ABC News suspended national correspondent Terry Moran after he posted a late-night rant against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on social media. The network took action hours after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt publicly called for accountability.
According to The Daily Caller, Moran attacked Miller in a now-deleted post on X early Sunday morning, referring to him as "a world-class hater." The suspension came swiftly after the White House drew attention to the incident.
The controversial post sparked immediate backlash from Trump administration officials, with Press Secretary Leavitt describing Moran's comments as "unhinged and unacceptable" in her own social media response that included screenshots of the deleted message.
Leavitt escalated the matter during an appearance on "Sunday Morning Futures" with host Maria Bartiromo, directly challenging ABC News to address their correspondent's behavior.
"ABC is going to have to answer for what their, again, so-called journalist put out on Twitter in the wee hours of the night, calling Stephen Miller vile," Leavitt said during the interview. "They said that President Trump is a world class hater – Stephen Miller. And this is, again, coming from someone who is supposed to be an unbiased and professional journalist."
The White House declined to provide additional comments to The Daily Caller News Foundation beyond Leavitt's public statements, indicating the administration considered the matter appropriately addressed by ABC's suspension decision.
Stephen Miller, the target of Moran's midnight message, responded to the incident with his own statement on social media platform X later Sunday morning. "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's response framed the incident as revealing deeper issues within mainstream media, suggesting Moran's comments represented the true political leanings of journalists who typically maintain a veneer of objectivity.
The confrontation adds to existing tensions between the Trump administration and ABC News, with officials frequently criticizing what they perceive as bias in the network's coverage of the president and his policies.
This incident follows several controversies that have challenged ABC News' claims of journalistic neutrality in recent months.
ABC faced criticism during the 2024 presidential campaign when debate moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir were accused of disproportionately fact-checking then-candidate Trump while allowing then-Vice President Kamala Harris to make unchallenged misstatements about abortion and Project 2025.
Earlier this year, the network settled a defamation lawsuit filed by President Trump after "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos called Trump a "rapist" during an interview with Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, further straining relations between the administration and the network.
ABC News had previously come under fire when Moran demanded Trump call El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele regarding the case of alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia during an Oval Office interview.
Terry Moran's late-night social media attack on Stephen Miller has reinforced Trump administration complaints about media bias against the president and his staff. The incident occurred when Moran posted comments calling Miller "a world-class hater" in the early hours of Sunday morning before deleting the message.
ABC News responded by suspending the national correspondent after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt publicly called for action against what she described as unprofessional behavior from someone "supposed to be an unbiased and professional journalist."
