Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., blasted ABC News for giving Vice President Kamala Harris a pass on her false claim about no U.S. troops being in combat zones, accusing the network of acting as a mouthpiece for the Harris campaign.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has launched a scathing attack on ABC News for its failure to fact-check Vice President Kamala Harris' false statement during the presidential debate, accusing the network of acting as a mouthpiece for the Harris campaign.
"ABC allowing Kamala Harris to say 'no U.S. troops are in combat zones' without any pushback or fact-checking is outrageous," Cotton wrote on X Tuesday. "This goes beyond bias--it's a media company effectively joining the Harris campaign."
Sen. Tom Cotton Rips ABC News for Botched Debate Fact-Check, Declares Harris Unfit to Lead
ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, who moderated the debate, fact-checked former President Trump multiple times while failing to fact-check Harris at all. On Sunday, ABC News' Martha Raddatz acknowledged that the network's fact-checkers found Harris' claim "to be false" despite the moderators not correcting her at the time.
"There are currently 900 U.S. military personnel in Syria, 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq. All have been under regular threat from drones and missiles for months," Raddatz said. "We also have action in the Red Sea. Also, every single day, the Navy SEALs, Delta Forces special operators can be part of any sort of deadly raid."
Sen. Tom Cotton Rips ABC News for Botched Debate Fact-Check, Declares Harris Unfit to Lead
The fury over the moderators' one-sided fact-checking came back into focus after Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., on Tuesday shared footage of American soldiers "under fire" in the Middle East, arguing that it disproves Harris' claims U.S. troops are not currently in harm's way around the globe.
"These attacks occurred within the last couple of weeks/months," Banks posted on X. "Reminder, Kamala Harris lied to the entire world last week when she said that we currently have no active duty troops deployed in war zones! Unfit to lead!"
Sen. Tom Cotton Rips ABC News for Botched Debate Fact-Check, Declares Harris Unfit to Lead
Cotton similarly accused Harris of lying in a weekend appearance on "Sunday Morning Futures," telling host Maria Bartiromo, "I don't know where those two moderators were fact-checking Kamala Harris with that lie… I guess they were busy wrongly fact checking President Trump."
Cotton said Harris' comment likely came as a "surprise to the thousands of troops we still have in places like Iraq and Syria that are getting repeatedly hit by mortars and drones by Iranian-backed terrorists because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have appeased and emboldened by the Ayatollahs for four years."
"It's just one more example of why she's a weak, failed San Francisco liberal who is not up to the job of being our commander in chief," he said.
The controversy over Harris' false claim and ABC News' handling of the debate has sparked a broader debate about media bias and the role of moderators in presidential debates. Critics have accused the media of being too lenient on Democratic candidates while being overly critical of Republicans.
The Biden campaign has defended Harris' claim, arguing that she was referring to U.S. troops not being in "full-scale combat operations" like in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush and Obama administrations. However, military experts have rejected this argument, saying that Harris' statement was misleading and that U.S. troops are still engaged in combat operations in multiple countries around the world.
