Former top Clinton adviser calls on ABC to launch internal probe into whether debate was rigged

Mark Penn, a former top adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, called Thursday for ABC to launch a formal internal investigation into its news division's planning and execution of this week's presidential debate to determine if there was some effort at "rigging the outcome of this debate."

ABC News came under significant bipartisan criticism because its moderators fact-checked some of Donald Trump's statements but not a single pushback at any made by Kamala Harris.

Trump said Thursday that the debate was three-on-one and declined to participate in another one before the election. 

Anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis moderated the first debate between Harris and Trump, which drew 67.1 million viewers, making it the most watched presidential debate since 2008. But it has drawn scorn from both Republicans and Democrats for giving the appearance of bias.

"I actually think they should do a full internal investigation, hire an outside law firm. I don't know how much of this was planned in advance," Penn told the "John Solomon Reports" podcast.

"I don't know what they told the Harris campaign. I think the day after, suspicion here is really quite high, and I think a review of all their internal texts and emails really should be done by an independent party to find out to what extent they were planning on, in effect, you know, fact-checking just one candidate and in effect, rigging the outcome of this debate. I think the situation demands nothing less than that," he added.

Penn, chairman of the Harvard CAPS Harris Poll, also said Harris has done a "good job" defining Trump as the incumbent and herself as the change candidate even though she's the sitting vice president. But he described the mainstream media's coverage of Harris' campaign as laughable.

"It's a 50-50, race. He's [Trump] got more obvious tools to get across the finish line than she does and part of the thing here is that if the referees have their finger on the scale, it's harder to, you know, break through and overcome. And certainly, general media coverage has been fairly laughable," he said.

Penn, president and managing partner of The Stagwell Group, suggested the Trump campaign mail out to every voter the ACLU questionnaire that then-Sen. Harris, D-Calif., filled out and indicated she supports gender surgery for illegal immigrants and defunding Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Other publications have disclosed a questionable coziness between Harris and Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney and who oversees ABC News. The New York Times quoted Harris as calling their relationship "extraordinary friends,” and disclosed that Walden and Harris are neighbors in Brentwood, a wealthy Los Angeles enclave where Ms. Harris and her husband also own a residence. The Times also pointed out that The Waldens have donated money to Ms. Harris’s political campaigns since at least 2003, when she ran for district attorney in San Francisco.

PJMedia's Victoria Taft published yet more information about Harris' connections with ABC News undisclosed by the network. ABC moderator Linsey Davis bragged in 2021 on ABC's live coverage of the Biden Inauguration about being sorority sisters with Harris.

Mark Penn is not the only veteran Democratic pollster and advisor to criticize the lopsided moderation. In an editorial, Doug Schoen, an advisor to President Clinton and N.Y.C. Mayor Mike Bloomberg, lamented that Harris "was aided and abetted by two ABC News moderators who seemingly felt the need to fact-check virtually everything the former president said."