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Ousted ABC News correspondent Terry Moran said he was completely sober before writing his infamous post bashing Trump aide Stephen Miller — and claimed the network broke an agreement to re-sign him after the ensuing firestorm, according to a report.
Moran, in his first interview since being canned last week, told the New York Times, “It wasn’t a drunk tweet.”
“I wrote it, and I said, ‘That’s true,’” according to the interview published Monday.
The veteran newsman called the deputy White House chief of staff “a world-class hater” in an early-morning post on X on June 8.
“”The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he is the brains behind Trumpism… But that’s not what’s interesting about Miller. It’s not brains. It’s bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate. Trump is a world-class hater. But his hatred is only a means to an end, and that end is his own glorification. That’s his spiritual nourishment,” Moran railed.
Some speculated that Moran’s scathing social media screed in the wee hours may have been alcohol-induced.
Moran, 65, shot down that line of thinking, telling the Times during a Zoom call that it came after a “normal family night.”
He composed the since-deleted post after an evening walk, a family dinner, and watching “Ocean’s Eleven” with his kids, Moran said.
“I typed it out and I looked at it and I thought, ‘That’s true.’” he said.
The backlash from within and outside the network was swift. Trump administration officials circulated the post on social media and demanded action. Vice President JD Vance called the remarks “an absolutely vile smear.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also reposted the message, calling it “unhinged.”.
Moran was contacted by ABC News brass, told to take down his post and was suspended by the end of the day.
“I was rocked clearly and full of fear, and I realized this was going to be a very serious situation and had to stand up and deal with it,” Moran told the Times.
His contract was set to expire last Friday and he expected to weather the outcry — despite fellow staffers saying they were “pissed” at the reputational damage he caused and some calling for his head, as The Post exclusively reported.
Moran, who joined ABC News in 1997, claimed the network had reached an oral agreement to extend his contract for another three years — only to abruptly reverse course.
“We had a deal,” he told the Times. “They’re bailing.”
Last Tuesday, the network announced it would not renew Moran’s contract.
“We are at the end of our agreement with Terry 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.”
Bob Iger, CEO of ABC News parent company Disney, reportedly signed off on the decision.
Moran disputes ABC’s timeline and insists that he was under the impression he would be staying on.
His lawyers are now working out the terms of his severance, he told the Times.
In a follow-up interview with The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, Moran said “I became bad business.”
The fallout comes at a sensitive time for ABC News. The network recently agreed to a $16 million settlement with Donald Trump over a defamation suit related to George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate comments about a civil jury’s findings in the E. Jean Carroll case.
Moran hinted that tension over that settlement — and Trump’s attacks on ABC News debate moderators — may have influenced his situation.
“I should have been [worried], but no, I wasn’t,” Moran said. “I was kind of known at ABC, as somebody put it, and I think I know who it was … ‘that he’s ‘always had a very high opinion of his opinions,’ which is nasty when someone has been fired, but a fair comment I suppose.”
Moran has since launched his own Substack and stands behind his harsh criticism of Miller.
“You see him all the time, spitting venom and lies, degrading our public discourse, debasing it, and using the power of the White House and what he’s been given to grind us down,” he told The Bulward.
“That is very disturbing to me.”
He also pushed back about not checking his personal biases at the door.
“You don’t sacrifice your citizenship as a journalist, and your job is not to be objective,” he told Bulwark.
“There is no Mount Olympus of objectivity where a Mandarin class of wise people have no feelings about their society. We’re all in this together. What you have to be is fair and accurate… while very hot, [the post] is an observation, a description that was accurate and true.”
Moran had interviewed Trump in April for an Oval Office sit-down tied to the president’s first 100 days. He called the assignment “accidental,” and noted that it was unusual for Stephanopoulos or World News Tonight anchor David Muir not to handle a presidential interview.
Asked about his politics, Moran described himself as “a Hubert Humphrey Democrat,” adding, “I’m old enough to remember and, you know, get practical things done that people need in a decent way, and stand up for what’s right.”
Moran’s Substack newsletter has already drawn over 90,000 subscribers, including thousands of paid readers.
He compared it to “18th century pamphleteering” and said: “I’m certainly free to speak my mind.”
As for whether he regrets the episode that ended his 27-year career at ABC, Moran was clear: “I don’t think you should ever regret telling the truth. And I don’t.”
English (US)