If the Sept. 10 Harris-Trump debate co-moderator appeared familiar, you were viewing mid-Michigan TV news back around the millennium.
Youthful Linsey Davis was a reporter for Flint’s Channel 12, WJRT, from 2001 through 2004, when one of her final assignments was the former Saginaw City Council’s 5-4 midnight vote to dismiss Deborah Kimble as manager. She advanced to CNN three years later.
In general post-debate analysis, Davis and anchor David Muir were praised for keeping both candidates on track, especially with Trump’s interruptions. But on pro-Trump FOX News, she was ripped for correcting the former president’s claim that Democrats favor abortion choice to the point of “executions” of newborns: “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born.”
Vogue.com, the magazine’s website, reported: “It’s not surprising that Davis nailed it, of course, given that she’s been hosting the Sunday edition of World News Tonight since 2021 and has been moderating presidential debates alongside Muir, George Stephanopoulos, and others since 2019. (Those debates, as part of a more conventional election cycle, had less prominence than tonight’s proceedings.) But the focus she brought to the endeavor was still refreshing. Davis, 46, is a seasoned reporter who got her start on broadcast journalism in Flint, Michigan, and has held positions reporting for Good Morning America, 20/20, Nightline, and World News Tonight (before taking over as Sunday anchor). As the Washington Post reported, she has been diligently studying the candidates ever since it was announced that she would be moderating.”
In her college studies, Davis took an unconventional path into journalism. Her masters in communications is from NYU, New York University, but before that she attained her bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Virginia. Critics may claim she tried to “psyche” Trump with her questions and fact-checks, but she also fronted Harris on some changed views, especially on environmentally controversial fracking for lower-cost energy.
Davis, a product of South Jersey, has won two Emmys and is the published author of six children’s books.
