President-elect Donald Trump attacked ABC News' David Muir when he referred to his claim that “violent crime is on the decline” during the presidential election. ABC presidential debate in September.
While there Pre-opening rally on SundayTrump acknowledged that there have been “hundreds and even thousands” of immigrant crimes, noting that crime is on the rise even without the presence of illegal immigrants.
Trump then recalled how Muir fact-checked him during his presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in September.
“Do you remember I did the debate, and I had David Muir from the ABC say: 'No, no crime has been recorded.' And I said: 'No, no, you've gone through the roof. Crime has gone through the roof.' David said: 'No, no crime has been recorded.' I said it was over the roof. Then he said, “Oh, I don’t agree with that.” Trump said, “The next day they announced that crime was up 40%. This whole thing is very bad.”
US President-elect Donald Trump arrives for a rally the day before his inauguration for a second term, in Washington, United States, January 19, 2025. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
ABC'S DAVID MUIR dismisses post-discussion 'hype' around moderators
Muir, who served as co-moderator with Lynsey Davis at the time, insisted during the debate that Trump was not accurate when he claimed crime was “through the roof.”
“President Trump, you know, the FBI says that overall violent crime is going down in this country,” Moyer said.
“The FBI — they were spoofing the data. They didn't include the worst cities. They didn't include the cities with the worst crimes. It was a fraud. Just like the 818,000 jobs they said they created, Trump's response showed 'it's a scam.'
David Muir and Lynsey Davis, co-moderators of the ABC presidential debate, came under fire for their constant fact-checking of former President Trump but refused to correct Vice President Kamala Harris. (ABC News)
While ABC News did not report the crime rate spiked “the next day,” the FBI did release a review one month later in October He appears to support Trump's original comments. After initially reporting a 2.1% decrease in violent crimes in 2022, the FBI later acknowledged there was a 4.5% increase for a net total of about 80,029 more violent crimes in 2022 compared to 2021.
Muir did not acknowledge the change on his “World News Tonight” show after the review was released.
Fox News Digital She has reached out to ABC News for comment.
Trump did Muir attacked repeatedly For his fact-checking during the debate while ignoring Harris.
ABC's David Muir sees decline in newscast ratings after controversial debate performance
“During the debate, I mentioned that and David Muir, who is a real lightweight,” Trump said in September. “I had it one against three, but I thought we did a great job. But David Muir from the ABC, the fake news, when I said crime is rampant in our country, he corrected me, he corrected me a lot and it was true what he said.” You said he didn't correct (Vice President Kamala Harris) once, and what she said was wrong, completely wrong. Charlottesville was wrong, about all sorts of things, almost everything it said, and it has never been corrected.
Trump frequently attacked Moyer after FBI audits showed a rise in violent crime. (Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty Images; Beat McNamee/Getty Images)
“But he corrected me about crime. He said, 'No, no, crime rates haven't gone up.' I said that crime had risen significantly, and he said: “I would like to state for your information that crime has not risen.”
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