We all knew it was coming, and we all knew what the reaction would be. During the 10 am ET hour Friday, CNN’s Jim Sciutto visibly winced as he broke the news that the Supreme Court had overturned the precedent establishing abortion as a legal right.
In the wake of Roe v. Wade’s demise, here’s a little glimpse at the overwrought declarations by everyone’s favorite usual suspects in TV news:
MSNBC’s Joyce Vance had a rather network-appropriate action to the ruling:
This is a tough situation. I think we all knew that this was coming. I think we expected for it to feel bad. I’m not sure we all fully appreciated how devastating it would feel to to see the words on the paper condemning women to second-class citizenship.
ABC’s Terry Moran appeared disappointed that nearly two months of threats and protesting (not to mention an assassination attempt) had failed to sway any of the justices to reconsider. “Alito had written previously that, ‘We cannot allow our decisions to be affected by any extraneous influences such as concern about the public’s reaction to our work,’ Moran noted, continuing: “that’s exactly what they’ve done here; they’ve ignored any potential public reaction.”
Over on NBC, chief legal analyst Chuck Todd offered some predictably dramatic takes about the Supreme Court’s legitimacy: “I think there are no more black robes. I think the robes are red and blue.” He added: “There really is a lot of people who believe that this is a rigged court.”
Over at CNN, legal analyst and Zoom enthusiast Jeffrey Toobin proclaimed that the decision would lead to “a legal civil war between the states.”
