Who won the ABC debate-ambush between former President Donald Trump, and the trio of Vice President Kamala Harris, David Muir, and Linsey Davis?
There were two clear winners: the Harris campaign, which was enriched with a massive in-kind donation from ABC in the form of a favorable political infomercial, and the ABC publicity department, which is now boasting about the network’s record viewership.
“With 19 million total viewers on ABC, ABC News’ presidential debate is the most-watched debate on any Network in 16 years,” a company statement said. “ABC News Live on streaming and digital platforms, including Hulu, Disney+ and ABC owned television stations, currently stands at 7.4 million viewers in early reporting, bringing ABC News audience to more than 26 million viewers. The debate is the most-viewed live event by hours streamed on Disney+ in the U.S. to date.”
Looks like it was win-win for ABC and the Harris campaign. Or was it quid pro quo? As in, let your friends at ABC have the coveted debate, and we will go real easy on you. We can’t say for sure that something like that happened behind the scenes, but it had that appearance.
The result was a so-called debate that was just another in the long line of attempted Trump takedowns. It was a 90-minute advertisement for Harris in front of a record audience, and that makes it a high value in-kind donation from ABC to the Harris campaign.
There can be no fair game or
