While the big story regarding the broadcast networks on Monday was the launch of the anti-Trump, Norah O’Donnell-anchored CBS Evening News, their competitors weren’t going to be left behind as ABC’s World News Tonight also attacked the President’s behavior toward far-left, radical Democrats as “racist.”
Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News didn’t quite go as far as ABC or CBS that CNN’s Brian Stelter would have wanted, but they still had some fun moments such as when the head of an illegal immigrant detention center dropped a few truth bombs.
First to ABC and, reporting from the Apollo Mission Control, anchor David Muir spun the story as a “firestorm over President Trump's racially charged tweets” in a tease.
Like CBS, ABC senior White House correspondent Cecilia Vega ruled that “President Trump today ramped up attacks against four Democratic congresswomen after his racist tweets ignited a firestorm” and knocked him for “den[ying] his tweets were racist.”
Just like CBS with the deceptive, awful pairing of the Charlottesville killer’s sentencing alongside Trump segments, Vega insinuated that those supporting the President in going after the “united front” of Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) were “white supremacists” (click “expand”):
TRUMP: As far as I'm concerned, if you hate our country, if you're not happy here, you can leave. [SCREEN WIPE] That's what I said in a tweet, which I guess some people think is controversial. A lot of people love it, by the way. A lot of people love it.
VEGA: Among those who love it? White supremacists. One prominent website today saying, “this is the kind of white nationalism we elected him for.”
JOHN ROBERTS [TO TRUMP]: Does it concern you that many people saw that tweet as racist and that white nationalist groups are finding common cause with you on that point?
TRUMP: It doesn't concern me, because many people agree with me.
“President Trump has a history of race baiting. He spent years championing the false birther conspiracy theory that President Obama was actually born in Kenya. He launched his presidential campaign calling Mexicans rapists and there was this response to those neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville two years ago,” she added.
Over on NBC, anchor Lester Holt told viewers in the teases that there was a “growing firestorm over two words by President Trump — go back. The four congresswoman he targeted hitting back after his tweet that's been wide she slammed as racist.”
Holt and chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson then danced around the notion of calling Trump racist (click “expand”):
HOLT: President Trump's message, America love it or leave it, doubling down upon harsh words to four liberal Democratic congresswomen, all women of color, all American citizens, whom he told over the weekend to “go back” to their home countries, a demeaning phrase often used by racists. Today, the President. brushing off the storm of criticism his words created. But not letting it go, the four women targeted by the speaking out just a short time ago. Our Hallie Jackson has late details.
JACKSON: A united front late today from the freshmen Democrats attacked by the President as he fans the flames of racial resentment.
(....)
JACKSON: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, four outspoken newly elected, progressive lawmakers make up the so-called Squad, singled out though not by name by the President who tweeted Sunday they should “go back” to their home countries, deploying a racist trope meant to marginalize people of color. Only Omar was born elsewhere, in Somalia. All four women are U.S. citizens.
To NBC’s credit, they were the lone network to put a number on how many Republicans had denounced Trump at 17 (presumably at the time of the taping).
After Jackson, Holt connected Trump’s tweets about the congresswomen to the illegal immigration crisis, fretting that “[w]hile all that was going on, the Trump administration opened a new front in its drive to limit the number of people crossing the southern border into the United States by making it much harder to request asylum.”
Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez delivered news about how the proposed federal rule would deny illegal immigrants the chance for asylum if they haven’t tried first in Mexico, but the rest of his report included portions of an interview “with Aaron Hall, the chief Border Patrol agent in El Paso.”
Gutierrez added that Hall “oversees the station in Clint, Texas, where recent allegations of uncrowded and unsanitary conditions drew international outrage.”
Needless to say, things didn’t go well for him (click “expand”):
GUTIERREZ [TO HALL]: What happened?
HALL: Simply a volume issue. We don't want to hold that many people in our short-term facility.
GUTIERREZ [TO HALL]: Even at this point, you dispute the characterization of the care that these children were receiving inside the Clint facility?
HALL: Absolutely. We've added showers. We've added laundry facilities. We provide clean clothing for them to wear.
GUTIERREZ [TO HALL]: Should that — should this not have been added months ago before it got that bad?
HALL: Well, keep in mind, it's the U.S. government. We have an entire contracting process. The illegal alien traffic is always going to be one step ahead of our ability to respond.
To see the relevant transcript from ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on July 15, click “expand.”
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
July 15, 2019
6:30 p.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News]
DAVID MUIR: Also, the other news this Monday night. The firestorm over President Trump's racially charged tweets. The President doubling down on his attacks against four congresswoman, after telling them to go back to the countries they came from. The congresswomen before the cameras just moments ago.
(....)
6:32 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump’s “Go Back” Attack]
MUIR: But we do begin tonight with the President and the growing firestorm after tweeting, telling four Democratic congresswomen to go back to their own countries. The President doubling down today, and a short time ago, those congresswomen coming before the cameras to answer the President. ABC's senior White House correspondent Cecilia Vega leads us off tonight from the White House.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Trump’s “Go Back” Attack; President: “If You Hate Our Country...You Can Leave”]
CECILIA VEGA: President Trump today ramped up attacks against four Democratic congresswomen after his racist tweets ignited a firestorm.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They hate our country. They hate it, I think, with a passion.
VEGA: The President saying the congresswomen, all women of color, “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe,” adding, “Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” But all four congresswomen are American citizens. Three born in the United States, in Cincinnati, Detroit, New York City. Only Representative Ilhan Omar was born outside the U.S. She came when she was 12 years old as a refugee from Somalia. Today, the President denied his tweets were racist.
TRUMP: As far as I'm concerned, if you hate our country, if you're not happy here, you can leave. [SCREEN WIPE] That's what I said in a tweet, which I guess some people think is controversial. A lot of people love it, by the way. A lot of people love it.
VEGA: Among those who love it? White supremacists. One prominent website today saying, “this is the kind of white nationalism we elected him for.”
JOHN ROBERTS [TO TRUMP]: Does it concern you that many people saw that tweet as racist and that white nationalist groups are finding common cause with you on that point?
TRUMP: It doesn't concern me, because many people agree with me.
VEGA: Tonight, the four congresswomen at the center of the controversy, showing a united front.
CONGRESSWOMAN ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): This is the agenda of white nationalists. Whether it is happening in chat rooms, or it's happening on national TV, and now it’s reached the White House garden.
CONGRESSWOMAN RASHIDA TLAIB (D-MI): Sadly, this is not the first nor will it be the last time we hear disgusting bigoted language from the President. We know this is who he is.
CONGRESSWOMAN ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We don't leave the things that we love and when we love this country, what that means is that we propose the solutions to fix it.
VEGA: President Trump has a history of race baiting. He spent years championing the false birther conspiracy theory that President Obama was actually born in Kenya. He launched his presidential campaign calling Mexicans rapists and there was this response to those neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville two years ago.
TRUMP [on 08/15/17]: You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.
VEGA: So far, only a handful of Republicans coming forward to denounce the President’s tweets. The party's only African American senator, Tim Scott, calling them “unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language,” but most of the President's colleagues trying to dodge the controversy altogether.
SENATOR RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL): I hadn't read that but I will go check it out.
MUIR: And Cecilia Vega with us live tonight at the White House. And Cecilia, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now promising tonight that the House will soon vote to condemn the President for these tweets?
VEGA: David, she is calling for a resolution to denounce what she calls the President's, “disgraceful and xenophobic language” and she is also now calling on Republicans to join in on that vote. She also said that the President's Make America Great Again slogan is what — she says that it has always been making America, “white again.” David?
MUIR: Cecilia Vega leading us off tonight. Cecilia, thank you.
To see the relevant transcript from July 15's NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, click “expand.”
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt
July 15, 2019
7:00 p.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump’s ‘Go Back’ Firestorm]
LESTER HOLT: Tonight the growing firestorm over two words by President Trump — go back. The four congresswoman he targeted hitting back after his tweet that's been wide she slammed as racist. The President saying they should go back to the countries they came from even though three were born here —
CONGRESSWOMAN ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): This is his plan to pit us against one another.
HOLT: — as the President doubles down.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They're free to leave if they want and if they want to leave, that's fine and if they want to stay, that's fine.
(....)
7:01 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Doubling Down]
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Congresswomen Hit Back After Attack by Trump]
HOLT: President Trump's message, America love it or leave it, doubling down upon harsh words to four liberal Democratic congresswomen, all women of color, all American citizens, whom he told over the weekend to “go back” to their home countries, a demeaning phrase often used by racists. Today, the President. brushing off the storm of criticism his words created. But not letting it go, the four women targeted by the speaking out just a short time ago. Our Hallie Jackson has late details.
HALLIE JACKSON: A united front late today from the freshmen Democrats attacked by the President as he fans the flames of racial resentment.
CONGRESSWOMAN ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): This is his plan to pit us against one another.
CONGRESSWOMAN AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): This is a distraction, and we should not take the bait.
CONGRESSWOMAN ALEXANDIRA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): He does not know how to defend his policy. So what he does is attack us personally and that is what this is all about.
CONGRESSWOMAN RASHIDA TLAIB (D-MI): I urge House leadership, many of my colleagues, to take action to impeach this lawless President today.
JACKSON: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, four outspoken newly elected, progressive lawmakers make up the so-called Squad, singled out though not by name by the President who tweeted Sunday they should “go back” to their home countries, deploying a racist trope meant to marginalize people of color. Only Omar was born elsewhere, in Somalia. All four women are U.S. citizens.
TRUMP: These are people that, in my opinion, hate our country.
JACKSON: The President looking to exploit the Democratic divide between progressives and moderates, not bothered by the criticism and not backing down. Asked at the White House if he's concerned people see his comments as racist and that white nationalists seek common cause —
TRUMP: It doesn't concern me because many people agree with me and all I'm saying, they want to leave, they can leave.
JACKSON: GOP leadership silent so leadership select so far, although at least 17 Republicans have denounced the President's comments.
CONGRESSMAN WILL HURD (R-TX): I think those tweets are racist and xenophobic. They're also inaccurate.
JACKSON: Most other Republicans stopping short of calling the remarks racist.
SENATOR MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): What was said and what was tweeted was destructive, was demeaning, was disunifying, and frankly, it was very wrong.
JACKSON: Some Republicans are defending the President tonight and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to force a vote on their positions with the symbolic resolution. If the President had hoped to divide Democrats, the opposite appears to be happening as they unite against him. Lester?
HOLT: Hallie Jackson at the White House. Thanks
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump Targets Asylum Rules]
HOLT: While all that was going on, the Trump administration opened a new front in its drive to limit the number of people crossing the southern border into the United States by making it much harder to request asylum. Our Gabe Gutierrez has that story.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: New Restrictions on Asylum Seekers Porsed]
GABE GUTIERREZ: Tonight, the Trump administration is making it harder for migrants to seek asylum in the U.S. The new rule means migrants coming from Central America can't seek asylum here if they didn't do so first in Mexico. Today in Atlanta, a new protest over rates targeting undocumented immigrants. The government has not released any numbers.
TRUMP: The ICE raids were very successful.
GUTIERREZ: It all comes as the battle over the border intensifies.
AARON HALL: Well, it was definitely overwhelmed.
GUTIERREZ: Today, we spoke exclusively with Aaron Hall, the chief Border Patrol agent in El Paso. He oversees the station in Clint, Texas, where recent allegations of uncrowded and unsanitary conditions drew international outrage. [TO HALL] What happened?
HALL: Simply a volume issue. We don't want to hold that many people in our short-term facility.
GUTIERREZ [TO HALL]: Even at this point, you dispute the characterization of the care that these children were receiving inside the Clint facility?
HALL: Absolutely. We've added showers. We've added laundry facilities. We provide clean clothing for them to wear.
GUTIERREZ [TO HALL]: Should that — should this not have been added months ago before it got that bad?
HALL: Well, keep in mind, it's the U.S. government. We have an entire contracting process. The illegal alien traffic is always going to be one step ahead of our ability to respond.
GUTIERREZ: As for the policy changes, Chief Hall says he does believe they will help reduce the flow of migrants here, but critics are now expected to challenge the new rules in court. Lester?
HOLT: Alright, Gabe, thank you.
