Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, has accused ABC News of partiality and left-leaning bias during the recent presidential debate, saying that Kamala Harris’ campaign may have “inappropriately influenced the proceedings” against Donald Trump.
In a letter Wednesday, the senator demanded that ABC release all pre-debate communication and coordination with the Harris campaign, saying the public deserves “transparency” and “accountability” from the mainstream media.
“I demand that you make public all correspondence, records, and potential coordination between the Harris campaign and ABC News ahead of the Sept. 10 ABC debate,” Marshall wrote to ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic.
“I also request you publish all ABC News texts and emails, both between ABC employees themselves and with the Harris campaign to elucidate any potential biases that ABC News employees may have demonstrated prior to the debate between President Trump and Vice President Harris,” he wrote.
The Kansas Republican highlighted the fact that Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, who oversees ABC News, has donated money to Harris political campaigns since 2003.
Walden first met Harris in 1994, although their husbands have known each other since the 1980s, The New York Times reported.
In more recent years, Walden also contributed to Harris, according to Open Secrets.
Marshall endorsed Trump for president in November after supporting him during his previous term.
In his letter, Marshall says that one tactic creating bias in the debate hosted by ABC News was the “excessive fact-checking” of Trump by moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, even as they allowed Harris to “avoid answering questions directly.”
“Specifically relating to ABC News, independent media watchdogs, such as AllSides, have characterized the media as displaying a left-leaning bias that moderately aligns with ‘liberal, progressive, or left-wing thought and/or policy agendas,’” Marshall wrote.
Marshall also brings up recent polling showing Americans have become more skeptical of bias in the so-called mainstream media.
“Only 3 in 10 residents of six of the most important states in this year’s presidential election trust that the media will fairly and accurately report political news,” he wrote.
During the 2020 presidential election, a Gallup poll found increased distrust of mainstream media among Americans.
Mark Penn, former top adviser to former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, whom Trump defeated in 2016, last week called for a review of all internal communications at ABC News to find out if the news division planned on “rigging” the debate’s outcome, according to Just the News.
Besides Karamehmedovic, Marshall addressed his letter to Julie Chávez Rodriguez, manager of the Harris campaign.
Neither ABC News nor the Harris campaign responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.