David Muir fact-checks Trump during debate on claims of people eating pets

Syracuse native David Muir fact-checked former President Donald Trump during one of the standout moments of Tuesday’s presidential debate.

Muir, the anchor for ABC’s “World News Tonight,” co-moderated the debate between the Republican presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. Muir corrected Trump in real time as Trump pushed a conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

“They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump claimed.

Muir fact-checked Trump immediately afterwards, stating that ABC News had contacted Springfield’s city manager about those allegations.

“He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Muir told Trump.

“I’ve seen people on television saying ‘My dog was taken and used for food,’” Trump responded.

Muir also challenged Trump during the debate on his refusal to admit losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, despite admitting on three recent occasions that he lost “by a whisker” and “came up a little bit short.” Trump said he was being sarcastic in those recent statements.

“I didn’t detect the sarcasm,” Muir said.

The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, and more publications praised Muir and co-moderator Linsey Davis, anchor of ABC News Live’s “Prime,” for keeping the candidates on-topic and offering fact-checks in real time. Davis especially got attention for rebuking Trump’s repeated claims on abortion that Democrats support killing babies after they are born.

“There is no state in the country where it is legal to kill a baby after it was born,” Davis told Trump.

It was Muir’s first time moderating a presidential debate in the general election, after previously moderating Democratic and Republican presidential primary debates.

Muir has anchored “World News Tonight” since Diane Sawyer retired in 2014; he has led the ABC program to become the most-watched evening newscast for seven years in a row and No. 1 in all key target demographics. “World News Tonight” spent 31 weeks in the 2022-2023 season as the No. 1 most-watched program of the week in all of U.S. broadcast and cable, excluding sports.

Muir, a former anchor and reporter at Syracuse’s WTVH (now part of CNY Central), is a graduate of Onondaga Central High School and Ithaca College. He was the commencement speaker at Syracuse University in 2022 and owns a home in Skaneateles.

“I’m no different from the intern in Syracuse who then became the rookie reporter in Syracuse,” Muir told syracuse.com in 2016. “I think the sensibilities of having grown up in Upstate New York and the concerns, the fears, the hopes of the people there are reflected all over the country. And that still drives me to this day.”