On Friday, the flagship morning news shows of ABC, CBS, and NBC were shamelessly ebullient at President Biden’s speech hours later that would use the heroes who fought and died at Pointe du Hoc as part of the D-Day invasion as implicit but a “clear” “contrast” against President Trump, cloaking his daggers as “a forceful defense of democracy” and “echoing the lessons of the past” to speak to “audiences back home”.
Unsurprisingly, ABC’s Good Morning America was on its own planet with its out-of-control quackery. Leading the way? Biden tools in co-host George Stephanopoulos and its chief White House correspondent (aka chief Biden apple polisher), Mary Bruce.
“President Biden’s major address as the world remembers D-Day. President’s warning to the world,” Stephanopoulos boomed in a tease, adding prior to Bruce the official White House spin that Biden’s speech would be about the “timeless principles that have safe guarded American security and democracy.”
Smiling from ear-to-ear, Bruce gushed about how from “here on the edge of these 100 foot cliffs that American forces scaled on D-Day, President Biden today will offer a forceful defense of democracy.”
“And, while he is not expected to call out Donald Trump by name, the contrast will be clear. This morning, 80 years after the invasion that turned the tide of World War II, President Biden arguing the lessons of the past cannot be forgotten as he rallies the next generation to protect democracy,” she giddily proclaimed.
Unfortunately, Bruce had more rhetorical valentines, like this one: “Biden, feeling the weight of history as he toured the Normandy American cemetery.”
Bruce even fretted pesky voters have other priorities that are getting in Biden’s way: “While the President is echoing the lessons of the past to make clear what’s at stake in this election, back home issues like the economy and immigration continue to dominate.”
She closed with another clip for her hypothetical press secretary audition tape: “Now, this is the site of one of President Reagan’s most iconic speeches. And, today, President Biden will try to echo that moment as he argues the dangers of isolationism and it underscores the need to come together and fight again tyranny, making what he thinks is on the line in this election.”
Over on NBC’s Today, chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander had his moments of shilling, saying Biden would “deliver a forceful defense of democracy, sharing, harnessing the stories of the inspiring courage and commitment to those rangers here”.
“The speech coming 40 years after Ronald Reagan gave what’s considered the greatest tribute to those brave American warriors who endured withering gunfire...President Biden hoping to summon those same patriotic sentiments that helped propelled President Reagan to reelection that year,” he gushed.
Alexander later smeared Republicans by arguing Biden was more aligned with “Reagan’s legacy of leadership against tyranny” since the GOP is led by someone “warmed up to Russia’s Vladimir Putin” (click “expand”):
Well, Savannah, notably, the President is looking to align himself with President Reagan’s legacy of leadership against tyranny. The irony here, of course, Biden a Democrat, Reagan, a conservative Republican, but the Republican Party has gone in a very different direction since Trump’s time in office here.
And the President is hoping to draw a contrast between his unifying that western alliance and former President Trump is trying to pull the U.S. out of the NATO alliance and also warmed up to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. One other note we should share today among those expected to be in attendance, private first class John Wardell. 19 years old when he came here on that mission. Now 99 years old. He’ll be there listening to the President[.]
CBS Mornings wasn’t going to be left out. Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King also led the show with state-run media, saying there was “a major new effort by President Biden to warn about the forces threatening democracy around the world.”
White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe kept his segment more geared toward Biden’s support for Ukraine, but nonetheless said Biden would use “one of the most breathtaking backdrops a president can visit....to talk about his concerns about the future of democracy” and invoked the Reagan comparison as a reelection ploy (click “expand”):
O’KEEFE: Biden isn’t the first American president to speak from the shell-scarred site. 40 years ago, Ronald Reagan touched on similar themes when he honored the boys of Pointe du Hoc.
RONALD REAGAN [on 06/06/84]: And democracy is worth dying for because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
O’KEEFE: Now, here at Pointe du Hoc, the White House tells us, again, the president’s going to focus on his once about the future of democracy. It’s a message that will be heard by the world, but that aides say is especially designed to reach audiences back home as he continues his re-election fight. And the trip here to France continues through the weekend. Saturday, it’s a state visit with a full military parade in the streets of Paris and a state dinner, and big meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron before flying home on Sunday[.]
To see the relevant transcripts from June 7, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
