A wildly flimsy internet rumor launched by a random pro-Trump X poster about an “ABC whistleblower” who purportedly claims that the network rigged the September 10 presidential debate went viral in MAGA spaces over the last several days, with Donald Trump and his allies floating congressional investigations and potential regulatory retribution against ABC News in response. 

The right-wing pundits and Republican politicians pushing the story don’t actually know who the “ABC whistleblower” is, if their claims are credible, or even if the person actually exists — but the purported document supposedly supports their preferred narrative that ABC News’ moderators were biased, so they’re running with it. 

The saga, while laughable, shows the right's ongoing tendency to embrace and elevate anything that confirms their worldview. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) laid out that strategy in a Sunday interview on CNN, admitting that he pushed a debunked, racist, and demagogic claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets because he wants to “create stories” that drive news coverage of immigration.

In the instance of the absurd “whistleblower” claim, Trump's allies trotted it out as they tried to cover for his flailing September 10 debate performance. Right-wing media figures lashed out at ABC News and its moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis with deranged invective and absurd conspiracy theories. And Trump himself said in an interview the following morning that “they ought to take away their license,” reiterating his support for government retribution against news outlets that displease him. 

Then on September 12, a “verified” but obscure X poster with the handle “Black Insurrectionist--I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS” claimed they would release “an affidavit from an ABC whistleblower” by the end of the weekend. “The affidavit states how the Harris campaign was given sample question which were essentially the same questions that were given during the debate and separate assurances of fact checking Donald Trump and that she would NOT be fact checked,” the poster wrote.

Right-wing pundits had no reason to take claims from “Black Insurrectionist” at face value — other than the fact that the story confirmed their preexisting biases.

A casual review of recent activity from the “Black Insurrectionist” account — which has posted to X more than 32,700 times over the 10 months since its November 2023 launch — reveals a strong tendency for unhinged, conspiracy-minded, and violent pro-Trump rants. 

One August post describes Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as “disgusting creatures” and their supporters as “the delightful cesspool of humanity we are fighting here today” who may be “just plain flat out disgusting pedophiles.” 

Other posts detail the need for “70 million people to do mass civil disobedience that will halt this country” to prevent Harris from winning, perhaps via a mass withdrawal of cash from banks aimed at damaging the economy unless “the government just does what we want.”

It beggars belief that this is the person a credible “whistleblower” would entrust with an exclusive story of this magnitude, rather than a mainstream news outlet that would verify it or even an established right-wing one willing to promote the claims without due diligence.

The previewed “whistleblower” claim nonetheless went viral in MAGA spaces — and got all the way to Trump himself in less than seven hours. The former president claimed on Truth Social that evening that  “people are saying that Comrade Kamala Harris had the questions from Fake News ABC” and that “ABC’s license should be TERMINATED” if that is the case, before reposting an account claiming that an “ABC whistleblower allegedly will release an affidavit” showing that “the Harris campaign was given sample questions.”

ABC News denied the allegations, with a spokesperson telling The Daily Beast, “Absolutely not. Harris was not given any questions before the debate.”

On Sunday morning, hours before the affidavit was to be released, a new wrinkle emerged as MAGA figures began suggesting the “whistleblower” had (conveniently for ABC) died. 

“The ABC whistleblower who claimed Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of the debate has died in a car crash according to news reports,” wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on X, echoing random accounts. 

Please note that this makes absolutely no sense: How could reports detail the death of a person who had never been identified?

NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny ultimately tracked down the source of the story, an article headlined “ABC News Whistleblower in Kamala Harris Debate Question Scandal Dies in Maryland Crash” posted on a “junk AI-written website.” A few hours later, Greene acknowledged that “this story appears to be false and I’m glad to hear it” but added, “We need a serious investigation into the whistleblower’s report that Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of time from ABC!”

The totally implausible idea that news reports had revealed the mysterious death of a “whistleblower” who had never been publicly named served to drive more attention to the “affidavit,” as Greene demonstrated. 

“Black Insurrectionist” then released what they claimed was the “affidavit” that afternoon. It appears to be a Microsoft Word document whose text features internal inconsistencies and grammatical errors. All identifying information about its author and any evidence it had been notarized or submitted to a court is redacted. 

The purported affiant claims to have worked in “technical and administrative positions” but nonetheless offers detailed claims about communications between ABC News and the Harris campaign. And remember, the document was published by a random pseudonymous X poster with a history of unhinged statements.

“Black Insurrectionist” explained that the report could be trusted due to the poster’s record, which included apparently having prior knowledge of the July attempt on Trump’s life: “A couple days before Trump attempted assassination, I made a post (which I had never done before) was something big was about to go off.” 

And indeed, that was enough for the likes of MAGA figures like Benny Johnson (2.7 million X followers) and Eric Trump (4.6 million) and Bill Ackman (1.4 million). 

By Monday morning, Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) was telling Fox host Maria Bartiromo that Congress would investigate claims from the ABC “whistleblower.”

“Fortunately we now have a whistleblower, and I'm going to tell you something, Maria, we're going to do what we can to bring ABC in and have them answer some questions and as well as have this whistleblower and see what's going on as they're trying to tear down the First Amendment,” Meuser told Bartiromo on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria. 

“I'm glad you mentioned this because Fox News is reaching out to ABC for response to that affidavit,” she replied. “We've reached out to ABC to verify the affidavit and for a statement on these accusations, congressman, but this affidavit and this whistleblower story is gaining traction.”

“Yes, absolutely, and as it should,” Meuser replied. “We actually don't need a hearing to know what we saw. But we're going to look to do it so as we can provide some evidence as to how manipulative they are.”

In the past, Bartiromo’s willingness to run with extraordinary but evidence-free claims that happened to bolster her preexisting views helped secure a massive defamation settlement from her employer. 

Apparently that wasn’t enough to change her approach. But her behavior, while deplorable, is not anomalous — this total rejection of evidentiary standards in order to “create stories” is a hallmark of the conspiratorial right, from lies about election fraud to Haitians eating pets.