Between Thursday night and Friday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC added another few news cycles to the manufactured “controversy” and “firestorm” surrounding former President Trump’s Monday visit to Arlington National Cemetery with families of the 13 Americans killed in August 2021 in Afghanistan, declaring it “isn’t over yet”.
Worse yet, they opened a second front by suddenly (and disingenuously) acting like fiscal conservatives over Trump promising to make in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments free. It was, in other words, a repeat of the tax-on-tips double standard.
ABC was apoplectic on both. Thursday’s World News Tonight featured weekend anchor Whit Johnson boasting of “the growing controversy” and “new fallout from former President Trump’s stop at Arlington National Cemetery”, citing an Army statement trashing Trump.
“The Army says they consider the matter closed, but the controversy isn’t over yet,” Johnson declared with authority, illustrating the liberal media’s arrogance and dictatorial stranglehold on whether a storyline can fall off, be sustained, or ignored all together.
Becoming quite the unofficial Harris-Walz agent, senior Whiter House correspondent Selina Wang also declared there was “growing fallout” over Trump and his team tastelessly “defying Department of Defense policy” with their presence
She even kvetched that “Trump blaming President Biden and Vice President Harris for the botched withdrawal from America’s longest war” and returned to the well of finding a Gold Star family whose loved one’s gravestone was captured in photos because they were next to one of those killed at Abbey Gate.
On IVF, the newscast had lead regime media pom-pom waver Mary Bruce huff about Trump being “[w]ell aware that reproductive rights have become a political liability for Republicans” and dismissed this move she’d be grinning from ear-to-ear if Harris made it. On Harris, she reiterated her friends are “hoping that the issue of abortion will help her expand her reach”.
“Trump, who has bragged about appointing three of the justices who overturned Roe vs. Wade and said states are handling the issue brilliantly, now tonight saying...his administration would ensure IVF treatments are more easily assessable,” she complained.
SUDDEN FISCAL CONSERVATIVE? ABC's Selina Wang repeatedly huffs about Trump calling for IVF treatments to be made free and suddenly concerned about how it'll all be paid for.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 30, 2024
If Kamala Harris proposed it, Selina and ABC would be over the moon and ignore the price tag. pic.twitter.com/XtATxfHInF
Wang took over the IVF subject on Friday’s Good Morning America, announcing with a heavy dose of disgust that Trump “claim[ed] he would make a IVF treatment for you without giving any details on how that would work,” including “any specifics on how he would pay for this costly plan or enact it.”
Wang continued to harp about the cost (click “expand”):
WANG: IVF can cost tens of thousands of dollars, with nearly 90,000 babies born in the U.S. with fertility treatments each year.
TRUMP: We want to produce babies in this country, right?
WANG: Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign telling ABC News, “Donald Trump’s own platform could effectively ban IVF and abortion nationwide. Trump lies as much if not more than he breeds, but voters aren’t stupid.” Trump making this proposal despite repeatedly bragging about appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, opening the door to new restrictions for fertility treatments.
TRUMP [on 04/12/24]: We broke Roe v. Wade and we did something nobody thought was possible. We gave it back to the states.
WANG: Earlier this year, Alabama Supreme Court declared frozen embryos human beings, entitled to full rights, causing fertility clinics across the state to shut down for weeks. A new poll finding Harris has a 16-point advantage over Trump on who voters trust more to handle the issue of abortion. In his own home state of Florida, Trump now saying he opposes the state’s ban on abortion at six weeks, before most women even though they are pregnant.
TRUMP: I think the six weeks is too short. It has to be more time, and so, that’s — and I’ve told them I want more weeks.
WANG: Trump contradicting his own statements that the issue of abortion should be left to the states, but Trump’s campaign attempting to appease his anti-abortion base, later saying he has not yet decided how he will vote. He simply reiterated that believes six weeks is too short, he has reiterated. Over the years, Donald Trump has flip-flopped on the issue of abortion but his focus on IVF is clearly an attempt to blend Harris’s attacks that he will rip away reproductive freedoms.
Thursday’s NBC Nightly News rivaled ABC. Fill-in anchor Tom Llamas lost his noodle over “the firestorm” about Trump “bringing politics into the hallowed ground of Arlington” and the former President being “seen giving a thumb’s up at the grave of a fallen soldier” not long after someone on his team “abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery official.
So silly from Thurday's 'NBC Nightly News'. Fill-in anchor Tom Llamas seemed all bent out of shape over Trump giving a thumbs up in a photo with Abbey Gate families at Arlington National Cemetery. pic.twitter.com/0WODYMwZP8
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 30, 2024
Correspondent Dasha Burns brought up “the controversy” at Arlington, but largely stuck to her exclusive interview with Trump. On IVF, she complained Trump called for treatments to “be covered without giving specifics on how.”
Llamas too wondered about it: “Do we have any idea how much it would cost the government to pay for those?” This led Burns to reveal “we actually did the math and it would cost around $7.8 billion annually.”
Today co-host Craig Melvin kept up the faux outrage on Friday: “So, who will foot the bill for the costly procedure?”
Burns returned to the air by reracking her dismissals and knocked Trump for “not providing specifics” in their interview, which also focused on his “controversial visit to” Arlington National Cemetery.
Thursday’s CBS Evening News was also all-in on kicking dirt on Trump over Arlington and IVF (click “expand”):
NANCY CORDES: There are new signs today of just how much this race has changed in the 39 days since President Biden dropped out. A new USA Today poll finds that voters aged 18 to 34 have swung from backing Trump by 11 points to favoring Harris by 13. Hispanics had backed Trump by two. Now Harris has a 16-point edge and the data firm TargetSmart says that, since Harris became the nominee, new voter registration is up more than 175 percent among young Black women ages 18 to 29.
(....)
CORDES: The post was later taken down, along with a post calling for former President Obama to be tried by a military tribunal. Tonight, the Harris campaign is slamming Trump’s new proposal to pay for IVF. They say his own platform that was just adopted at the Republican Convention a few weeks ago would lead to restrictions in the use of IVF across the country, Norah.
NORAH O’DONNELL: And no details on how it will be paid for. Nancy Cordes, thank you. Army officials are standing by a staffer at Arlington National Cemetery and accusing Trump campaign staff of abusing her, saying she was abruptly pushed aside when confronting the Trump campaign for allegedly violating decorum rules at the hallowed burial grounds.
Friday’s CBS Mornings surprisingly spent minimal time on both. On IVF, correspondent Ed O’Keefe called it a “notable” move and, on Arlington, he said Trump spoke “about social media videos his campaign posted of his visit earlier this week to Arlington National Cemetery.”
To see the relevant transcripts from August 29, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC). To see the relevant transcripts from August 30, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
