'They all say they were hacked': Trump mocks 'fraud' debate host Steve Scully for claiming his Twitter account was tampered with when he asked Anthony Scaramucci for advice

Donald Trump ridiculed debate host Steve Scully on Sunday for his claim that his Twitter account had been hacked when he sent a mysterious message to Anthony Scaramucci. 

Scully has come under pressure after seemingly asking Scaramucci for advice on how to handle Trump's criticism, but the C-SPAN journalist says it was a hack. 

Trump, who has lambasted the moderator as a 'fraud' and a 'Never Trumper', told Fox News that 'they all say they were hacked'. 

'Every time something happens where they did something… the first thing they do is they say, oh, we were hacked or we were hacked,' Trump said. 

'He was an act. He knows that he's ashamed. It's a shame.' 

Scully was due to moderate the second debate this Thursday but the event has been canceled after Trump refused to take part in a virtual contest. 

President Donald Trump ridiculed debate host Steve Scully on Sunday for his claim that his Twitter account had been hacked

Steve Scully , who was due to moderate this week's debate, sent a mysterious message to Anthony Scaramucci apparently asking for advice on handling Trump 

Scully appeared to ask the former White House advisor 'should I respond to Trump' in a tweet which the C-SPAN journalist says was a hack

Scaramucci took it at face value, responding: 'Ignore. He is having a hard enough time. Some more bad stuff about to go down'

The controversy erupted on Thursday night after Scully asked Scaramucci 'should I respond to Trump' in a tweet which many Twitter users guessed was a misdirected attempt at a private message.  

Scully's tweet quickly drew criticism from Trump supporters who said it should be 'disqualifying' and called for him to stand down from the debate. 

But Scaramucci took it at face value, responding: 'Ignore. He is having a hard enough time. Some more bad stuff about to go down.' 

Scaramucci, who lost his job as Trump's communications director after just 10 days in 2017, has become a fierce critic of the president and has called for a vote for Joe Biden to 'save the Republican Party'. 

Both C-SPAN and the Commission on Presidential debates have since issued statements on Scully's behalf insisting that the tweet was a hack. 

'Steve Scully did not originate the tweet and believes his account has been hacked,' C-SPAN said in a statement on Friday. 

Scaramucci told Scully to ignore Trump's criticisms after he accused the C-SPAN journalist of bias 

Trump and Biden (pictured at the first debate) will not go head-to-head this week after the Republican rejected the proposal of a virtual format  

The debate commission said on Friday that it had reported the 'apparent hack' to Twitter and the FBI. 

'We understand that the federal authorities and Twitter are looking into the issue,' the commission said. 

Trump has continued his attacks on Scully after telling Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday that the journalist was a 'never-Trumper, and I think somebody said he worked for Biden at one point'. 

The C-SPAN journalist, 60, was a mail room intern in Biden's office while in college in 1978. 

Scully also volunteered for the Jimmy Carter campaign in 1976, aged 16, and worked as a media intern for Ted Kennedy in 1979 - both before he graduated college. 

In 2016, while Trump was a candidate in the GOP primary, Scully tweeted an opinion piece entitled No, Not Trump, Not Ever, which called him an 'affront to basic standards of honesty, virtue and citizenship'. 

Hannity suggested on his show that the Commission on Presidential Debates had 'turned into an anti-Trump organization'.

'The moderator of the second presidential debate, if it happens, is a guy by the name of Steven Scully. I actually know him, met him, actually like him,' Hannity said. 

'He interned for Joe Biden. He worked for Senator Ted Kennedy. Was that a factor in the debate commission's decision?'. 

Chris Wallace was the moderator of the first debate on September 29 and was criticized by Trump after the chaotic duel 

NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker is due to moderate the third debate in Nashville, Tennessee next week 

As Trump recovered from Covid-19, the commission said last week that the debate would move to a digital format with only Scully physically appearing from Miami. 

But Trump immediately refused to participate, saying he would 'not waste my time on a virtual debate', adding that the host could 'cut you off whenever they want'.       

Trump said the debate commission was protecting Biden from having to take on the president in person, but Biden's team said Trump was the one hiding from scrutiny.  

'It's shameful that Donald Trump ducked the only debate in which the voters get to ask the questions - but it's no surprise,' said Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates. 

'Everyone knows that Donald Trump likes to bully reporters, but obviously he doesn't have the guts to answer for his record to voters at the same time as Vice President Biden.'

The first debate on September 29 was a messy contest marred by constant interruptions and little substantive debate on policy.  

Trump criticized moderator Chris Wallace after the debate, calling him a 'total joke' after the Fox News presenter struggled to keep control of the contest.  

The commission announced on Friday afternoon that the second debate was formally off, and it was focusing on the final October 22 contest in Nashville. 

The third debate is due to be moderated by Kristen Welker, a White House correspondent for NBC News. 

Vice-presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris faced off in Salt Lake City on Wednesday last week.