MAGA can’t accept Trump got out-debated; so it’s ABC’s fault. We need to be better | Opinion

Editor’s note: This commentary is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org

I have an affidavit from a confidential whistleblower at CNN stating that the network leaked the questions to Donald Trump’s campaign team before his debate with Joe Biden on June 27. I will be releasing the full affidavit once the attorney blacks out the name of the whistleblower.

Coincidentally, I am also former crown prince of Nigeria and have a large amount of money I will be pleased to share with you if you could simply send me your bank account number so I can transfer the funds out of my country.

Oh, and by the way, I have kidnapped your granddaughter and am holding her captive in Tijuana, and you’ll never see her again unless you send me $3,000 in Walmart gift cards in the next 10 minutes.

See how easy it is?

But, in the wake of Trump’s disastrous showing in Tuesday night’s debate, attacking the moderators, ABC News and reputable journalists everywhere has been the best response that MAGA can muster up.

Believe me, we’re used to it. The sad part is that some people still believe it.

My Facebook feed last night and today has been peppered with posts and comments about an alleged “ABC whistleblower” about to anonymously release an “affidavit” that claims the network leaked the questions to Kamala Harris.

As far as I can tell, it originated with a MAGA account on X (where else?) by an anonymous user with the handle @DocNetyoutube, who bills himself as a “Black Insurrectionist”:

“I will be releasing an affidavit from an ABC whistleblower regarding the debate. 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 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.”

I couldn’t even count the red flags in that paragraph. But it’s been amplified throughout the right-wing echo chamber. As I scrolled through references to this supposed whistleblower in my X account, I ran out of patience before I ran out of posts.

But it was Trump who fanned the rumor in the first place: “I watched her talk, and I said, ‘You know, she seems awfully familiar with the questions,’” he told Fox News shortly after the debate.

So there you have the formula. Trump makes an off-the-cuff, unsubstantiated remark, an anonymous nobody expands on it claiming he has the “proof,” and partisan media and individuals, desperate to believe their hero couldn’t possibly just have been out-debated, pick it up and run with it.

Some cite 2016, when then-candidate Hillary Clinton actually was fed some debate questions by Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazile, who was also a CNN commentator.

Brazile was subsequently forced to resign from the network and it was a stain of dishonor on CNN’s journalistic ethics. Everybody in the news business is aware of it, nobody wants to go there again, and ABC vehemently denies it did.

Not that anyone needed the questions in advance of Tuesday’s debate. They were as predictable as sunrise.

Harris prepped, Trump didn’t, and it was obvious to anyone other than the most MAGA of partisans.

Trump didn’t lose the debate on the issues in the first place.

He lost because he wandered off into weird conspiracy theories, like infanticide by Democratic OB-GYNs, and Haitian immigrant workers eating pets in Ohio.

He looked and sounded unhinged, and every bit as unfit for the office of the presidency as the June debate made Biden look.

And it only got worse afterward.

Incensed by moderators fact-checking his wilder claims during the debate, Trump went on Fox News and threatened ABC: “To be honest, they’re a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.”

That’s neither honest nor factual. ABC News doesn’t have a license. In America, no news organization has or is required to have a license. It’s illegal under the First Amendment.

Sunday is the International Day of Democracy. Since it started in 2008, it’s been a time to reflect on the gifts of self-governance, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Misinformation and disinformation is an existential threat to all those things.

These are unprecedented, trying, and frankly disturbing times for democracy, when anyone can make up whatever they want, post it online and have it shared and accepted as gospel by a significant percentage of the population.

We don’t need less fact-checking in our political system. We need exponentially more of it. An ill-informed democracy is not a democracy at all, it’s just mob rule.

This Democracy Day, and every day, we need to look things up, find things out, and never shy away from denouncing the untruths we now encounter on a daily basis in our everyday lives. If we don’t, the American experiment dies of our neglect.

We need to remind ourselves that facts do matter.

We owe that to the honor of our ancestors, many of whom fought for democracy. And we owe it to our children, may they never have to.