Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., has promised to investigate whether the moderators of the ABC News presidential debate coordinated with the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris to leak questions and provide biased fact-checking.
"I will be sending a letter to @ABC and the Harris Campaign demanding all correspondence, records, and potential coordination between the two parties ahead of Tuesday's presidential debate,” Marshall posted on X Friday.
Marshall was reacting to a call from Mark Penn, a former top adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, for ABC to launch an internal probe into whether the debate was rigged. Penn, who worked for the Clintons from 1995-2008, told the "John Solomon Reports" podcast on Thursday that a review on internal texts and emails should be done by a third party to determine if the debate was skewed in favor of Harris.
Following Tuesday night's debate between former President Donald Trump and Harris, many critics have assessed the debate moderators as much as the two candidates. ABC News chose "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir and "ABC News Live Prime" anchor Linsey Davis to moderate the debate, and they were criticized for what many saw as favoring Harris and fact-checking only Trump.
Harris has called for a second debate, saying, "I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate because this election and what is at stake could not be more important."
Trump, on the other hand, posted on Truth Social Thursday: "KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!"
Critics of ABC have noted that Disney senior executive Dana Walden is "extraordinary friends" with Harris, according to The New York Times. The two have known each other for over 20 years, and their husbands have known each other since the 1980s.