In September 2024, a quote from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene went viral on the RuNet, saying that an employee of the television company hosting the presidential debate had been killed in an accident. According to her, the deceased assured that Harris had been sent a list of sample questions in advance. We have verified the accuracy of this story.
The first and so far only debate between US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris took place on the night of September 11, Moscow time. Event organizer spoke ABC television company. A few days later, reports spread on the Internet about the death of one of the employees of this media corporation. For example, on September 16 in the Telegram channel “Dmitry Vasilets”(157,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), the following post appeared: “Elections in the USA are always secret murders, and in the 21st century all this becomes public. An ABC employee who claimed a list of sample questions was sent to Kamala Harris ahead of the debate has died in a car accident, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said. Another accidental death. This bloody trail stretches back for a very long time from the US Democratic Party.”
According to the TGStat service, at least 160 similar posts appeared on Telegram, which in total received more than 800,000 views. Thus, Taylor Greene was quoted by the channels “Topics. Main (Glavmedia)"(157,000 views), "Mardan"(83,000), "The goat screamed"(66,000), "For real"(56,000), "Tucker Carlson for Russia"(56,000), "Freshness» (32,000), etc. Channel Lomovka (49,000 views), echoing the words of the congresswoman, asked the question: “Is the season open for political assassinations?” Similar messages can be found on VKontakte (examples here, here And here).
Marjorie Taylor Greene - Member of the US House of Representatives from the 14th congressional district of Georgia. She consists of in the Republican Party, adheres to extreme right views and is supporter of various conspiracy theories. Media called politician is the most devoted supporter of former President Donald Trump in the US Congress.
On the afternoon of September 15, X Congresswoman posted on her social media account. wrote: “An ABC whistleblower who claimed Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of the debate has died in a car crash, according to media reports.” Taylor Greene's tweet received 4.6 million views. However, she did not name the publications she referred to, and was not the first to report this in X. For example, back on September 13, a user under the nickname wrote about the same thing without citing a source @RetroCoast (336,000 views). His tweet specified that the accident occurred early that day in the vicinity of Bethesda, Maryland.
Apparently, the primary source of this news was the website County Local News, where it was released on September 13 note under the headline "ABC News Whistleblower in Kamala Harris Debate Questioning Scandal Dies in Maryland Crash." At the time of writing this analysis, the material was deleted, but it was preserved archived copies. According to the text, the incident occurred early in the morning of September 13 in the vicinity of the city of Bethesda. It is also alleged that the accident happened just days after it was initially reported that Harris had received debate questions in advance. County Local News says the identity of the alleged informant and the details of his death are being kept confidential - essentially that's all the information available about the incident in the 1,100-plus word article.
According to services with domain registration data, the County Local News website was created in January 2023. Resource slogan reads: "Local news from the right sources" with content covering events around the world. In the section "Who are we"Not one of the editorial staff is listed, and in user agreement states: “We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any information published on our website. You acknowledge that your use of the content is at your own risk." In the story about the death of an ABC employee, many paragraphs were written twice, but in slightly different words, and present many advertising blocks. NewsGuard, a company that studies the spread of misinformation on the Internet, installedthat the County Local News website is built using artificial intelligence (AI) language models that mimic human communication. For example, this is proven by the film published in March 2023 article under the headline: “Death News: Sorry, I cannot fulfill this request as it is against ethical and moral principles. Vaccine genocide is a conspiracy theory that is not based on scientific evidence and can harm public health. As an AI language model, it is my responsibility to provide factual and reliable information.”
About four and a half hours after his first tweet about the death of ABC employee Taylor Greene wrote in replays that this story turned out to be untrue, and added: “I'm glad to hear that. We need a serious investigation into the whistleblower's report that Kamala Harris received debate questions from ABC in advance!” The congresswoman decided not to delete her original post, where a Community Notes note appeared about the presence of misinformation in the post. However, her second tweet received nine times fewer views. Most of the publications mentioned at the beginning of this analysis came out after clarification from Taylor Greene, but her refutation is not mentioned in these messages.
"Verified" did not find any convincing evidence that the ABC informant about whom the congresswoman wrote even exists.
A week before the debate, Trump statedthat his opponent will receive the topics in advance. Moderators stopped these assumptions at the beginning of the event, but after supporters of the former president called leading Harris campaign operatives. Moreover, Trump himself saidthat he believed Harris was "terribly familiar" with the issues. “Absolutely not,” stated ABC News representative to The Daily Beast. “Harris was not sent any questions before the debate.” Rules readthat no topics or issues will be communicated in advance to staffs or candidates. An ABC spokesman also said that none of Harris or Trump's advisers or subordinates had contact with the moderators. An unnamed TV company employee told the fact-checking project the same thing. Snopes and publication USA Today.
However, on September 12, the Leading Report, which had previously repeatedly shared misinformation, reported in X's "breaking news": "An ABC whistleblower will release an alleged sworn affidavit alleging that Harris' campaign was given sample questions that were 'essentially the same questions asked during the debate,' as well as assurances that Trump would be 'fact-checked' while she would not." The tweet collected more than 15 million views, a screenshot of it later shared Trump’s verified profile on the social network Truth Social, and added another 4.6 million views to the news repost billionaire Bill Ackman. In this case, the primary source was the X account @DocNetyoutube, whose description indicates that its author supports Trump. Blogger stated, allegedly signed a non-disclosure agreement with the whistleblower's lawyer and will release his affidavit by the end of the week. In subsequent tweets, @DocNetyoutube said:
- He the only one, who was contacted by the ABC informant;
- He received death threats and appeals from lawyers threatening to sue him, and at home his tried find bailiffs;
- television company does not refute the substance of his statements (although her spokesman said none of the debate participants received questions in advance);
- the testimony was notarized certified the day before the debate;
- with him contacted Democrats calling for an internal ABC investigation;
- despite messages on the Internet, the informant didn't die V car accidents.
As a result, September 15 @DocNetyoutube published, according to him, six pages of affidavits (also allegedly exist seven more), where all the data of the alleged informant and the notary were erased. This post has received almost 10 million views, and repost Bill Ackman - 7 million. The second paragraph of the document states that the applicant has worked for ABC News for over ten years in various technical and administrative positions. However, the very next sentence states: “Since acquiring ABC News in 1996, I have seen significant changes in the nature of the organization's news reporting.” Based on this statement, it follows that the informant must have worked for the company for almost 30 years. In 1996, the ABC television network, which includes ABC News, acquired Disney Corporation.
One of the commentators pointed out this discrepancy to @DocNetyoutube, and he replied: “Yes, it seemed pointless to me too.” Another user asked why there was no notary seal on the papers. “The notary seal was blocked because New York State law requires a notary to indicate for whom he made the seal, thereby protecting the whistleblower,” stated @DocNetyoutube.
In addition, Page 4 claims that Harris' campaign banned questions related to her time as Attorney General in San Francisco from being asked at the debate. Actually a politician occupied the positions of District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California. This state's attorney general's office located in the city of Sacramento.
Thus, despite Taylor Greene’s statement, which was circulated on the RuNet, there were no news reports in reputable media about the death of an ABC employee who allegedly stated that Harris’ questions were leaked. This message originally appeared (and was then deleted) on a site where the materials are compiled by artificial intelligence. As for the existence of a certain informant from ABC, at the time of writing this analysis it had not been confirmed, and the evidence presented in support of this version seems doubtful.
Cover photo: @KamalaHarris (X)
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