ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis, who will co-moderate the presidential debate on Tuesday, once made comments linking former President Donald Trump to the Ku Klux Klan and questioning whether he is a racist.
Media critics say it raises concerns moderators will not treat Mr. Trump fairly at the debate, which the former president has already labeled as “rigged.”
Ms. Davis is moderating the debate in Philadelphia with ABC Nightly News anchor David Muir.
The Media Research Center, a conservative-leaning watchdog group, posted past interviews and other footage they say raise questions about moderator bias in the upcoming debate.
In an interview last month at the Democratic National Convention, Ms. Davis asked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to comment on Mr. Trump’s plans to campaign in Howell, Michigan. A month earlier, a dozen demonstrators disguised in masks marched through part of the town holding up “Heil Hitler,” and “White Lives Matter” signs.
“Many people are aware that a month ago, in Howell, KKK protesters marched in the streets with the white robes on and suggested that they support Donald Trump. I’m curious if you make anything about that connection and him going in particularly to Howell tomorrow,” she asked Ms. Whitmer.
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In a television appearance four years earlier, Ms. Davis accused Mr. Trump of “giving a call to action” to White supremacists after the then-president said at a Sept. 20, 2020, presidential debate that the left-wing group antifa was a greater threat to the nation than the right-wing militia group Proud Boys.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Mr. Trump said during the debate. “But I’ll tell you what: Somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing [problem].”
The comment ignited a firestorm on social media and dominated much of the post-debate chatter on the cable news networks.
In an August 2019 interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Ms. Davis asked Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who was running to be governor of Georgia at the time, whether “President Trump is a White supremacist or a racist.”
The MRC pulled up interviews in which they say Ms. Davis offered “softball” questions to Kamala Harris, including an interview in Iowa in July 2023 on “ABC News Live Prime.”
She asked the vice president, then suffering from historically low approval ratings for a vice president, “How much of a role, if any, that you feel race and gender play in that?”
In the same interview, Ms. Davis asked Ms. Harris about hosting an abortion rights event in Iowa, which Ms. Davis called “this conversation about protecting reproductive freedom.”
She asked Ms. Harris, “What does it mean to you personally?”
When Ms. Harris won the vice presidency in November 2020, becoming the first woman to hold the office, Ms. Davis called it “profound” and “powerful.”
Media Research Center Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham said Ms. Davis’ line of questions raises concerns about whether she’ll ask critical questions of Ms. Harris, who has pivoted significantly on major issues and has only sat down for one television interview and one radio interview since replacing President Biden on the top of the ticket.
“I’m concerned that they are just infatuated with the idea of a female president,” Mr. Graham said. “And so that’s a bias. It’s a bias saying you’re so enamored by a female president. And that has to play in here, especially from Lindsay Davis, where she’s quite explicitly said this is history.”
According to MRC, Mr. Muir, the other debate moderator, also has signaled that he sides with Democrats on climate change and the legality of abortion, which are likely to be subjects during the debate.
After the Supreme Court kicked the decision on abortion legality back to the states in June of 2022, Mr. Muir characterized the crowd outside the Supreme Court as “one side declaring victory, the other side in disbelief that this is no longer a decision protected across this country between a woman and her doctor. … This decision opens potential challenges now to other settled rights in this country, including contraception and same-sex marriage.”
Mr. Muir has shown a pro-Biden bias, MRC said.
When President Biden was pressured by his party to exit from the 2024 race due to low poll numbers, Mr. Muir characterized Mr. Biden as a hero.
“Tonight gratitude is the word for so many people in this country, pointing to Joe Biden now and calling him a patriot who stepped in when democracy needed it,” Mr. Muir said following Mr. Biden’s July 24 speech about his decision not to run for a second term.
In a Sept. 6 press conference, Mr. Trump described Tuesday’s debate stage as “hostile territory,” and said ABC is “the worst” of the outlets who could moderate the debate.
He pointed out that ABC employs Donna Brazile, the Democratic strategist who, while working for CNN, slipped debate questions ahead of time to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Mr. Trump said he’ll appear at the ABC debate “because that’s the only one” Ms. Harris has agreed to do.
Mr. Trump called on Ms. Harris to debate him on Fox News on Sept. 4 but she did not agree to it. Harris campaign officials said Ms. Harris would participate in more debates if Mr. Trump showed up on Sept. 10.
Under the rules of the debate, candidates’ microphones will be muted when either is done answering a question to prevent interruptions and cross talk. There will be no live audience and no notes permitted.
ABC News did not respond to a request for comment.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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