ABC correspondent suspended after bashing Trump, Miller as 'world-class' haters

ABC News correspondent Terry Moran has been suspended after attacking top Trump aide Stephen Miller as “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred.”

The decision came after Mr. Moran, shortly after midnight, criticized Mr. Miller and Mr. Trump in a social media post, which was later deleted.

“The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism,” Mr. Moran said in the 12:06 a.m. Sunday post.  

Mr. Moran, who interviewed Mr. Trump in April, said Mr. Miller is “one of the people who conceptualizes the impulse of the Trumpist movement and translates them into policy.”

“But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller,” he said. “It’s not brains. It’s bile.”

“Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred,” he said. “He’s a world-class hater. You can get this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”

In a statement, ABC News said it “for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others.”

“The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards,” the statement read.

Rushing to Mr. Miller’s defense, Vice President J.D. Vance said Mr. Moran’s post amounted to a “vile smear” that he said was itself “dripping with hatred.”

“Remember that every time you watch ABC’s coverage of the Trump administration,” Mr. Vance said on X. “As it happens, I know Stephen quite well. And he’s motivated by love of country. He’s motivated by a fear that people like Terry Moran make rules that normal Americans have to follow, but well-connected people don’t. “

In his now deleted post, Mr. Moran said Mr. Trump also is a “world-class hater,” but that his hatred is “only a means to an end, and that end is his own glorification.”

“That’s his spiritual nourishment.”

Mr. Miller responded in a social media post, saying Mr. Moran’s “full public meltdown” exposes the corporate press.

“For decades, the privileged anchors and reporters narrating and gatekeeping our society have been radicals adopting a journalist’s pose,” Mr. Miller said. “Terry pulled off his mask.”

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt delivered a similar message.

“ABC is going to have to answer for what their so-called journalist put out on Twitter in the wee hours of the night, calling Stephen Miller vile, they said President Trump is a world-class hater and this is again coming from someone who is supposed to be an unbiased and professional journalist,” she said on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“This is unacceptable and unhinged rhetoric coming from someone who works at a major television network,” she said.

Before ABC announced the suspension, Ms Leavitt said the White House had reached out to the network demanding it punish Mr. Moran for his behavior.

“I think this speaks to the distrust that the American people have in the legacy media,” she said.