Terry Moran Speaks Out On Stephen Miller Attack That Got Him Ousted from ABC: I ‘Used Very Strong Language Deliberately’

Recently fired ABC News Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran joined the Bulwark’s Tim Miller on Monday to discuss his post attacking Trump aide Stephen Miller, which led to his eventual ouster from broadcast news.

Moran recently joined Substack and has launched himself as an independent journalist, making clear to his new audience that he has no regrets over calling Miller a “world-class hater.” Moran’s tweet sparked fierce backlash on the right, as figures like Vice President JD Vance called for ABC to punish him. Two days after the tweet, Moran was let go, citing “a clear violation of ABC News policies.”

Miller pushed Moran on whether or not his late-night attack on Stephen Miller was a “drunk tweet.”

Moran explained it was just a regular night, he put “the kids to bed. We were up for a little while. It was not a rock and roll wild night. It was a normal family night. And then I got in the bed and I thought, what was that? And I typed it out and I looked at it and I thought, that’s true. And I hit send.”

“I mean, you’ve got to forgive people who think that it might have been a drunk tweet. I mean are you usually popping off at midnight? Is it a concern that you’re thinking about Stephen Miller at midnight? I mean, I guess maybe it says something about the state of the country that you are thinking about Stephen Miller at midnight,” pressed Miller.

“I believe so. It was more the moment that we’re in, which he represents in such a vivid and to me quite disturbing way. I do, I will say this, I looked at it, I thought, okay, what is that? And I thought that’s a description of the public man that I’m describing,” Moran replied.

“I mean, there’s no lies detected from my side of things, but I’m an opinion podcaster and you do got to admit like you went a little hard in the paint there,” Miller pushed back, adding:

[You were] talking about how his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. So, uh you know, I, I guess it does leave people to wonder, like, were you and Stephen Miller fighting? Like, was there something, was there a news story that prompted it? Like, uh was it something else off of your Trump interview? I mean, given like your background as a newsman, obviously you had a perspective, but that’s, that’s hot. That’s hot material.

“It’s way hot. And I wish I had a better story to tell. I just, it was something that was in my heart and mind. And I would say I used very strong language deliberately because he, I felt, and it wasn’t an… 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 replied, adding:

To grind us down in that, in that, in that vein. Yeah. Uh, that’s very disturbing to me. I’m actually, you know, not that liberal at, you know, I’m like a lot of people, some conservative, some liberal, but there was something about that and what it represented about that movement and Trump himself that I felt to describe it accurately needed that language.

Miller then asked if Moran was particularly focused on the issue of immigration and the lack of due process afforded to the migrants who were deported and indefinitely jailed in El Salvador. Miller noted a recent post from Moran on the issue and explained that Moran doesn’t seem to be taking a typical “lefty” approach to the topic.

“Yeah, I would say that, you know, I’m a member of the most despised political tribe in America. I’m a proud centrist. But what I mean by that is, I guess I’m old and [I oppose] the viciousness and the intolerance that you feel when we argue politics,” Moran replied, adding:

Somebody asked me the other day in connection with all this. So what are your politics? And I said, well, I guess I’m a Hubert Humphrey Democrat. You know, I mean, I’m old enough to remember him. And, 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.

Miller ended the interview by asking Moran what was next for him. Moran replied by saying he’d like to go back to Springfield, Ohio, and interview members of the Haitian community there, who became a central focus of the 2024 election as Trump accused them of eating their neighbors’ pets.

Watch the clip above.