ABC moderator Linsey Davis admits fact-checking Trump was because of the previous debate

ABC News host Linsey Davis, who was one of the network's two moderators in Tuesday's presidential debate, admitted this week that her decision to fact-check former President Donald Trump was because of the lack of fact-checking in June's debate.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris had their first showdown on Tuesday in Philadelphia. But the former president and President Joe Biden debated earlier this year in Atlanta. The first presidential debate of this election cycle was hosted by CNN.

Davis, who moderated the debate alongside David Muir, has been accused of appearing biased in the fact-checking after a report found that Trump was corrected approximately five times by both moderators, and Harris was only fact-checked once. However, Davis did push Harris on her tendency to flip-flop her views on certain issues. 

The ABC anchor also noted on Wednesday that the corrections were because neither CNN moderator pushed back on inaccurate statements during the first debate against Biden.

"People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators," Davis told the Los Angeles Times.

Davis added that she and Muir did not catch every misstatement, but they prepared by dividing debate topics to study, and practiced through table-reads where they rehearsed their questions with producers and got feedback. Davis is most known in the debate for fact-checking Trump on abortion, where she told the former president that "there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born."

The comment has prompted outcry from the right, including a pro-life group calling for ABC News to correct the record, arguing Davis' statement was "inaccurate" because there have been documented cases where babies are born alive after a failed abortion attempt, only to die because they were not given any life-saving care.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.