On Tuesday night, a remarkably patient and determined Kamala Harris faced off against a version of Donald Trump that seemed even more incoherent and fact averse than usual. Harris’s calm was laudable, but it’s still disheartening to watch an immensely qualified candidate of color have to debate…that guy.
Luckily, there was at least one positive aspect of the debate in addition to Harris’s performance, and that was one of its cohosts, ABC’s Linsey Davis, who sat alongside fellow ABC journalist David Muir. Muir brought the typical elder-statesman energy that one might expect to the proceedings (although I still feel he deserves hazard pay for actually fact-checking Trump), but it was Davis who asked some of the night’s toughest questions—of Trump, of course, but also Harris.
It’s not surprising that Davis nailed it, of course, given that she’s been hosting the Sunday edition of World News Tonight since 2021 and has been moderating presidential debates alongside Muir, George Stephanopoulos, and others since 2019. (Those debates, as part of a more conventional election cycle, had less prominence than tonight’s proceedings.) But the focus she brought to the endeavor was still refreshing.
Davis, 46, is a seasoned reporter who got her start on broadcast journalism in Flint, Michigan, and has held positions reporting for Good Morning America, 20/20, Nightline, and World News Tonight (before taking over as Sunday anchor). As The Washington Post reported, she has been diligently studying the candidates ever since it was announced that she would be moderating.
Granted, my priority on Tuesday was simply hanging onto my will to live until Trump stopped speaking, but I also appreciated the frankness with which Davis asked Harris about hot-button political issues, including her position on the Israel-Hamas war and perceived inconsistencies in her platform. With those lines of questioning, Davis established herself as a firm yet fair commentator willing to approach the tough issues.
Perhaps the highlight of Tuesday night, though, was watching Davis swiftly and effectively check Trump on his outlandish claim that Democrats—and the Harris campaign in particular—supported “execution after birth” (his words) as a form of abortion. “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill the baby after it’s born,” Davis said, and although it’s somewhat appalling that that fact even had to be clarified onstage during a US presidential debate, there can be a lot of power in simply keeping your cool and stating what you know to be true—and that’s exactly what Linsey Davis did on Tuesday, to great effect. Am I going to have to…watch network news now?
