OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
After the Justice Department released new crime statistics, former President Donald Trump’s campaign issued a sharp statement on Thursday, attacking ABC’s David Muir, one of the moderators of Tuesday’s presidential debate.
During the debate, Trump asserted that crime rates, particularly those involving illegal immigrants, have surged under the Biden-Harris administration. In response, Muir fired back, “As you know, the FBI reports that overall violent crime is coming down in this country.”
The Trump campaign spotlighted figures from the Justice Department’s “National Crime Victimization Survey,” released on Thursday. The survey revealed a 37% increase in violent crime from 2020 to 2023, with rape rising by 42%, robbery by 63%, and stranger violence by 61%, Just the News reported.
“If Kamala is given another four years and the chance to implement her weak-on-crime, defund the police, no cash bail policies, America will continue to turn into a crime-ridden hellhole for illegal immigrants, Venezuelan gangsters, and drug dealers,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Only President Trump will restore law and order, protect our police, secure the border, deport illegal immigrants, and prosecute criminals to the fullest extent of the law. If you want to be safe, VOTE TRUMP,” she noted further.
Former Fox News star Megyn Kelly took to her top-rated SiriusXM podcast platform Tuesday evening to rip the moderators of ABC’s debate between Trump and Harris after they appeared to demonstrate blatant bias.
Moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis were roundly criticized on the left and right for repeatedly pressing Trump on issues and attempting to fact-check him during the debate while essentially giving Harris a pass, though post-debate analyses found that she, too, misspoke several times and even repeated the widely debunked claim about Trump’s Charlottesville, Va., remarks in 2017.
“I’m disgusted. I’m ashamed of those moderators at ABC News. They did exactly what their bosses wanted them to do. The person who runs ABC News is a close personal friend of Kamala Harris and is responsible for Kamala Harris and her husband meeting. They did Dana Walden’s bidding tonight. It was three against one on that debate stage this evening,” Kelly said.
“It was three against one. It’s very easy to look like you know what you’re doing when both moderators are entirely on your side. Trump did the best he could under the circumstances, but it really was like three fighters in the ring pummeling one opponent, and Trump tried to take them all on. He did fine. He did the best he could. He was thrown off a few times, to the point where he was unnecessarily defensive and getting angry. And so was I. Were you?” she continued.
“This was a mistake to trust ABC News with this debate. The Republicans must learn from this mistake the same way the Democrats never, ever 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,” Kelly noted further.
“The numerous fact-checks on what he said and none on what she said — none. I don’t remember a single fact-check of anything she said, and she lied repeatedly. She just got away with it in the moderators’ eyes. That was Donald Trump’s job to fact-check her. That’s correct, except you didn’t employ that same tactic when it came to Trump. And you accused him of lying, even when it was just your opinion that he lied,” the SiriusXM host continued.
“When Trump tried to say that his comment that he lost 2020 by a whisker was him being sarcastic, David Muir actually interjected, saying, ‘I didn’t hear sarcasm.’ Who gives a shit what you heard? Who died and left you political analyst-in-chief? You’re supposed to be the objective news anchor of ‘World News Tonight!’” Kelly said.
“That’s a comment you make to your significant other, David, not in the debates. ‘It didn’t sound like that to me.’ Shut up. That is inappropriate. It’s not for you to make that call. Leave it up to Kamala Harris, leave it up to people like me who will play the sound bite and let the audience decide. But you were out of line, and they did it to him over and over and over again,” the host added.