Tuesday on ABC’s Good Morning America, co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos tag-teamed with chief White House correspondent and unofficial Biden-Harris official Mary Bruce showed they understood the assignment in fawning over the Democratic National Convention. In this case, it was hailing President Biden’s speech “passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris” to cap “jam-packed and emotional first night.”
Stephanopoulos’s tease wasn’t what one could consider a Notable Quotable, but it instead read like a staid press release:
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos understood the assignment for 'GMA'. This was his tease recapping night one of the DNC:
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 20, 2024
"President Biden keynotes the DNC, calls VP Kamala Harris the next president. Passing the torch...President Biden at the Democratic National Convention greeted by… pic.twitter.com/ziUxOWFzIA
His opening to Bruce’s report upped the ante, stating as fact that the nominee for a party representing nearly half the country is a threat to democracy (and one could then extrapolate to the voters being a threat as well):
The Democratic National Convention started last night. Presiden Biden took the stage in Chicago just before midnight, passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her tough, experienced with enormous integrity. He also warned of the danger posed by Donald Trump, saying that democracy must be preserved.
Bruce laid on thick as yet another clip for what would be an impressive highlight reel for an application to work in the press office of a hypothetical Harris administration:
What is this? North Korea or the United States? ABC’s Mary Bruce, laying it on thick for Biden like she’s a co-host of ‘The View’
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 20, 2024
“Well, this was a jam packed and emotional first night. The President speaking for nearly an hour, going well past midnight and, in many ways, this… pic.twitter.com/Z6R2kMbHqW
After that “jam-packed and emotional” line, Bruce further swooned as though it weren’t a issue that Biden’s speech went “well past midnight” because “this was his swan song” with Biden “ touting and defending his record and making a forceful case for Kamala Harris to carry his legacy forward.”
“Overnight, a teary-eyed Joe Biden taking the convention stage to a rousing standing ovation over four minutes long. The crowd chanting thank you, Joe,” she added.
Bruce made Biden seem cuddly and not the kind of person whom CNN’s Scott Jennings diagnosed hours earlier as “one of the orneriest, angriest presidents we’ve ever” had.
Instead, we had lines like this: “The President, ticking through his accomplishments, but arguing it’s Harris, not him, who is best suited to finish the job.”
Following a detour to showcase Harris’s appearance on stage hours before Biden and a primetime speech by Hillary Clinton, Bruce boasted that “the last word belonging to Biden”, a man “eager to cement his legacy and deliver the White House to Harris.”
“The party’s past and future embracing on the stage. Harris appearing to tell Biden, I love you so much,” Bruce giddily proclaimed before concluding with a preview of speakers for Tuesday.
Turning to chief Washington correspondent and three-time anti-Trump author Jonathan Karl, Stephanopoulos proclaimed that Biden “seemed to make the most of” his situation.
Karl agreed, gushing he “soaked in the adulation of this crowd, the gratitude of this crowd” for “not just for a career in public service, but for that decision that was largely forced on him at the end, to bow out of the race.”
As a throwaway line, Karl conceded Biden’s “speech was a little long” and “obviously late” but joined Bruce in seeing no issue with lines such as when he equated Israelis (including those who had loved ones kidnapped by terrorists on October 7) and supporters of Hamas protesting in Chicago.
Stephanopoulos and Karl dragged on with even more lame talking points before a few seconds on what Donald Trump was up to on Monday (click “expand”):
STEPHANOPOULOS: No questions. It’s pretty clear that one of the key themes for the Democrats this week is going to be unity.
KARL: Yeah. Absolutely, unity and you see unity here. This is such a contrast from the2016 campaign where you had all the bitterness of the Bernie Sanders supporters. The entire Democratic Party here is unified behind Kamala Harris and energized in a way that, frankly, they were not energized under Joe Biden. And make no mistake, George. There is nobody here — for all the bitterness that is still there, that Biden was forced out of this race, he clearly believes he could have won if he had stayed in, but he really had no choice. There is nobody more vested in a Kamala Harris victory than Joe Biden. If she wins his legacy is preserved. If she loses, he will largely take the blame and Donald Trump has made it clear that he will doing everything he can to pick apart everything that — that Joe Biden accomplished over the past three and a half years.
STEPHANOPOULOS: No question about that. Let’s bring in Rachel Scott. We do know Donald Trump was campaigning in Pennsylvania. Typically, a mixed message.
SCOTT: It really was, George. And look, the challenge for vice president Kamala Harris ahead of the election will be defining her own message. The challenge for former President Trump will be staying focused on his message. So, his campaign this week has been hitting all these different battleground states. Every day is focused on a different theme from the economy to the border to law and order. The former President largely stayed on script, but he also veered off and he portrayed Harris as foreign. He questioned if Democrats know where she came from. And also, on social media, he’s still fuming that President Biden is no longer in this race. A sign the former President knows that this is a race that’s now neck and neck, but almost every Republican that I talk to, they cannot deny Harris has gained some momentum since she entered the race, but they also still point out that Donald Trump does have a slight advantage on some of these key issues — the economy, crime, inflation. The question is whether or not Donald Trump can stay focused on those issues heading into the election, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: It sure is a big question.
For good measure, ABC brought Bruce back for the second hour to rerack many of these laugh lines.
To see the relevant ABC transcript from August 20, click here.
