Gone are the days of polishing baskets of apples for the Biden regime and, as we learned recently, submitting questions in advance, ABC chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce has had to resort to going back on the attack, so it was no surprise Monday when she spent the whole day kicking dirt on President Trump’s historic Middle East peace deal with Israel and Hamas.
Bruce was so possessed to go negative World News Tonight anchor David Muir had to twice intervene to emphasize no one was casting doubt or minimizing the emotional, powerful, and necessary release of all living and deceased Israeli hostages by Hamas.
Her live hits started just after 1:30 a.m. Eastern in the first of many network special reports. At first, she was hopeful and gave the hostage families the central focus they deserved since “[i]t has been 736 agonizing days for these families, for the world, waiting for this very moment for these remaining hostages to be released.”
“[T]oday, right now, in this moment, this morning is all about these families and the hostages being returned, a momentous, huge moment, highly emotional,” she added.
As for the path ahead, she remained even keeled in describing the “tremendous sticking points,” such as the need for Hamas to disarm, but nothing major.
An hour and 20 minutes later, she begrudgingly called it “a remarkable sight” of “Israel, quite literally rolling out the red carpet to welcome President Trump, who, of course, played such a critical role in brokering this deal” and forcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the table.
But come midday U.S. time, the wheels came off with Bruce being so negative (which, to some extent, revolved around herself and her questions to Trump) and Muir seemingly realizing she had killed the vibes (click “expand” to read the full exchange):
MUIR: And as you could hear from President Trump here today, hoping that this day not only defines his presidency but defines the future here of the Middle East. What comes next, though, Mary, as you and I both know, will be a significant challenge here.
BRUCE: A tremendous challenge, David, and President Trump throughout the day has been welcomed, both here in Israel and in Egypt as a peacemaker and this is a huge success for President Trump. He is now hailing this as a historic dawn of a new Middle East. He no question helped to broker this deal. He was pivotal through his relationships within the Middle East and also just through his own brash style, putting tremendous pressure on Netanyahu and also taking actions that proved that he could be trusted to Hamas. But the President today has been touting this deal. He has also been looking ahead, but it is notable that he has not really been discussing the details yet. Of the many, many challenges ahead, he did tell reporters a short while ago that he believes that phase two has begun, that it began immediately. So we are now at that point. But the President has also declared that this war is over. It is now up to many of the leaders that he is meeting with now to ensure that that actually comes to pass. But there are tremendous questions that still remain here. How will Gaza be made secure? How will it be reconstructed? Who’s going to pay for all of that? And who will govern Gaza in the short term? I have been asking these questions of the President for the last week: what does phase two look like? He hasn’t wanted to get into those details just yet. Today has been a moment for him to celebrate this victory. The question now, how does he take this momentum and move it forward? And we have heard from him that he, in fact believes that this is a turning point, not just for Israel and the people of Gaza, but for the Middle East as a whole. He has mentioned relations with Iran today in his remarks as well. He has a grand, big vision, and he is hoping that this is just the beginning of a true new era here, David.
MUIR: And no one, of course, minimizing the power, the impact of these 20 hostages being returned to these Israeli families here today, extremely, extremely moving images being seen all over the world. Mary. But on Air Force One, coming into the region, as you know, President Trump made it very clear when asked. He said, the war is over. We have not heard those words from Israeli authorities any sort of declaration to that extent from the prime minister or the Israeli military.
BRUCE: We have not. And it is a very important distinction. The President has been blunt. He thinks this is going to hold and that the war is over. In fact, he was quite blunt about that. The war is over. The war is over. You understand? That is what he said to reporters when they pointed out that Netanyahu hasn’t gone so far in declaring that. Hamas has welcomed that statement. And so there is a it appears to be a bit of a disagreement. And certainly while the President is using this breakthrough, this return of hostages, this tremendous ceasefire to claim that the entire war has been solved, the reality is that there is a lot left to work out here and while interestingly, Netanyahu, of course, is not there tonight, he was invited by Egyptian President el-Sisi in a conversation that President Trump brokered himself earlier today. Netanyahu not attending, citing the Jewish holiday, so it is an interesting moment to have this conversation about the path forward without essentially the protagonist in this story.
Not even 15 minutes later, Muir had tried to keep things on track by even marveling at President Trump “taking on a significant role on the world stage” with not only the Board of Peace to oversee Gaza, but the fact that he was the one who took individual pictures with word leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, not President el-Sisi.
Despite that table-setting, Bruce doubled down:
Bruce gave it one more go before 1:00 p.m. Eastern, harping on the “very daunting tasks” and “very tall task” for President Trump to ensure Middle East leaders do their part.
To rebalance things, Muir invoked President Trump’s praise for the media coverage as a way of correctly noting asking “tougher questions” about the future of the region does nothing in “diminishing the power of what finally played out for the families who waited for more than two years.”
Bruce took that and ran with the negatives:
He certainly is taking a victory lap today. He certainly has been relishing all of the praise, but the praise is much deserved. He played a very pivotal role here, an incredibly pivotal role in getting this deal across the finish line in a way that, as he notes, his predecessor was unable to do. But all of the circumstances coming together, the work of his negotiators, Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, using his real estate know-how, his connections in the region to get this deal together. But even Jared Kushner has reflected on how this is similar to a real estate deal in the sense that you get to yes and then you work out the details they have gotten to. Yes, they’ve gotten the ceasefire. They have now the hostages finally home on this momentous day. Now you have to get down to doing the real work of working through what comes next and how you make sure that this lasts, and coming up with some long term solution. So, the President — yes, he has been, I think, quite pleased to see all of the coverage praising his role in this. He certainly seemed to relish the reception he received here in Israel earlier today, the — the lengthy standing ovations, the repeated standing ovation, the heaping praise from the Israeli leaders, the calls for him to perhaps receive the Nobel Peace Prize next year. So yes, this is a huge moment for this President, for the us. But now what comes next[.]
To see the relevant ABC transcript from October 13, click here.
