Trump Threatens ABC's Broadcast License After Rocky Debate Performance

Trump's greatest enemy on Tuesday wasn't ABC. It was himself.

Former President Donald Trump gave a floundering, erratic performance in last night's debate. However, he's blaming an unlikely culprit for his uninspiring showing: ABC News.

"ABC took a big hit last night," Trump said during an interview on Fox and Friends Wednesday morning. "I mean, to be honest, they're a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that."

According to The Hill, ABC and other large networks don't have or need Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensing. Trump's call to shut down ABC is simply another in a long line of preposterous, dubiously legal, claims that his enemies should face government crackdowns—which, just recently, have ranged from calls to throw in jail everyone from flag-burners to "Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials," who allegedly caused his 2020 defeat. 

"It was a three-on-one, and that's okay, I've had worse odds in my life," Trump said. "I've had it before, but never so obvious. A lot of people are very angry about it. You have corrupt news organizations, you have a lot of bad people." Earlier in the interview, Trump called his first, much more successful debate with President Biden a "much more honorably run debate."

While ABC journalists David Muir and Linsey Davis faced backlash from right-wing commentators who argued they tanked Trump's performance, in reality, Trump's greatest enemy on Tuesday night was himself. 

While Harris often outright refused to answer tough questions—and did plenty of lying herself—Trump dove headfirst into conspiracy theories and personal grievance, coming out looking unorganized and unhinged. 

"Vice President Kamala Harris did not make a good case for herself at last night's presidential debate. But she did get former President Donald Trump to make the case against himself and that was enough," wrote Reason's Christian Britschgi on Wednesday. Britschgi noted that whenever Harris faced a tough question from the moderators, she tended to "offer a rudimentary defense of her record, perhaps engage in some pablum about Americans' hopes and dreams, and then bait Trump into going on extended 'too online' free association that's hard to follow for all but the most dedicated Truth Social users."

Whatever legitimate complaints there may be about mainstream media bias, Trump's performance on Tuesday came down to his own bad judgment. He was ill-prepared to take on a cognitively functional opponent and succumbed to his worst impulses.