Harris and Trump aren't the only ones with a lot to lose in next week's debate. ABC News too

FILE – ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir, left, speaks to audience members while standing with ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis, Friday, Feb. 7, 2020, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Hours after ABC News released the rules for next Tuesday’s presidential debate, resolving a final dispute in Donald Trump’s favor, the former president went on the attack … against ABC News.

“I think a lot of people will watch to see how mean they are, how unfair they are,” he said Wednesday during a town hall meeting on Fox News.

It’s a not-so-subtle reminder that Trump and Kamala Harris aren’t the only ones with a lot to lose in Philadelphia next week. So do ABC News and moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, in what is the only debate scheduled between the two presidential candidates this fall.

Several media outlets will televise and stream it. But unlike previous years, when presidential debates were hosted by a bipartisan committee, this is an exclusive ABC News production. There will be no live audience.

“This is a huge opportunity for ABC News,” said Ben Sherwood, former president of ABC News and now publisher and CEO of The Daily Beast. “It’s like hosting, moderating and producing the Super Bowl of politics. It gives the network some shine at a time when television is in decline.”

That is, of course, if all goes well.

ABC sees this as a “huge responsibility”

The ABC debate was held last spring, when President Joe Biden was the most likely Democratic nominee. When he pulled out, it was unclear whether the debate would happen. Harris and Trump eventually gave the green light, though the Republican’s repeated criticism of ABC last month raised questions about it again.

All of this had little effect on ABC’s planning, said Rick Klein, the network’s Washington bureau chief. “There really hasn’t been a lot of upheaval on our side,” he said.

Biden and Trump debated on June 27, which seems like a lifetime ago. The event was hosted by CNN, though it is remembered more for Biden’s faltering performance, which ultimately led him to end his campaign, than for anything the network or its moderators, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, did.

“Ultimately, it’s about helping to create a forum for candidates to communicate with the public,” Klein said. “It is a huge responsibility, a responsibility that makes us humble.”

An estimated 51.3 million people tuned in to watch Biden and Trump in June. But that was before many people were really interested in the election, and there was little excitement about the potential rematch of the 2020 campaign. Tuesday’s debate will almost certainly reach more people, whether or not it comes close to the record-breaking 84 million viewership for Hillary Clinton’s first face-off against Trump in 2016.

Muir “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings for eight years, making him America’s most popular news anchor. “World News Tonight” has a larger audience than anything else on prime-time television.

One of the secrets of its success is the ABC’s efforts to make it appear apolitical. Tuesday’s audience will be the largest in its history — including people who don’t know Muir because they seek information elsewhere — and it will be for a political event at a time of polarization.

Davis is less well-known, though she anchors ABC’s 24-hour newscast, replaces Muir and has hosted presidential nomination debates. Many will see her in action Tuesday for the first time.

Although more complicated under Trump, the role of the debate moderator is often akin to that of baseball umpires: you can tell they’ve done a good job even if you don’t really notice them. If Muir or Davis are prominent in Wednesday morning’s stories, that’s probably not a good sign.

“It’s a real minefield,” said Tom Bettag, former head of ABC News “Night line” producer. “Ask Chris Wallace.”

Wallace was well-respected, seen as fair-minded, and in 2020, when he moderated the first Biden-Trump debate, he was working at Fox News. “so that Trump supporters cannot accuse him of being a liberal,” Bettag said. “And it still exploded quite violently.” Trump’s frequent interruptions infuriated Biden and led to criticism that Wallace had lost control of the evening.

Moderators will be “there to facilitate”

That’s less likely to happen this year because debate rules require a candidate’s microphone to be muted when his opponent is speaking, something Trump’s campaign has sought because interruptions turn off many voters.

An open mic yielded one of Harris’ most memorable exchanges during her 2020 debate with Vice President Mike Pence. “Mr. Vice President, I am speaking.” she said when Pence interrupted one of her answers, a moment many women can relate to in business situations with men.

Although Bash and Tapper occasionally tried to bring Trump or Biden back into questioning when politicians ducked during the June CNN debate, they did not correct falsehoods or misstatements, many of which were highlighted in post-debate analysis. While Klein did not commit to the same policy, he said: “It’s a debate between them and we’re here to facilitate the conversation.”

Even before his appearance on Fox News this week, Trump had repeatedly criticized ABC News, even though he had twice agreed to participate in a debate on the network.

He specifically targeted political journalists George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl. The former president filed a defamation lawsuit against Stephanopoulos last spring over the journalist’s comments that Trump was held responsible for sexually abusing the advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. ABC said Stephanopoulos was not involved in debate preparation.

Trump also addressed Harris’ alleged friendship with Dana Walden, a top executive at Walt Disney Co., ABC’s parent company, whose oversight recently expanded to ABC News. ABC has said Walden was not involved in any coverage decisions.

To some extent, Trump’s comments can be seen as “working the referees” or appeal to supporters who don’t like the press. ABC’s nightmare scenario would be for Trump to go after him on Tuesday if he senses things aren’t going well for him.

“From our perspective, we just have to do our job and do it to the best of our ability,” Klein said.

He declined to provide details on how ABC’s preparations are going, such as who has been assigned to represent Harris or Trump in the mock debates.

Bettag, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland who is teaching a course on presidential campaign coverage this fall, has been involved in these preparations. He advises Muir and Davis to take deep breaths.

“The most important thing is to stay calm, which is difficult to do because they risk being yelled at.” he said. “It’s really important to try to keep your voice low and stay calm.”

Harris and Trump aren’t the only ones with a lot to lose in next week’s debate. ABC News too | News, Sports, Jobs

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