After ignoring the story on Monday and Tuesday, the ABC and NBC morning shows on Wednesday finally noticed that a United States Supreme Court judge has been going on a partisan, anti-Donald Trump tirade. Good Morning America’s Tom Llamas stacked the deck, describing the dispute as Trump having “a new fight with an 83-year-old, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Of course, Ginsburg started the war of words.
Llamas quoted the liberal judge on CNN: “He is a faker. He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego.” She also attacked Trump in an interview with the New York Times, but GMA and Today initially ignored that part.
The journalist continued, “Trump getting even more critical this morning sending out this tweet. Here it is. He writes, ‘Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot, resign.’”
Co-host George Stephanopoulos actually pressed Bernie Sanders about the appropriateness of a sitting Supreme Court judge electioneering: “You've seen this war of words between Justice Ginsburg Donald Trump right now. Was it appropriate for a Supreme Court justice to call a presidential candidate a faker and to joke about moving to new Zealand?”
Over on Today, co-host Matt Lauer on Wednesday opened the program by announcing a “Supreme spat.” Reporter Hallie Jackson mentioned, “Now, some on both sides of the aisle are saying those comments crossed a line, coming from a sitting Supreme Court Justice.” (Again, this prompts the question: Why was the Today show so tardy on this scandal?)
On CBS This Morning, Major Garrett explained, “One person who was not excited for a Supreme Court presidency, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” He included a clip of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan deriding, “For someone on the Supreme Court, who is going to be calling balls and strikes in the future based upon whatever the next Congress and President does, that strikes me as inherently biased and out of the realm.”
CBS, to its credit, did cover the Ginsburg/Trump fight on Monday morning. Unlike their morning show counterparts, the NBC Nightly News and ABC’s World News Tonight reported on the story Tuesday night.
A partial transcript of GMA’s coverage is below:
GMA
7/13/16
7:03TOM LLAMAS: He has a new fight with an 83-year-old, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Ginsburg taking on Trump, telling CNN "He is a faker. He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego." Trump firing back, calling it a disgrace and telling the Times, “It's highly inappropriate that a United States Supreme Court judge gets involved in a political campaign.” Trump says he hopes Ginsburg gets off the Court as soon as possible. And Trump getting even more critical this morning, sending out this tweet. Here it is. He writes, “Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot, resign.” So, Robin this fight not going anywhere fast. Robin?
...
7:10
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally sir, you've seen this war of words between Justice Ginsburg Donald Trump right now. Was it appropriate for a Supreme Court justice to call a presidential candidate a faker and to joke about moving to new Zealand?
SANDERS: Well, that's — I'll let justice Ginsburg answer that herself.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, what do you think?
SANDERS: Well, what I think is that right now we have to focus on electing Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States. Let me be very clear, I agree with what Justice Ginsburg said. I think that Trump is a total opportunist. I think I would — I do not believe anything that comes out of his mouth because I think the record is quite clear that he lies just a whole lot of the time and I think we need a president right now who is prepared to be consistent, to stand up for working families and to protect our children.
