If you watched the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump this week, you probably noticed a tall drink of water — and it wasn’t a beverage on the podium.
Of course, we’re talking about ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir, who served as moderator alongside Linsey Davis.
The 50-year-old journalist provided brief moments of handsomeness solace during an otherwise stressful 90 minutes, offering factual corrections to Trump’s ramblings between debonair stares.
Your dose of fabulosi-TEA
Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.
Apparently, Gay Twitter X™ doesn’t watch cable news because the existence of this highly visible reporter (who received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism earlier this year) was news to many people.
Naturally, the viral thirst was immediate, followed by one question: “Where can we see David Muir shirtless?”
Hey, at least we’re consistent!
It looked like we had finally struck gold when this pic of a hairy-chested Muir, reporting live from New Orleans of all places, hit the internet.
However, other cyber sleuths quickly pointed out the image was fake because we can’t have nice things. 😢
Don’t worry — we’ve included the original and the fake below for, uh, posterity’s sake.
It’s OK. We all wanted it to be real.
Still, the story gets funnier. The thirst was so real that the dupe was widely circulated, prompting fact-checking site Snopes to write an article clearing the air.
Apparently, the fake pic was part of a clickbait advertisement from InvestmentGuru.com, which promised to show some skin in a misleading article titled “[Photos] At 47, David Muir Reveals His Partner.”
According to Snopes, the story also “made no mention of Muir ‘revealing his partner.'” This makes sense, considering the anchor has kept his personal life under wraps for the entirety of his career.
Sigh!
Nevertheless, relegating Muir to just a piece of meat would be a disservice to his storied career in the field.
Throughout his tenure on ABC World News Tonight and 20/20, he has won multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards for his reporting.
Aside from premier sitdowns with U.S. presidents, Muir was also the first reporter to interview Ukraine president Volodymyr Zellenskyy at the start of the country’s counter-offensive attack against Russia and after their invasion.
And famously, according to ABC News, he was the one who got Hillary Clinton to apologize for all those private emails.
Welp, there you have it!
As of this writing, there are no known public images of David Muir shirtless, but we’ll keep dreaming.
Thankfully, though, we can see him behind the desk on ABC News every night… while trying to focus on what he’s actually saying.
Below, some of the funniest and thirstiest reactions to David Muir on social media.
Related*
Gays have just 1 question after the presidential debate: “What is Kamala’s plan to get David Muir to post a shirtless pic?”
While the ABC News anchor was fact-checking Trump, we were checking out something else…
Rambeaux
I thought that it was known a few years ago that he had a male partner.
Maybe I am thinking of someone else.
RIGay
I have not heard that, but I do know that several of the male news correspondents on the air are openly gay and married / partnered.
radiooutmike
You should have seen him when was an up and coming reporter on Boston local news.
abfab
Peter Jennings had a certian sort of hotness. Canadian. Intelligent. David is quite the nice package as well.
abfab
DJT wants to sue David. Isn’t that funny!
Bengali
“Many news anchors are gay and lesbian…therefore all of them must be. Muir does keep his life private. he wants to be known for his excellent, top notch reporting. He’s great pals with married partners GIo Benitez and Tommy DiDario. Who cares what he is? It is fun to speculate but please let this gorgeous man have his private life to himself.
iadragonboy
Years ago when he was still a reporter, he underwent a procedure that was filmed for broadcast and if memory serves me correctly he was shirtless.
It should be in the news archives somewhere.
FoggyBottom
“Apparently, Gay Twitter X™ doesn’t watch cable news because the existence of this highly visible reporter (who received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism earlier this year) was news to many people.”
Last time I checked, ABC is considered a broadcast channel and therefore, ABC news is actually broadcast news and not cable.
Ken A.
David Muir is private about his dating life and is very close to his bio sister and family and step sibs and their families. I think he’s just one of those busy guys to settle down. He also has a beloved dog named Axel. He’s besties with Kelly Rippa, hubby Mark and the kiddies. Well grown kiddies now.
bachy
The articles always sound shrill and camp, while the reader comments always sound sober and informative.
SethEd
I was unfamiliar with him, but as soon as I heard him speak, I was mesmerized. I was disappointed that he was constantly “fact checking” Trump, yet we got nothing when Harris made misrepresentations.
His bias was (sadly) all he was showing.
abfab
Vote Trump. Go ahead. It’s you you have to live with. Seth; the un-biased one.
NateOcean
Trouble is, Muir’s not a very good journalist.
James
For all the cries that ABC was unfair to Trump (which kind of belies the fact that he did lose the debate), what goes unmentioned, is that Trump got an extra 6 minutes to speak, and almost always got the last word. The fact-checking was limited to correcting WHOPPERS he told. Many of the smaller, more debatable comments were not fact-checked on either side.
Tad
He comes from an old school, very, very Catholic environment which no doubt impacts his desire or ability to be more open about his private life. I give him credit for getting this far without divulging anything that might clarify his orientation. I even applaud him for refusing to cave into social pressure when his private life is his business alone. But my “dar” tells me he may be in the club, just one of those old school “I’d rather not discuss it” guys. I get it. I really do. And whatever/whoever he is, I admire him greatly for his skill, intellect and professionalism. The fact that I want to see him naked doesn’t affect that admiration….
abfab
I’m concerned about the cooties, germs and random DNA Kamala picked up from shaking his grubby little hands.
War On Free Speech
@James
Trump was fact-checked 5 times; Kamala zero times.
Most, if not all, of the Trump fact-checks the moderators were wrong.
War On Free Speech
@James
Kammie told over two dozen lies; not one fact check.
abfab
Waron can count. She’s good for something.