He has hinted several times that he may cancel Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia, calling ABC “fake news” and claiming that it has used a “panel of Trump haters.”

Harris and Trump had clashed over the rules of the debate, with the vice president’s team pushing for microphones to be on at all times. But her campaign team finally agreed on Wednesday to a set of rules similar to those used in Trump’s debate against Biden, including muted microphones when an opponent is speaking and no live audience.

Trump quickly began to sow doubts about the fairness of the event, suggesting without evidence that Harris had an advantage over him.

“They are very nasty. I think a lot of people will be watching to see how nasty they are,” the former president told ABC.

He further claimed that the vice president would be assigned questions in advance. ABC has denied this, saying that the agreed rules state that none of the candidates would be assigned topics or questions in advance.

“You could ask her the questions and give her the answers along with the questions. I’m not sure that will help her,” he added.

ABC sought to portray the debate as a fair debate for both parties, noting that both the Trump and Harris campaigns had agreed to the rules.

“Other than the debate rules released today, which were agreed to by both campaign teams on May 15, we have not made any other arrangements,” an ABC spokesperson told the media this week. “We look forward to moderating the presidential debate next Tuesday.”

The debate will be moderated by World News Tonight host and editor-in-chief David Muir and ABC News Live Prime host Linsey Davis.

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