Good Morning America co-host Whit Johnson and ABC reporter Alex Presha joined forces on Saturday to promote Friday’s “voting rights” demonstration in Washington, and if ABC was your only source of news, you would come away with the impression that the Defend the Vote demonstration was just the latest chapter in the fight for Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream and not what it actually was, which was an incendiary attack on Republicans.
Johnson began the sanitation efforts by simply referring to the question on the table as one about “voting rights.” Introducing Presha, he declared, “This morning there are renewed calls for action on voting rights as thousands mark the anniversary of the historic March on Washington. ABC's Alex Presha joins us now with details. Alex, good morning.”
ABC's Whit Johnson hypes, "This morning there are renewed calls for action on voting rights as thousands mark the anniversary of the historic March on Washington" as reporter Alex Presha similarly highlights "the likes of Senator Bernie Sanders, the Reverend Al Sharpton and… pic.twitter.com/hzOfefMxNH
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 29, 2026
Presha replied:
It’s been 63 years since Martin Luther King Jr. iconic March on Washington, punctuated by his ‘I have a dream’ speech, and thousands retraced his steps and those of other civil rights leaders on Friday. The likes of Senator Bernie Sanders, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gathered at the base of the Lincoln Memorial for the Defend the Vote demonstration, and this comes after the Supreme Court decision this past April that rolled back key provisions in the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for some conservative states to redistrict, some severely reducing or even completely eliminating historically black voting districts. It also comes amid an ongoing legal battle over the Trump administration's efforts involving the U.S. Postal Service and mail-in voting.
ABC does have a habit of finding liberal protests more newsworthy than conservative ones. Nevertheless, Presha continued, “Martin Luther King III says he feels his father would be disappointed in the state of America today regarding the lack of civility, and the reverend’s granddaughter, Yolanda, who is now an incoming freshman at Columbia University, urged for the work that made the King legacy continue.”
He then played a clip of Yolanda King declaring, “My grandfather was 34 years old when he stood at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and told America about his dream. I never met him. I never met my grandmother, Coretta Scott King, but I know something they both understood: a dream without work is just a wish.”
To a casual viewer, those soundbites might not sound so bad, but elsewhere at the rally, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Republicans “wicked” and played the Jim Crow card. Statements like that contribute to the “lack of civility” in politics because it is a grossly inaccurate assessment of the state of voting in America in 2026, but in ABC’s desire to portray liberals as the reasonable ones, such omissions are necessary.
Here is a transcript for the August 28 show:
ABC Good Morning America
8/29/2026
8:10 AM ET
WHIT JOHNSON: This morning there are renewed calls for action on voting rights as thousands mark the anniversary of the historic March on Washington. ABC's Alex Presha joins us now with details. Alex, good morning.
ALEX PRESHA: Good morning, Whit. Yeah, it's been 63 years since Martin Luther King Jr. iconic March on Washington, punctuated by his “I have a dream” speech, and thousands retraced his steps and those of other civil rights leaders on Friday. The likes of Senator Bernie Sanders, the Reverend Al Sharpton and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gathered at the base of the Lincoln Memorial for the Defend the Vote demonstration, and this comes after the Supreme Court decision this past April that rolled back key provisions in the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for some conservative states to redistrict, some severely reducing or even completely eliminating historically black voting districts. It also comes amid an ongoing legal battle over the Trump administration's efforts involving the U.S. Postal Service and mail-in voting.
Martin Luther King III says he feels his father would be disappointed in the state of America today regarding the lack of civility and the reverend’s granddaughter, Yolanda, who is now an incoming freshman at Columbia University, urged for the work that made the King legacy continue.
YOLANDA KING: My grandfather was 34 years old when he stood at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and told America about his dream. I never met him. I never met my grandmother, Coretta Scott King, but I know something they both understood: a dream without work is just a wish.
