‘Pain’ on ‘His Watch’; ABC RAGES Over ‘Combative,’ ‘Hyperpartisan’ Trump Speech

On Thursday, the broadcast networks led with President Trump’s Wednesday primetime address to the nation and all took great umbrage with his blaming of the Biden regime for the economy he inherited, but ABC’s Good Morning America was far and above the worst for its deep disgust over the “combative,” “defensive,” and “hyperpartisan” speech that ignored the “economic pain...under his watch.”

The animosity was flowing from the get-go:

 

Unsurprisingly, co-host and longtime liberal partisan official George Stephanopoulos made sure to editorialize about Trump. Senior political correspondent and virulent Trump hater Rachel Scott also seethed:

 

Scott spent the entire piece showing deep antagonism and skepticism to every utterance from the President, such as here:

 

In addition to blaming Trump for the lack of a solution in the ObamaCare subsidies debate, she actually blamed the export of illegal immigrants from the country as a bad thing:

And while he claimed his mass deportation efforts are benefiting the U.S. economy, creating “more housing and more jobs for Americans,” job numbers out this week paint a different picture. Unemployment rose in November to its highest level since 2021. And as more than 20 million Americans prepare for their health insurance premiums to skyrocket at the end of the year, the President once again teasing his healthcare plan, but offering no substantial details. Instead, he blamed Democrats for expiring subsidies...Republicans control both chambers of Congress and are set to leave town in just a few hours without sending a health care bill to the President’s desk.

Chief Washington correspondent and four-time anti-Trump author Jonathan Karl followed Scott with an incredibly cartoonish hot take, apparently choosing to forget, say, Biden’s September 1, 2022 address in Philadelphia:

 

After Karl and Stephanopoulos scoffed at the President’s so-called “warrior dividends,” the two reveled in Trump facing “declining poll numbers” and “a crisis of confidence in his handling of the economy” (click “expand”):

STEPHANOPOULOS: Of course, the backdrop for all of this is the President’s declining poll numbers on the economy and his overall approval.

KARL: Yeah, if the President was addressing a crisis last night, it seemed to be a crisis of confidence in his handling of the economy. Americans are overwhelmingly unhappy with the state of the economy, and a clear majority in many recent polls are blaming Donald Trump. Just take a look at a new poll out just yesterday. 57 percent say they disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, and while the President recently gave the economy an A+, in this poll, only three percent of Americans say that they think the state of the economy is excellent. George, if there was one sliver of good news, if you want to call it that, in this poll for the White House, it was that by a narrow margin, people actually distrust Democrats even more than Republicans to deal with the economy.

NBC’s Today got their licks in as well, but they were nowhere near as apoplectic as ABC.

“Addressing the nation. President Trump delivering a rare prime-time speech defending his first year back in office...while blaming Democrats for the biggest concern for voters: the high cost of living. We’ll break down the President’s message and reaction in a live report from Washington,” teased co-host Craig Melvin.

Senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake said Trump’s speech “felt in many ways like a campaign rally speech on fast forward” and while it was “meant to tout progress on the border and the economy,” Trump “offer[ed] at times exaggerated and misleading claims to advance his arguments...pointing fingers at his predecessor, President Biden, for what he says was the mess left for him to clean up.”

“Nearly a year into his second term, the President attempting to blame Americans’ ongoing economic anxieties on his predecessor, mentioning former President Joe Biden seven times,” Haake added, arguing the speech came “amid persistent polling showing Americans souring on his handling of cost of living issues.”

Haake also took issue with Trump’s border claims, saying he had “falsely claim[ed] 25 million people entered the country illegally during the Biden administration, while Border Patrol statistics show the real number was closer to 10 million.”

Going lastly to CBS Mornings, the liberal editorializing surfaced at the onset:

 

Senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang further said Trump “delivered a dramatic defense of his presidency and took direct aim at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden” and “argued his policies have fixed past immigration and border issues...and solved economic woes.”

Like Haake, Scott, and all the rest, Jiang too brought up inflation and current polling (click “expand”):

JIANG: But according to the consumer price index, the latest data says inflation sits at three percent, the same as it was the month he took office, and Americans are feeling it. CBS News polling finds a majority of people, 76 percent, say their income is not keeping up with those inflation rates. Despite the concerns, Trump remains confident his plan is working.

TRUMP: We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.

JIANG: And the President revealed new goals.

TRUMP: Mortgage payments will be coming down even further — [SCREEN WIPE] — and you will see this. In the new year I will announce some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history.

(....)

JIANG: President Trump knows the economy is going to be a make-or-break issue when it comes to those midterm elections next year that will determine control of Congress and, by extension, his own legislative agenda.

After King observed Trump “many times...seemed to be screaming at the camera,” chief Washington analyst and former conservative reporter Robert Costa shared sources were telling him in the White House there’s been “frustration...about how the economic record is being received by some voters, how it’s playing out in the press, and even among Republicans in Congress.”

Costa further described this as “simmering anger, at times, I’m told, in the administration about how they believe her’s not getting enough credit and they want to counter the Democrats” about “affordability.”

To see the relevant transcripts from December 18, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).