CNN
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ABC News is parting ways with veteran correspondent Terry Moran, two days after he posted a missive on X calling President Donald Trump and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller “world-class haters.”
The network said Tuesday afternoon that Moran’s contract was about to expire, 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,” an ABC News spokesperson said.
Prominent television correspondents like Moran, who interviewed Trump in the Oval Office just six weeks ago, typically have multi-year contracts with their employers.
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The fact that Moran was at the end of a contract cycle — his deal was set to expire on Friday, according to a person briefed on the matter — made it easier for ABC to take swift action.
Moran’s ABC colleagues were stunned on Sunday when he posted, and then deleted, a highly critical piece of commentary.
For Trump, Moran wrote, 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.”
ABC executives immediately moved to take disciplinary action.
Trump administration officials also publicly called on the network to suspend or terminate him. “This is unhinged and unacceptable,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Within a matter of hours, Moran had been suspended, with ABC saying that his post “violated our standards” and did not “reflect the views of ABC News.”
Reactions mostly split along partisan lines, with pro-Trump columnists arguing that Moran should be fired and anti-Trump writers lamenting that he was suspended for speaking “truth about power.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung responded to the news of Moran’s exit by writing on X, “Talk sh*t, get hit.” It was a twist on a threatening slogan that Trump has been using in relation to the protests in Los Angeles: “They spit, we hit.”
Moran, a former “Nightline” anchor who has been ABC’s senior national correspondent in recent years, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
