ABC News is being accused of election interference after it blurred out information about former President Donald Trump’s campaign on his podium as he delivered remarks Tuesday evening.
After the former president was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to alleged “hush money” payments to women before the 2016 election, he spoke from his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
Trump pleaded not guilty to each count and has maintained he never had any extramarital affairs.
He struck a defiant tone in a speech in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In a 27-minute speech in which he unleashed on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump described his prosecution as political.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America,” Trump said. “I never thought it could happen. The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”
ABC was among a number of networks that aired the speech, but the Disney-owned network blurred out a text number that could have been used by people interested in donating to his 2024 presidential campaign.
ABC was quickly hit with accusations of election interference.
ABC News blurs out “TEXT TRUMP to 88022” in its coverage of Trump’s post-arraignment speech as reports suggest the Trump campaign has raised over $10 million since his indictment. pic.twitter.com/nCrE3XzSS5
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 5, 2023
Some noted then-candidate Joe Biden’s podium was shown during campaign events in 2020, and the network did not make the decision to censor his campaign’s contact information.
This is election interference by ABC pic.twitter.com/mjO61jFrV5
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 5, 2023
Is this Election interference from your mothership, @abc15?
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) April 5, 2023
Looks like election interference to me.
— David Giglio (@DavidGiglioCA) April 5, 2023
ABC News has not commented on the decision to prevent its viewers from seeing Trump’s campaign contact information and deciding for themselves whether or not they were interested in donating to him.
Trump reportedly hauled in millions of dollars in donations prior to his Tuesday indictment, according to Axios.
One poll released this week also shows him leading Biden by seven points in a hypothetical rematch of the 2020 election.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
