ABC’s Good Morning America delivered another remarkably partisan 2024 reports on Tuesday’s show, panning former President Trump for “debunked,” “false,” and “increasingly incendiary rhetoric” about FEMA aid, immigration, and “transgender rights” and fawning over Vice President Kamala Harris making an “aggressive push” and “inroads with suburban conservative voters.”
Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos declared in a tease that Trump spent Monday “campaigning in North Carolina, pushing false claims about the hurricane relief response while Vice President Harris barnstorms three battleground states with former top Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney, talking about abortion, trying to make inroads with suburban conservative voters[.]”
ABC’s Rachel Scott — who has religious-like hatred for Trump — sneered that “in the final stretch, Donald Trump using increasingly incendiary rhetoric to attack Vice President Kamala Harris and still pushing false claims about the administration’s response to the hurricane.”
With a chyron bellyaching about “heated rhetoric,” Scott huffed that Trump “push[ed] false and debunked claims that the federal government diverted disaster funds to undocumented migrants” and “refused to condemn” the “disinformation” that’s “led to violent threats against FEMA workers.”
Scott moved to the border, comparing the possible deportation of illegal immigrants to Japanese Americans interned in camps by Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt in World War II.
She had even more idiocy, whining “Trump and his allies [are] making false claims about transgender rights, making it part of their closing message to voters, flooding the airwaves with ads casting Harris as extreme” and “accus[ed] Harris of attacking religion, even after she visited two Georgia churches over the weekend.”
Scott couldn’t even get her facts right about Trump’s riff on Arnold Palmer, claiming it was Sunday (when it was Saturday), tut-tutting about how she spoke with one of Palmer’s daughters about Trump’s “vulgar remarks.”
In contrast, chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce — Disney’s in-house North Korean news lady for the Biden-Harris administration — had nothing but fluff for Harris and gushing about her “barnstorming three key battleground states” to win “suburban conservative voters” (click “expand”):
STRAHAN: Vice President Harris has been tearing through the so-called blue wall states. She hit all three on the same day with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Our chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce is tracking the Harris campaign from Milwaukee. Good morning, Mary.
BRUCE: Good morning, Michael. Yeah, with the finish line now just a sprint away, the Harris campaign well aware of just how close this race is, is now trying to reach out to voters who may still be up for grabs, making an aggressive push for Republicans who aren’t satisfied with Donald Trump. With just two weeks to go and the race neck and neck, Vice President Kamala Harris barnstorming three key battleground states, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, that could be key to her victory, trying to make inroads with suburban conservative voters who may be apprehensive to support Donald Trump. With her at every stop, her most prominent Republican supporter, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
[HARRIS SOUNDBITE]
BRUCE: In the Detroit suburbs, Cheney reminding voters what Trump did on January 6.
[CHENEY SOUNDBITE]
BRUCE: And, on the issue of reproductive rights, Cheney, a strong opponent of abortion rights while in Congress, say some Republican states have gone too far and that Trump is to blame.
[CHENEY SOUNDBITE]
BRUCE: Cheney, with this message to reluctant Republicans.
[CHENEY SOUNDBITE]
BRUCE: Now, after 11 straight days of events out on the trail, Kamala Harris spends the day in Washington, gearing up for another round of interviews before the final push. Her next big appearance out on the trail will be her first time campaigning out alongside Barack Obama.
As is usually the case with lead-off segments from the first hour, Bruce and Scott reracked large portions of their talking points for the second hour.
Shifting to CBS Mornings, co-host and Kamala Harris donor Gayle King had the desperate framing down in the Eye Opener: “Vice President Harris makes an appeal to moderate Republicans while former President Trump repeats false claims about hurricane relief.”
Later tossing to chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes, King kept the proverbial car pointed left:
Vice President Harris is looking to broaden her support by campaigning in three battleground states with a key Republican supporter, that’s former Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Former President Trump, meantime, spent his day in North Carolina. He doubled down on false claims he’s made before, and then introduced a new one.
Cordes started with the Harris press releases, touting Cheney and Harris campaigning “with a message for suburban voters about the leader of her party” and taking on Trump for “falsely claiming, once again, on Monday that FEMA is giving migrants’ money meant for storm victims.”
Like ABC’s Scott, Cordes also trotted out the Christianity denials, ignoring her record: “In Concord, North Carolina, Monday night, [Trump] issued a new accusation...insisting baselessly that Harris plans to persecute various religious groups if elected.”
While more muted, NBC’s Today still hit on some of the preferred leftist campaign narratives.
Trump campaign correspondent Garrett Haake said the former President “refus[ed] to back down from criticisms of FEMA” in a visit to the Asheville area, “including false claims that they have not responded to the hurricane.”
“Trump also using the trip to paint a dark picture of crime in the Tar Heel State, which he carried in his both of his previous White House runs,” he added.
Haake pivoted to Harris by touting her attempts “to add bricks to the so-called blue wall” with Cheney, but at least acknowledged the middle stop in Michigan featured “Maria Shriver moderat[ing] a town hall of pre-screened questions.”
However, he refused to make clear Shriver’s an NBC News Special Anchor.
To see the relevant transcripts from October 22, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
