Well, Linsey Davis Didn’t Say Debate Fact-Checking Was Planned Only for Trump, Not Harris

Claim:

ABC News anchor Linsey Davis, who co-moderated the network’s 2024 US presidential debate with anchor David Muir, said they planned in advance only to do fact checks on former President Donald Trump’s statements.

Rating:

Following the ABC News US presidential debate on Sept. 10, 2024, the conservative blog Chicks on the Right published an article claiming that one of the network’s two debate moderators — anchor Linsey Davis — said she and her co-moderator, David Muir, planned in advance to fact-check only statements by former President Donald Trump.

The Sept. 17 blog post displayed the headline, “ABC Moderator Linsey Davis Admits: ‘Fact-checking’ Was Only Planned for Trump.” In other words, the post asserted that during preparation for the debate, it was decided that the moderators would not fact-check any statements by Vice President Kamala Harris.

The claim was not true, however, as we will demonstrate below:

First, the Facts

The Chicks on the Right post included information sourced from a Sept. 13 Fox News story. That story sourced its material from a Los Angeles Times article published on Sept. 11 — the day after the debate. The Times’ story featured an interview with Davis, as well as a profile of her career.

Notably, the Chicks on the Right story omitted some information from the Times’ interview with Davis, mainly the reporting that Davis said she and Muir carefully studied “each candidate’s body of work ahead of time” in order to nail the facts during questions or post -answer clarifications (emphasis ours):

Davis acknowledged that she and Muir could not nail every misstatement. But they did study each candidate’s body of work ahead of time and had an idea of ​​what to expect.

“Politicians tend to say the same things again and again,” Davis said.

To prepare, Davis, a 17-year ABC News veteran, reviewed questions in her head for weeks during her daily runs (she and entrepreneur husband Paul Roberts have competed in half-marathons in 46 states). There was a lot of prayer too.

“My husband said a little 30-second prayer before I left for Philadelphia,” Davis said, a Christian who has written faith-based children’s books. “He was like, ‘God give her the words to say.’ That’s in the Scripture. There were a few praying for, in particular, wisdom, discernment, courage and peace.”

A cousin of Davis set up a prayer meeting on Zoom as well.

The Chicks on the Right Article

In our review of the Chicks on the Right story, we noted it featured two paragraphs from the Los Angeles Times profile that were quoted in the Fox News story:

“Davis, wearing pink glasses while speaking to The Times over breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia, said the decision to attempt to correct the candidates was in response to the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and President Biden, whose poor performance led to his exit from the race,” the Times reported.

“People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not (be) disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis said.

The Chicks on the Right post said Trump was fact-checked but Harris was not. “During the debate, Trump was fact-checked seven times, often inaccurately, while Harris was not fact-checked at all, despite using false claims like the Charlottesville ‘very fine people‘ Narrative.” However, the post didn’t specify which of the moderators’ fact checks of Trump were “inaccurate.” The claim Harris was not fact-checked at all correctly pertained only to the moderators’ accurate post-answer clarifications.

Another part of the Chicks on the Right article mentioned an unproven conspiracy theory about an ABC News “whistleblower affidavit.” The baseless rumor claimed a “whistleblower” revealed the network shared debate questions with Harris ahead of time and provided other preferential treatment, giving her an unfair advantage over Trump. An extension of the unsupported rumor also falsely claimed the purported “whistleblower” died in an automobile crash on Sept. 13.

A spokesperson for ABC News denied the rumor regarding Harris receiving questions before the debate, telling The Daily Beast, “Absolutely not,” and, “Harris was not given any questions before the debate.” A spokesperson for the network also told Snopes, “ABC News followed the debate rules that both campaigns agreed on and which clearly state: ‘No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.'”

The brief Chicks on the Right article — which spanned fewer than 300 words — closed with a sentence backpedaling on at least one claim made in the story with a vague reference to “allegations.” The story’s last paragraph also included a final sentence about an unspecified “negative implication.” It read, “While the truth of the denial cannot be confirmed, they align with the debate’s events. Debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis have not responded, which may suggest a negative implication.”

The debate transcript and full video are online for reference. For Snopes’ fact checks covering topics debated during the first and possibly only showdown between Harris and Trump, see our extensive debate coverage.

Sources