Former ABC News anchor Terry Moran said he has no regrets about an incendiary X post that got him fired from the network.
Moran told The New York Times in an interview published Monday that the since-deleted post, which flamed President Donald Trump and White House aide Stephen Miller as “world-class” haters, was not the product of intoxication but reflected his true feelings.
“It wasn’t a drunk tweet,” he said, later adding: “I wrote it, and I said, ‘That’s true.’”
ABC News cut ties with Moran last week after he described Miller, the architect of Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade, as “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred.”
“He’s a world-class hater,” Moran wrote June 8 on X.
Trump’s hatred, Moran proffered, was “only a means to an end, and that end is his glorification.”
Trump, too, is “a world-class hater,” Moran wrote.
Moran deleted the post later that morning, and ABC News promptly suspended him after White House officials condemned the remarks.
ABC claimed last it had reached the end of its contract with Moran and “based on his recent post—which was a clear violation of ABC News policies—we have made the decision to not renew.”
“At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness, and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism,” a spokesperson said last week.
Moran disputed the network’s characterization of his firing as “incorrect.” He said he had reached an “oral agreement” with ABC to extend his contract for three years and accused ABC of “bailing” on the agreement.
“We had a deal,” said Moran, who conducted the first network interview of Trump’s second term in April. Moran told the Times he and the network are now negotiating his severance.
ABC News and Moran did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
ABC News staffers felt the post had made it harder to do their jobs, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Moran also told The Bulwark’s Tim Miller on Monday that he recognized his language was fiery, but he felt it was warranted in light of Miller’s often vitriolic rhetoric.
“You see him all the time doing the same spitting venom and lies into our debate, degrading our public discourse, debasing it and using the power of the White House and what he’s been given,” Moran said. “To grind us down in that, in that, in that vein—that’s very disturbing to me.”
Moran described himself to The Bulwark’s Miller as a “proud centrist.”
“I’m a Hubert Humphrey Democrat,“ Moran said. “You know, get practical things done that people need in a decent way and stand up for what’s right. And that is my politics. So, someone like Stephen Miller—in my judgment, and in my observation, which is what reporters do—is degrading all that and is a danger. And that’s what was in my heart.”
Since his firing, Moran has launched a Substack that has amassed more than 90,000 subscribers.
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