Norah O'Donnell
During a contentious interview with Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee on Tuesday, the hosts of CBS This Morning grilled the lawmaker on whether President Trump should be impeached following the release of the Mueller report and fretted that the President was unfit for office. They also pressed Lee on whether the results of the Russia investigation would “hurt” Republicans politically.
CBS on Monday night and Tuesday morning focused on the Trump administration’s zero tolerance separation policy, blasting it as “cruel” and an example of why journalists need to get beyond “policy” and focus on real world results. Strangely, CBS journalists often skip the equally heart-wrenching impacts of murders and drunk driving killings by those illegally in the United States.
After CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King complained on Wednesday about having to cover former Vice President Joe Biden’s questionable behavior toward women, she doubled down on Thursday, mourning the “sad conversation” taking place about the 2020 Democrat’s handsy tendencies. The other hosts joined in, even giving testimonials about Biden’s character.
The CBS This Morning crew on Tuesday and Wednesday again expressed irritation about having to cover man accused of doing questionable things to a woman. This time it wasn’t their colleague Charlie Rose, but Democrat Joe Biden. Co-host Gayle King said she had seen a lot of “eye rolls” at the claims of unwanted touching by Biden. She weirdly added that the allegations “make my teeth hurt.”
Appearing on CBS This Morning on Monday to tout his new book on Sandra Day O’Connor, author Evan Thomas hailed the former Supreme Court justice as a “conservative Republican” because she voted in favor of abortion and affirmative action. Talking to co-host Norah O’Donnell, the former Newsweek editor hyped, “She preserved affirmative action and abortion for 25 years. That is no small thing. You know? Conservatives thought when she got on the Court, those things are gone. Those are the bete noire of the right wing.”
ABC and NBC on Monday skipped a brewing scandal over how 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand allegedly mishandled a sexual harassment case in her Senate office. Only CBS This Morning covered the story (for a scant 49 seconds). Co-host Norah O’Donnell briefly explained, “Politico says a female aide to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand resigned last summer in protest over the handling of her sexual harassment claim by Gillibrand’s office."
CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King on Monday pulled back the veil on the liberal echo chamber, telling likely 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand that “dinner party” conversations chide her for “betraying” the Clintons. In the same interview, co-host Norah O’Donnell wondered if Donald Trump might be impeached by the time Gillibrand hypothetically won the Democratic nomination.
CBS bowed out of live coverage of the Cohen hearing on Wednesday with hot talk. Anchor Norah O'Donnell summarized the "extraordinary" hearing this way: it "might be the most damaging testimony for a president since former White House counsel John Dean testified against President Nixon during the Watergate hearings." The words "criminal conspiracy" kept being repeated for emphasis.
Moments before Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen began, the broadcast networks reveled in their own excitement as anchors and correspondents predicted doom for President Trump. The hearing was framed as everything from an impeachment “test drive” for Democrats to “a bullet right to the heart of the investigation into the President.”
Apparently, one congressional effort that can’t succeed is worthy of attention on ABC and CBS, but the other is not. The difference? The two networks yawned at a pro-life effort to protect infants who survive abortions. But Good Morning America and CBS This Morning hyped the mostly Democratic move to terminate Donald Trump’s national declaration of emergency on the southern border.
According to a scoop by Variety magazine on Wednesday, CBS is considering removing Evening News anchor Jeff Glor and replacing him with liberal This Morning co-host Norah O’Donnell. Writer Brian Steinberg announced that “executives are considering putting CBS This Morning anchor Norah O’Donnell in the lead role of its evening-news broadcast, these people said, as well as moving the broadcast to Washington, D.C.”
On Friday, all three network morning shows eagerly touted the Supreme Court temporarily blocking a Louisiana law set to go into effect that would require abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges. The same hosts and correspondents that breathlessly hyped the “big story” completely ignored an extreme late-term abortion law being passed in New York State just two weeks ago.