Donald Trump has resorted to mocking the ABC News moderator who fact-checked him during his first debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
ABC News moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump multiple times during his debate with Harris. Now, the former president is railing against him, calling the broadcaster a “foolish fool” during a press conference at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, California on Friday.
“You wouldn’t have to need a bureau of justice statistics to know that crime is worse than it’s ever been,” Trump said. “They probably watched the debate and probably heard this foolish man, this foolish fool, make that statement to me that, ‘no no, crime is coming down, the FBI said it was coming down.’”
“The FBI defrauded everybody,” he claimed. “Because what they did is they used statistics not including some of the worst areas and some of the worst cities.”
Muir fact-checked Trump’s claim that crime is rising in the US during Tuesday’s debate.
“Crime here is up and through the roof,” Trump said during the debate. “Despite their fraudulent statements that they made. Crime in this country is through the roof. And we have a new form of crime. It’s called migrant crime. And it’s happening at levels that nobody thought possible.”
“As you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country,” Muir responded.
At the Friday press conference, Trump went on to say Muir has “good hair but not as good as it was five years ago.”
The ABC News journalist also called out Trump’s false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating pet cats and dogs.
“ABC News did reach out to the city manager there,” Muir said during the debate. “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.”
“Well, I’ve seen people on television. People on television say, ‘My dog was taken and used for food,’ so maybe he said that and maybe that’s a good thing to say for a city manager,” Trump responded, continuing to peddle the false claim.
Fellow moderator Linsey Davis also fact-checked Trump’s false claim that Democrats want to execute babies after they’re born.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis told Trump.
Davis went on to endure racist and sexist abuse online for fact-checking the former president.
The Independent has contacted ABC News for comment.