Former ABC News Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran says the network is being disingenuous about his firing.
ABC News cut ties with Moran last week after he posted—and quickly deleted—an incendiary X post that flamed President Donald Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as “world-class” haters.
ABC claimed 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.”
Moran disputed the network’s characterization as “incorrect” in an interview with The New York Times on Monday. 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.
In the June 8 post, Moran 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.
Trump’s hatred, Moran proffered, was “only a means to an end, and that end is his glorification.”
But 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.
“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.
ABC News staffers felt the post had made it harder to do their jobs, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Moran told the Times that he had no regrets about writing the since-deleted post, and he promised he was not intoxicated. “It wasn’t a drunk tweet,” he said.
“I wrote it, and I said, ‘That’s true,’” Moran told the Times.
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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