Conservative commentator Sean Hannity has warned that Republicans could boycott Disney if its network, ABC News, is unfair to Donald Trump in Tuesday’s presidential debate.
“Maybe Bob Iger [chief executive of Disney] and his left-wing heir apparent [Dana Walden], maybe they don’t want half the country to attend their theme parks,” Hannity said. “Maybe they don’t care about their tanking stock price, which is their prerogative.
“They’re free to make that choice, but if they are biased against Donald Trump, as they have been leading into tomorrow night, as their nightly news cast is, half the country is not going to like it one bit. They’re not going to like ABC Disney, one bit either.”
Hannity, one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, is picking up on an accusation the former president has previously made: that a debate on ABC would be rigged in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The debate will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia at 9 p.m. ET, with moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. The debate also marks the first time Harris and Trump will meet in person.
Newsweek has contacted Hannity via online form, and ABC News, Disney and Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
Sean Hannity (left) and Donald Trump in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on September 4, 2024. Hannity has suggested conservatives would boycott Disney if ABC News is unfair to Trump in Tuesday night’s debate.
Mandel Ngan/Getty Images
Trump has repeatedly called ABC News “FAKE NEWS” in the past and expressed skepticism about whether he would agree to the debate at all.
His accusation has often related to Walden, the co-chair of Disney Entertainment, which owns ABC News. Her husband, Matt Walden, has been close friends with Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff since the 1980s. Trump believes this could result in bias against him. ABC has previously said Walden is not involved in any news coverage decisions.
The Republican has also sought assurance that the network will not share the questions with Harris ahead of the event, due to former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile being an ABC News contributor.
Brazile resigned as a CNN contributor in 2016 after WikiLeaks revealed she shared debate questions with Hillary Clinton’s campaign ahead of the Democrat’s debate with Trump. Brazille is not involved in Tuesday’s debate.
Trump is also currently suing ABC and host George Stephanopoulos on accusations of defamation. The former president said Stephanopoulos defamed him on air by saying he raped E. Jean Carroll. The case is set to go to trial. The former Democratic adviser is not involved in the debate.
It is not the first time Trump has accused a debate of being rigged against him. He made similar claims in 2016, and earlier this year against CNN’s Jake Tapper, a moderator Trump called “Fake Tapper,” ahead of his June debate against President Joe Biden. The Republican later said the journalist was “fair but firm”
Politico has characterized Trump’s approach of seeding doubt concerning the legitimacy of the host network as a method to “lower expectations for himself and pressure debate organizers into treating him more favorably,” alleging that doing so also “allows him to lay the groundwork to divert blame in the event he performs poorly.”
While Hannity has accused ABC of potential bias against Trump, he has also previously promoted false claims that institutions are rigged against the Republican nominee.
According to Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, Hannity “endorsed” the “false notion” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, an action that contributed to the network having to pay $787.5 million in a defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
During the settlement process, Hannity himself testified under oath that he aired Trump’s false claims of election fraud, but that he “did not believe it for one second.”
The warning of a potential boycott of Disney is reminiscent of other conservative moves, such as the high-profile backlash against Bud Light last year after the beer brand-partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light’s sales plummeted, and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, saw a drop in stock value.
Conservative influencers have continued to apply this pressure to other companies, with recent boycotts targeting Dunkin’ Donuts, Harley Davidson, and Tractor Supply for their support of progressive causes.
