Trump calls for the entire ABC news network to be fired because of its disastrous debate

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday morning ABC News, The network that hosted the debate between him and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris the night before should be punished for its handling of the event. The network is accused of carrying out biased attacks against him.

In reality, Trump delivered a miserable performance at the debate: he spread numerous absurd lies, was unable to focus on the questions he was asked, and delivered several rambling rants that likely baffled viewers at home.

In an exceptional moment, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis reviewed Trump's most absurd statements in real time and interrupted the debate to tell him that his claims that immigrants stole and ate pets in an Ohio community were baseless and that no state in the country performed post-natal abortions, as he had falsely (and repeatedly) claimed.

Muir and Davis received positive reviews for their handling of these situations and the debate overall. Still, Trump demanded that the network be punished for essentially addressing his poor performance against Harris.

“They are a news organization. They need a license to do this. For the way they have done this, they should revoke their license,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.

Trump added that he considered the debate a “rigged affair” and complained that the fact-checkers “corrected[ed] everything,” he said (which they did not), while not “correcting” Harris on any issue.

Although Harris was fact-checked after the debate, her comments were not as outlandish as Trump's and therefore did not require the same type of fact-checking that Trump received from the moderators.

“The press in this country is so dishonest, it’s unbelievable,” Trump complained.

In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump called for the firing of Muir and Davis – and indeed of all of the network's employees. “They should fire everyone at ABC Fake News, whose two insignificant 'anchors' have brought shame on the company,” Trump wrote.

TV channels like ABC News are not regulated by “licenses” from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as Trump suggests, although the affiliated local stations are. Nevertheless ABC News have done nothing illegal or in violation of FCC standards, further undermining Trump's demand that they should be punished in some way for the actions of their moderators.

The questions Muir and Davis asked were only a small part of the actual debate, and only included a few sentences and answers from Trump during the 90-minute event. Polls and focus groups after the debate showed that most debate viewers thought Trump lost and Harris won, as the Republican candidate seemed unfocused and egotistical throughout the ordeal. Harris, on the other hand, struck a more professional tone.

Trump has made similar attacks on the press in the past, and his calls for punishment of networks and news outlets that report negatively on him or otherwise portray him in an unattractive light are not unusual. He made similar demands of cable news channels and network outlets earlier this year, complaining that his victory speech was not adequately covered following his victory in the Iowa caucuses in January – and again called for the channels' nonexistent licenses to be revoked.

Trump's attacks on the media, including his demands to censor their legitimate reporting of his statements, demonstrate his authoritarian tendencies and suggest that he would impose undue restrictions on the free press if he returned to the White House, as he did as president. In 2018, for example, his administration revoked the press certification of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, apparently in retaliation against the journalist for asking then-President Trump challenging questions about his draconian immigration policies. (Acosta's credentials were eventually restored after the network threatened to sue Trump.)

Trump has also tried to enrage his supporters by deriding the press as “enemies” of the United States, leading to threats and even direct attacks against the media by his supporters. Although he began doing this midway through his term, Trump continues to make such statements at his rallies to this day. At a recent Trump campaign rally, when it appeared to him that one of his supporters was about to attack the press, Trump dismissed the potentially violent action, telling his supporters that the person was “on our side.”