ABC News steps into the spotlight with high stakes Trump-Harris debate

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

74% : Muir, the highest rated nightly news network anchor, has experience with Trump, scoring the first interview with the former president after his inauguration.
65% : "Trump has also baselessly suggested that Dana Walden, the Disney Entertainment co-chair who technically has ABC News in her portfolio and has been friends with Harris for years, would somehow give vice president the questions ahead of time.
56% : ABC News offered assurances to the Harris campaign that if there is significant cross talk between Harris and Trump, the network may choose to turn both mics on so that the millions of viewers watching at home can hear the exchange, the person said.
49% : ABC had planned to mostly mirror the rules used by CNN in its presidential debate in June between President Joe Biden and Trump, eschewing a live audience and muting the candidates' microphones while their rival is speaking -- a rule initially requested by Biden's team prior to the CNN debate.
39% : ABC will also be closely scrutinized by Trump and his allies.
34% : It's a big test for the Disney-owned network in what is the only scheduled debate between Harris and Trump of the 2024 race that could serve as a make-or-break moment for either campaign.
34% : In the days ahead of the debate, Trump has attacked the network, questioning its impartiality.
33% : Her campaign, according to people familiar with the matter, believed that muting the microphones will make Trump appear more disciplined, and expressed frustration that ABC was not willing to budge on the rule.
21% : (A Manhattan federal jury last year found that Trump sexually abused Carroll and held him liable for battery).
20% : And last month, Trump clashed with ABC senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott as she incisively questioned the former president during an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention over his past statements on race, calling Scott "nasty.
18% : And while Trump has sharply assailed the news media, calling journalists the "enemy of the people," he has had some particular gripes with ABC.
16% : "ABC is the worst network in terms of fairness," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity last week.
10% : "Unlike some of their ABC News colleagues though, Trump has not gone after Muir or Davis -- the latter of whom has never interviewed Trump.
4% : Trump is also suing George Stephanopoulos over the ABC News anchor's assertion that a jury concluded Trump had "raped" E. Jean Carroll.

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