Striking a different tone than the lukewarm reactions by ABC and NBC to Hillary Clinton’s DNC speech late Thursday night, CBS enthusiastically praised her “steadiness,” intro music choice of Rachel Platten's Fight Song and admitted they were “moved by how many times she said ‘strength’ and ‘together.’”
If the gushing praise wasn’t enough, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley hyped in a terrible, pro-Hillary quip that “[t]here was one moment when she mentioned Trump and stared into the camera with a look so menacing it probably stirred Trump's Secret Service detail.”
CBS This Morning co-host Norah O’Donnell received the first crack at the speech and she touted Clinton for “stressing her steadiness, her readiness, her experience and her empathy” who “didn't flinch from the fight taking the argument right to Donald Trump, questioning his temperament and blasted his bigotry and bombast — those are her words.”
Fellow morning show co-host and Obama friend Gayle King spun from the convention floor that “[t]his is a moment, Norah, that everybody has been waiting for and they are really, really psyched about that.”
King spent a few moments harping on Clinton’s music choice (pun intended) that she walked out to that, by the looks of Twitter, is certainly tired of: “Hillary Clinton watched up to Rachel Platten’s This Is My Fight Song and when you listen to the lyrics, it's a really good choice. One line says my power is turned up and the power is turned up in here.”
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She finished by faithfully touting the “high expectations” for the speech from delegates “that Hillary delivered on that in a Hillary kind of way” before adding:
They said she was smart and she will make a great president. Did they learn anything new about her? They said, yep, she has a tender side. The moment between Hillary and Barack Obama last night was very special and to see her interacting with her daughter, Chelsea was a very special moment and now the fireworks are beginning.
O’Donnell later was joined by Hillary friend and fellow co-host Charlie Rose to give their approval of Clinton name-checking her book (well, not really) It Takes a Village to so “we’ve come full circle.”
Like a good “friend” who read her a Maya Angelou poem, Rose marveled at the basic rhetoric strategy of repetition:
I was moved by how many times she said “strength” and “together.” She talked about strength — she even said we have nothing to fear but fear itself, but it was always together. We can do this together. No one person can do it. We can do it together and then she listed all the things that she believed in to say this is who I am. This is what my life is about, but this is what I believe in and we need you to join us.
It was not long after these remarks that Pelley made his eye-rolling joke about Hillary’s glares inviting a talk from the Secret Service: “[Y]ou got the sense of a person who’s as tough as Donald Trump. There was one moment when she mentioned Trump and stared into the camera with a look so menacing it probably stirred Trump's Secret Service detail.”
As I stated at the top, ABC and NBC chose not to twist themselves into praising Clinton’s acceptance speech with some offering critiques of the speech as likely not moving the needle for voters in swing parts of the country.
Concerning the millions of Americans who are upset with the current state of affairs across the globe, ABC’s Martha Raddatz had this to say that summed up much of the feelings on her network:
[W]hile she acknowledged it, I'm not sure that's the kind of language that will get through to those voters. The voters I talked to in Pennsylvania, Ohio, all over this country say that Hillary Clinton can't be trusted, and we all know trustworthiness is something she has a problem with, as does Donald Trump, in many ways. But she has to appeal to those angry voters and Donald Trump in many ways is saying what they want to hear.
Over on NBC, Today co-host Savannah Guthrie similarly shrugged it off: “But it was very Hillary Clinton. So if you like her, if you love her, you love this speech. If you do not, I don't think there was anything in there to change your mind. It didn't pack an emotional punch. But it was a do-no harm speech.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from CBS’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention on July 28 can be found below.
CBS Democratic National Convention
July 28, 2016
11:27 p.m. Eastern
NORAH O’DONNELL: And Hillary Clinton has accepted the Democratic Party nomination stressing her steadiness, her readiness, her experience and her empathy. She said someone that will be the president for all of us. She didn't flinch from the fight taking the argument right to Donald Trump, questioning his temperament and blasted his bigotry and bombast. Those are her words and, Scott, she talked about her primary mission.
(....)
GAYLE KING: This is a moment, Norah, that everybody has been waiting for and they are really, really psyched about that. Hillary Clinton watched up to Rachel Platten’s This Is My Fight Song and when you listen to the lyrics, it's a really good choice. One line says my power is turned up and the power is turned up in here. The delegates said they had high expectations of her speech tonight and the words I kept hearing over and over and over tonight about how they wanted to feel when she was done was inspired and included and they said that Hillary delivered on that in a Hillary kind of way. They said she was smart and she will make a great president. Did they learn anything new about her? They said, yep, she has a tender side. The moment between Hillary and Barack Obama last night was very special and to see her interacting with her daughter, Chelsea was a very special moment and now the fireworks are beginning.
(....)
O’DONNELL: John, thank you. In fact, Charlie she brought back the name of her book It Takes a Village.
CHARLIE ROSE: It Takes a Village.
O’DONNELL: We’ve come full circle.
ROSE: Yeah. I was moved by how many times she said “strength” and “together.” She talked about strength — she even said we have nothing to fear but fear itself, but it was always together. We can do this together. No one person can do it. We can do it together and then she listed all the things that she believed in to say this is who I am. This is what my life is about, but this is what I believe in and we need you to join us.
PELLEY: Bob, you got the sense of a person who’s as tough as Donald Trump. There was one moment when she mentioned Trump and stared into the camera with a look so menacing it probably stirred Trump's Secret Service detail.
BOB SCHIEFFER: You know, what we found out — what we found out tonight is the way she defined this race. She talked about the economy. She recognized that there's a serious terrorist threat and she said we can do something about it working together. This is the town after all where they began a famous document “We the people” and she put it as we the people tonight, but here's the thing. There's one issue in this campaign as she told it tonight, one issue and the issue is simply this, Donald Trump. Do you want him to be president?
ROSE: She pointed out as with the Founding Fathers, you have to compromise to get things done. They did and she will.
