The indictment against the man accused of defacing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was a unique opportunity for algae to return to the Elitist Media evening news after a one-day break. ABC took this as an opportunity to indulge their reflexive Trump derangement, and practically blame him for the defacement.
Watch the report in its entirety, as aired on ABC World News Tonight on Thursday, July 2nd, 2026:
WATCH: after a night off, algae returns to the evening news. For @ABCWorldNews, an opportunity to indulge their TDS and practically blame Trump for the defacement of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool pic.twitter.com/9g8Z55f55I
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 3, 2026
DAVID MUIR: Tonight, the Justice Department now charging a former American Olympian for damaging the Reflecting Pool in Washington. President Trump spent $16 million in taxpayer money to paint and renovate the pool. He blamed vandals for the algae and peeling paint. Now that former Olympian has been charged and tonight he says he did nothing wrong. Here's Mary Bruce.
MARY BRUCE: Tonight, the Justice Department bringing felony charges against former American Olympian David Hearn, accusing him of damaging the Reflecting Pool two weeks after he was arrested on the National Mall. President Trump spent $16 million in taxpayer money to refurbish the pool. But just one week later, it turned green with algae, parts of its freshly painted bottom rising to the surface. Trump blamed vandals, not his hand-picked contractors.
DONALD TRUMP: They put a big gash- 350ft long. Think of that. 350-foot gash.
BRUCE: Today, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro accusing Hearn of damaging approximately two square feet.
JEANINE PIRRO: The National Park Service employees observed Hearn actually forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands.
BRUCE: President Trump claims the alleged vandals used box cutters.
TRUMP: They came in with box cutters and they cut it up.
BRUCE: Today, reporters asking what Hearn allegedly used.
REPORTER: Did he have any tools or was it just his bare hands?
PIRRO: Right now, we believe it's his bare hands. Both hands.
REPORTER: So does that indicate, in your belief, that it was probably damaged before or do you believe that he…
PIRRO: Oh, he damaged it.
REPORTER: Further, but do you believe it had already been damaged before?
PIRRO: He damaged the pool.
BRUCE: Hearn told ABC News he was biking near the pool when he saw a piece of loose paint in the water and reached out and touched the end. He insists he's no vandal, just a “curious, concerned citizen.”
And David- in a statement tonight, Hearn's attorneys insist he is innocent and say, quote, “these charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American,” adding: “this indictment reflects the administration's effort to shift blame for their own failures.” David.
MUIR: Mary Bruce, live at The White House. Thanks, Mary.
The framing gives the game away, with anchor David Muir engaging in another one of his overly long introductions that could have served as its own brief, before tossing to Mary Bruce who then repeats most of it. The emphasis was to be placed on the cost of the initial repair.
Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, formerly Joe Biden’s chief sycophant, parrots that point before knocking Trump for not blaming the contractors that worked on the Reflecting Pool. Anything but blaming, perhaps, the people who vandalized and pulled up portions of the lining that, as ABC has made abundantly clear, cost the American taxpayer $16 million dollars.
The purpose of this story, in addition to bringing algae back into the evening news, is to deflect guilt away from the people that caused damage to the Reflecting Pool. It is grim business to convey that the defacement of national monuments seems to be acceptable so long as Donald Trump is the president. But this is par for the course for Trump-deranged ABC.
