ABC’s Linsey Davis and David Muir brutally fact-checked Donald Trump’s repeated false claims during Tuesday’s debate, tackling everything from the idea that parents in some states can choose to kill a baby after they are born to the claim that illegal immigrants are eating pets.
First, Trump tried to claim that a West Virginia governor once affirmed that parents can elect to kill an infant after they are born, misconstruing a debunked episode involving former Virginia governor Ralph Northam.
After a further rant on states deciding on abortion rights, Davis went back to his claim—to shut it down.
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“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill the baby after it's born,” Davis said. “Madam Vice President, want to get your response to President Trump.”
Muir clapped back at Trump when the former president resurrected a conspiracy theory that illegal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were rounding up pets, cats, and ducks to eat them.
“ABC News did reach out to the city manager there,” Muir told the former president. “He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
“Maybe he said that, and maybe that's a good thing to say for a city manager,” Trump said.
The duo's consistent fact-checking came after CNN faced scrutiny over its decision to not have its moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, fact-check Trump and President Joe Biden.
Davis, 46, has emerged as a top talent at the network. A 17-year veteran of the network, she hosts ABC News Live Prime and serves as the weekend host of World News Tonight. Davis co-moderated the 2019 debate with Muir (and Trump enemy George Stephanopoulos), and she interviewed Harris last year in an abortion-focused discussion tied to restrictive abortion access laws across the U.S.
