Did you hear the one about the dead ABC debate whistleblower??
Following the presidential debate, a thinly sourced rumor claimed that a “whistleblower” at ABC News came forward to reveal that the event was rigged in favor of Kamala Harris.
Two days after the debate, a MAGAt claimed to have access to an “affidavit” from the whistleblower, and other MAGAts amplified the message.
The MAGAt, who goes by the X name Black Insurrectionist, spread the following: “The affidavit states how the Harris campaign was given sample question [sic] which were essentially the same questions that were given during the debate and separate assurances of fact checking Donald Trump and that she would NOT be fact checked.” Also, according to Black Insurrectionist, Harris was promised she wouldn’t be questioned about the health of Joe Biden or her tenure as “Attorney General in San Francisco”—a position that doesn’t exist.
Eventually the “affidavit” was published, a clumsily redacted, typo-filled, strangely-formatted document, dated September 9.
The “affidavit” was viewed millions of times, and shared by bigly MAGAts, including George Papadopoulos, MAGAt Benny Johnson (who was working for Tenet Media, named in an indictment targeted Russian misinformation), and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. Elon Musk, “free speech” advocate, reposted Bill Ackman.
The claim took a turn for the farcical when Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that the whistleblower died in a car accident soon after revealing his secrets. Oh, my!
Marjorie’s “reports” turned out to be a WordPress blog whose URL is “County Local News,” but whose homepage title reads “Bgrnd Search,” and runs malware.
Thanks to Google’s algorithms, searches for the words “ABC whistleblower” turn up results on an unrelated 64-year-old who died in a Virginia car accident, as well as links to another story about whistleblower lawsuits filed against the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) authority.
ABC News’ statement debunks the claims of a fictitious whistleblower which continue to alarm Marjorie Taylor Greene, who calls for a full investigation.
“ABC News followed the debate rules that both campaigns agreed on and which clearly state: No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.”
