Report: Harris Has Tight Relationship With ABC Net Executive

ABC Exec Dana Walden, Kamala Harris

Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are at odds over where and when the pair will debate, with Trump rejecting a debate he had previously scheduled with President Joe Biden on September 10, hosted by ABC News. Instead, Trump says he will only debate Harris on September 4 in a debate hosted by Fox News: “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Harris has accused Trump of “playing games” and is keen to stick with the ABC debate. Trump has given two reasons as to why the ABC debate is no longer on the table for him. First, he agreed to that debate with Biden, not Harris. Second, he is in active litigation against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos (or, as Trump calls him, “Slopadopoulos”). The defamation lawsuit cites Stephanopoulos wrongly claiming that the former president was found liable for raping E. Jean Carroll; a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not rape.

According to The Spectator, there is a third legitimate reason why the candidates should not meet at ABC News. Vice President Harris has an extremely close relationship with a top executive at Disney, which oversees ABC News. Dana Walden, a co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, and Harris have been friends for three decades.

Walden and Harris have been friends since 1994, according to Vanity Fair. When Harris ran for San Francisco district attorney in 2003, Walden and her husband hosted a fundraiser for her campaign. Harris’s Hollywood friends are credited with helping Harris raise enough money to become California attorney general in 2010 and with giving her a “glimmer of hope” during her failed run for the Democratic nomination in 2019. The Waldens helped Harris raise money as recently as 2022: “The Waldens hosted a fundraiser with Harris in 2022 at their Brentwood house, one of several boosts they’ve given Kamala,” Puck News reported.