Ted Cruz, Bill Ackman, Elon Musk Push Typo-Riddled ‘ABC Whistleblower’ Document Claiming Debate Moderators Sabotaged Trump

AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib; AP Photo/Richard Drew, File; AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

A dubious document apparently unearthed by a random Twitter/X account sent several prominent figures on the right into a tizzy on Sunday, despite very obvious problems with its legitimacy.

The document in question was an alleged affidavit originally featured on a questionable-looking website called “County Local News,” which Newsguard describes as an “unreliable” and “AI-generated content farm” that peddles in “misinformation,” and shared by an account called “Black Insurrectionist – I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS.” The affidavit purports to be from a whistleblower who worked at ABC News, and claims that Vice President Kamala Harris got questions ahead of the Sept. 10 ABC News debate.

The “affidavit,” which is riddled with typos, includes several outlandish claims, including the allegation that ABC agreed to a condition of the Harris campaign that it not ask any questions “regarding the perceived health of President Joe Biden.”

There is nothing to suggest that any of these documents are legitimate or came from any reliable sources. The “affidavit” itself claims it was “signed and notarized on September 9th, 2024,” a day before the Sept. 10 debate, and that this supposed whistleblower “sent a certified letter to myself, postmarked September 9, 2024” via both U.S. mail and FedEx, plus another copy of the letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). Johnson has neither tweeted about these claims nor reported that he received any such letter.

Anything that could be used to verify the accusations in this “affidavit” is blacked out: the so-called whistleblower’s name and all identifying details, the signatures, and the name, license number, and seal of the notary public. Any basic computer and printer from the past thirty years could have been used to type up this exact document, print it out, scrawl some signatures on it, and then black out sections. Posting a scan of it online proves nothing except that someone owned a computer and printer and had a little free time.

To be clear, what we have is a document that could be created with any computer at least newer than Pearl Jam’s debut album, which says it was created the day before the debate but offers nothing to prove that, makes claims that seize upon the fevered social media posts of MAGA conspiracy theorists, and provides zero details that would allow anyone to verify this person even exists, much less works for ABC News in a capacity to have knowledge of the debate negotiations and planning.

Just to add to the maelstrom of nonsense swirling around the story, other recent social media posts claimed that the whistleblower was subsequently killed in a “fiery car accident” after creating the “affidavit.” It was an all-too-convenient tale to defend calls for this person to come forward — but then that claim was walked back because the sourcing was so shaky even unhinged conspiracy theorist site Gateway Pundit called it out as “a complete hoax.”

None of these issues stopped the right-wing fringe from jumping all over this story and sharing the “affidavit,” including Harvard Law-educated lawyer Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Chaya Raichik’s @LibsofTikTok account, Benny Johnson (recently revealed to have been working for a content company that was allegedly part of a multimillion dollar Russian propaganda scheme), billionaire Bill Ackman, and X owner Elon Musk.

Ackman wrote that ABC News anchor and debate co-moderator David Muir should issue a response to the “allegations” and demanded that Disney CEO Bob Iger respond; Cruz called for “multiple senior people” at ABC to be fired.

Mediaite reached out to Cruz’s Senate office for comment but did not receive a reply. Musk also did not respond to a request for comment. Ackman, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.

Since his poor performance at the debate, Trump has made similar claims that ABC News provided Harris with questions beforehand. “Absolutely not,” said an ABC News spokesperson sharply rejecting these accusations. “Harris was not given any questions before the debate.”

This notion that the questions were provided in advance, according to the conspiracy theories circulating online, was how Harris was able to pummel Trump on questions about the economy, abortion, immigration — questions that anyone possessing a passing familiarity with U.S. politics could have guessed were going to be asked of these particular candidates.

ABC News posted the full transcript of the debate. A sampling of the questions that were posed:

To Trump: “Would you veto a national abortion ban if it came to [your desk]…if I could just get a yes or no. Because your running mate JD Vance has said that you would veto if it did come to your desk.”

To Harris: “Would you support any restrictions on a woman’s right to an abortion?”

To Harris [about immigration and border security]: “Why did the administration wait until six months before the election to act and would you have done anything differently from President Biden on this?”

To Trump: “Why did you try to kill that bill — and successfully so — that would have put thousands of additional agents and officers on the border?”

To Harris: “In your last run for president you said you wanted to ban fracking. Now you don’t. You wanted mandatory government buyback programs for assault weapons. Now your campaign says you don’t. You supported decriminalizing border crossings. Now you’re taking a harder line. I know you say that your values have not changed. So then why have so many of your policy positions changed?”

To Trump [about Jan. 6, 2021]: “You were the president. You were watching it unfold on television. It’s a very simple question as we move forward toward another election. Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day? Yes or no.”

These are completely predictable questions that directly challenged the candidates on their past positions and comments — like debates always do.

Reviewing the transcript now, one can also see how a significant portion of the discussion involved the moderators asking a follow-up question to what Harris or Trump just said, or asking them to respond to the other’s comments, further discrediting accusations that the questions were scripted. The moderators didn’t force Trump to talk about eating cats and dogs or accuse Harris of hating Israel.

The “affidavit” also claimed there was an agreement between Harris and ABC that only Trump would be fact-checked. CNN’s fact-checker Daniel Dale found Trump “made at least 33 false claims” during the debate, compared to “at least one” for Harris. In Dale’s analysis, Trump turned in a “staggeringly dishonest debate performance” featuring “just lie after lie on subject after subject,” far beyond “political spin,” but rather “false claims” that were “untethered to reality.” As Dale’s CNN colleague Abby Phillip tweeted, “when there is asymmetrical lying, there will be asymmetrical fact checking.”