The still far-left CBS Mornings began Wednesday with five minutes of fawning over soon-to-be-ex-colleague Stephen Colbert teaming up for Tuesday’s Late Show with former President Barack Obama ahead of the latter’s Presidential Center to attack President Trump through a series of serious projections about norms.
In other words, they treated water being wet as breaking news.
WATCH: Wednesday's 'CBS Mornings' opened with *FIVE* minutes on Stephen Colbert and Barack Obama trashing Trump at the Obama library pic.twitter.com/37MSIOxTUG
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 6, 2026
It began with the end of the show’s “Eye Opener” as the two held a game of waste-basketball basketball as a follow-up to Colbert defeating Obama during a 2020 interview. Reacting to Colbert trouncing Obama, the CBS co-hosts were giggly over this supposedly amazing bit:
GAYLE KING: Well, those two have a bond.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Hey, yeah, they’re clearly do.
NATE BURLESON: That kind of spirit came out of Barack at the end.
An Obama donor and family friend (who’s even vacationed with them and never faced public pushback from CBS), King gushed that they would “begin with what appeared to be some very pointed comments for President Trump from former President Barack Obama in an interview with Stephen Colbert,” “criticizing the expanding powers of the executive branch, including President Trump’s use of the Justice Department.”
Nevermind how Obama’s first attorney general — Eric Holder — was dubbed his “wingman.”
Sadly, CBS gave senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang the task of dressing up this blatant corporate synergy and partisan pandering as legitimate news.
“[H]e had plenty to say about the presidency and how the Oval Office has changed since he was in charge...During a taped interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert asked former President Barack Obama about the expanding powers of the executive branch, and what powers he believes whoever is the president should not have,” Jiang stated in part.
Following a back-and-forth with Obama giving the liberal audience predictable yet fake slop about how an attorney general should be independent from the whims of a president and this “norm” should be respected, Jiang conceded:
Obama did not mention President Trump by name, but he nodded to critics who say Trump has leaned on the role of Attorney General and the Justice Department to pursue investigations into his political adversaries, including former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Leitia James. Obama also spoke about the President’s power as commander-in-chief.
She was sent out to treat another portion of the interview about conflicts of interest as newsy: “Obama also seemed to criticize the President for using the office to advance business interests for his family and friends.”
The third and final portion she highlighted was discussion of Colbert running for president (as a Democrat, but such a fact was left out).
She tied it all together by citing a recent poll on Trump’s approval
A recent Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll on Trump’s approval rating found only 37 percent of Americans approve of his job performance. This interview dropped just six months before a contentious midterm election when the U.S. is wrapped up in a war with Iran and gas prices continue to climb. We have asked the White House for a response to Obama, but have not heard back this morning[.]
The show shamelessly had a second segment about this interview with chief Washington analyst Robert Costa, who had the gall to tell featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers that former presidents “don’t always want to weigh in on current affairs,” but Obama chose to given the opening of this so-called “Presidential Center” (click “expand”):
DUTHIERS: Bob, as Weijia outlined, this criticism comes as President Trump faces some very, very tough political headwinds. You frequently speak to President Trump, what do you make of this and how might President Trump respond?
COSTA: Good morning. There’s always a political dance for former presidents. They don’t always want to weigh in on current affairs. But with the opening of the library, we see former President Obama doing just that, not using President Trump’s name. But his comments reflect a growing confidence among many Democrats nationally that ahead of these midterm elections. The headwinds are around the White House right now that the Democrats have a real shot of winning the majority. But we can expect, based on my conversations with White House officials and top advisors to President Trump, he is going to fight back. He believes he has executive authority blessed by the Supreme Court, and he has the political will to fight.
First, Obama has made endorsements in nearly every election since leaving office. Secondly, he spent months appearing in ads for the Virginia Democrat move to gerrymander the state from a six Democrat-five Republican map to 10 Democrats to one Republican.
And finally, this is not a library, thus breaking a norm set by every presidential center going back to Herbert Hoover.
Unsurprisingly, CBS didn’t have a word about its controversial history that featured years of delays and a doubling of costs to build it on the South Side of Chicago.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from May 6, click here.
