ABC News suspends Terry Moran after Trump administration condemns ‘hater’ post

ABC News’ senior national correspondent Terry Moran, left, and White House adviser Stephen Miller are pictured in a split image. Moran was suspended June 8 after he posted a highly critical assessment of President Donald Trump and Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on the social media platform X. (Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Veteran ABC News correspondent Terry Moran was suspended Sunday after he posted a highly critical assessment of U.S. President Donald Trump and Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on the social media platform X.

In the missive, which was posted shortly after midnight, Moran said both Trump and Miller are “world-class haters.” For Trump, he said, hatred is “only a means to an end, and that end is his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment.”

For Miller, on the other hand, “hatreds are his spiritual nourishment,” Moran charged. “He eats his hate.”

Moran — who landed a rare Oval Office interview with Trump in April — later deleted the tweet and didn’t post anything further.

On Sunday morning, Trump administration officials condemned Moran and said the post reflected poorly on ABC News as an institution. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt publicly pushed ABC to discipline Moran.

“We have reached out to ABC to inquire about how they plan to hold Terry accountable,” she wrote on X.

“Hopefully this journalist will either be suspended or terminated,” Leavitt said in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News.

As for ABC, “they have said they will be taking action,” she added, apparently referring to a private conversation.

About one hour later, the news division said Moran, its senior national correspondent and former “Nightline” anchor, had been suspended.

“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others,” a spokesperson said in response to CNN’s inquiry about Moran. “The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards — as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”

Miller, often described as the architect behind Trump’s immigration policies, is the subject of frequent and ferocious criticism, including the “hater” label that Moran applied. A 2020 book called “Hatemonger” documented Miller’s longstanding ties to far-right groups that demonize immigrants.

But it is highly unusual for a network correspondent like Moran to publish such a politically charged piece of commentary, particularly in the middle of the night on a free-for-all social media site.

Miller reacted to Moran’s post by saying that “the most important fact about Terry’s full public meltdown is what it shows about the corporate press in America.”

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

Vice President JD Vance also posted a defense of Miller on X, stating that Miller is “motivated by love of country” and that ABC “should apologize.”