David Muir

Early anchoring and reporting

In September 2005, Muir was inside the New Orleans Superdome as Hurricane Katrina hit and stayed in New Orleans to report on the unfolding humanitarian crisis. Muir's reports revealed and highlighted the deteriorating conditions inside the Convention Center and Charity Hospital as Muir waded through chest-deep water to find patients trapped inside the hospital.^[17]

Muir reported from the Israeli-Lebanon border in October 2006 on the Israeli war with Hezbollah. Muir was in Gaza in March 2007 to cover the Hamas coup, reporting from inside the Gaza Strip.^[11] In October 2007, Muir was dispatched to Peru after the worst earthquake to hit that country in more than two decades.

In September 2008, Muir reported from Ukraine, more than two decades after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. In April 2009, David Muir and Diane Sawyer reported a 20/20 hour about guns in America getting "disturbing results" as described by the New York Daily News.^[18]

In May 2009, Muir's reporting on 20/20 revealed a significant increase in the number of homeless children in America. Muir made multiple trips to the Gulf of Mexico to investigate the BP oil spill.

In January 2010, Muir traveled to Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake, which orphaned tens of thousands of children and destroyed the country's buildings and basic services. More than 220,000 people died, and many others were injured in the 7.0-magnitude quake.^[19] He has returned to Haiti multiple times since the earthquake hit, uncovering attacks on women and the unfolding mental health crisis in Port au Prince.^[20]

In June 2011, Muir reported from Tahrir Square during the political revolution in Egypt, and from Fukushima, Japan following the deadly tsunami and nuclear power plant accident. Muir wrote about his reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia, and his subsequent return, "Inside Somalia's Crippling Famine", for the Daily Beast.^[21]

In November 2012, Muir served as one of ABC's lead correspondents for the 2012 U.S. presidential election.^[22] Muir's interviews with Republican candidate Mitt Romney generated national headlines on the issues of economics and immigration policy in the United States.^[23][24]

In December 2012, Muir also anchored several hours of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as it unfolded, and then reported from the scene as President Obama visited the town. Muir also reported from the movie theater mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado; from Joplin, Missouri in the aftermath of a destructive tornado; and from Tucson, Arizona after the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords that left six others dead.^[11]

In January 2013, Muir reported from inside Iran, leading up to the nuclear talks.^[25] Muir was the first Western journalist to report from Mogadishu, Somalia on the famine.^[26] Muir and his team came under fire while reporting from Mogadishu. In 2013, he received the Edward R. Murrow Award for his reporting.

World News Tonight with David Muir

On June 27, 2014, ABC News announced that Muir would succeed Diane Sawyer as the anchor and managing editor of ABC World News. Muir made his debut broadcast on September 1, 2014.

In April 2015, World News Tonight with David Muir became the country's most-watched evening newscast, outpacing NBC Nightly News for the first time since September 7, 2009.^[27]

Muir's Emmy-nominated Made in America series on the American economy is a continuing feature on his broadcast.^[28][29] Muir has brought the series to other television programs, including ABC's The View, where he has served as guest co-host.^[30][31]

In March 2016, Muir released a year-long report on the heroin crisis in America winning a CINE Golden Eagle Award for his reporting.^[32]

Muir has moderated multiple Democratic and Republican Presidential Primary debates^[33] and interviewed numerous presidential candidates.

During one of Muir's interviews with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2015, she admitted it was a mistake to use a private e-mail server and offered her first apology to the American people.^[33]

Muir interviewed then President Donald Trump on January 25, 2017, in the White House. It was Trump's first interview as president, five days after inauguration.^[34]

In 2020, Muir's ratings exploded during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic along with the other Evening News programs.^[35][36] Averaging around 12 million viewers, and becoming the most watched TV Program.^[35] On May 6, 2020, Muir interviewed President Donald Trump about the COVID Pandemic.^[37]

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Muir conducted the first joint interview with Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, then-Senator Kamala Harris.^[38] He has interviewed President Biden multiple times. At the White House in December 2021, Muir pressed Biden on whether the U.S. was prepared for the Covid surge.^[39] In February 2023, Muir conducted two interviews with President Biden, one in Warsaw on U.S. support for Ukraine. Muir also interviewed Biden in Normandy during the 80th anniversary of D-Day.^[40]

Muir was the first network anchor to interview Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Muir later interviewed Zelenskyy in Kyiv as Ukraine began its counteroffensive against Russia.^[41]

In 2021, Muir became the lead anchor of breaking news and special event coverage for ABC News, a role previously held by GMA anchor George Stephanopoulos from 2014 to 2020.^[42]

In 2021 he traveled to Southern Madagascar to report on what the United Nations World Food Program warned was the first climate-change driven famine in the world.^[43] After the report aired, ABC News viewers donated over $3 million to the World Food Program.^[44] The report earned Muir a prestigious George Polk Award for environmental reporting, as well as two News & Documentary Emmy Awards.^[7]

In 2023, he traveled to South Sudan to report on the historic flooding that had destroyed communities, leading to severe malnutrition as war broke out to the north, in Sudan. Muir's report South Sudan: Isolated by Water and War earned a News & Documentary Emmy, and anchored ABC News’ climate coverage recognized with a Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award.^[45][46]

2024 Presidential debate

On September 10, 2024, Muir and Linsey Davis moderated a presidential debate on ABC News between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, which was watched by nearly 70 million Americans. Muir frequently fact-checked Trump for making false statements, including Trump's claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating dogs and cats.^[47][48][49] Muir pressed Harris on whether she bears any responsibility for the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, and on the economy, Muir asked Harris if Americans were better off than they were 4 years ago.^[50][51][52] Muir’s and Davis's interjections sparked claims of bias from Trump and discussion over the role of moderators in presidential debates.^[53][54][55] New York Times said ABC’s Matter-of-Fact Moderators Built Factual Guardrails Around Trump and Columbia Journalism Review said The refs worked.^[56][57]

On June 6, 2024, Muir interviewed president Biden in Normandy. During the interview, Muir pressed Biden on whether he would pardon his son, Hunter Biden. Biden told Muir he would not.^[58][59] On December 1, 2024, Biden reversed course, pardoning his son.^[60] Multiple news outlets cited Muir’s interview and Biden’s pledge that he would not pardon his son.^[61][62][63]