Even though CBS’s lead newscasts were far and away the most out of control Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in siding with the illegal immigrant mobs in Los Angeles and attacking President Trump for a simple desire to restore law and order, their compatriots at ABC and NBC had plenty of their own hot takes.
ABC ludicrously declared the “protesters” have been “self-policing, keeping others in check” while Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom launched “a broadside against President Trump” for sending in troops that now outnumber those “in Iraq and Syria.”
NBC was a tick closer to reality. While they tried to minimize the violence due to its size being contained to a few city blocks, they labeled local officials as Democrats, interviewing a business owner whose had to stay closed due to their proximity to the riots, and admitted an Apple Store was ransacked.
On Tuesday, ABC’s World News Tonight started with a bang of bias thanks to sensationalistic anchor David Muir:
His formal opening to the show afterward doubled down on what was clearly the newly-distributed talking point about Iraq and Syria plus the cost of $134 million.
Senior national correspondent Matt Gutman was back on scene and, along with being upset President Trump suggested some of the hooligans have been paid to cause unrest, he suggested the mob has been, well, disciplined:
He tossed back with unfortunate news for ABC viewers about an initial injunction plea to stop Trump: “And David, just moments ago, we learned there was a blow to Governor Newsom. A federal judge rejecting Governor Newsom’s bid to block the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines here to Los Angeles.”
Gutman was back on Wednesday’s Good Morning America and boasted of Newsom’s supposed address to the nation as “a broadside against President Trump, calling the deployment of those federal troops behind me a brazen abuse of power” and touted of “protests...spreading across the country in response to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.”
“While the majority of protests have been peaceful, Los Angeles for the fifth consecutive night mounted police officers swarming protesters as a curfew kicked in. Governor Gavin Newsom claiming Tuesday that democracy is under assault,” he added.
Gutman left the comical “self-policing” narrative to chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce:
Back to Tuesday, NBC Nightly News began with anchor Tom Llamas labeling local officials “Democratic leaders” and admitting they believe the riots “would all stop if the raids stop.”
Llamas tossed to correspondent Liz Kreutz amid the crowds by saying the troops were a “growing controversy” aimed at restoring order and assisting in “anti-immigration enforcement raids.”
Kreutz conceded “things are starting to pick up” (just after 3:30 p.m. local time) with policing having “issued a dispersal order right outside of the federal building.”
Some blow-by-blow tic-toc later, Kreutz actually admitted there was violence and stores destroyed:
She also interviewed a store owner who opposes the mobs and had to remain shuttered due to its location to the riots:
Llamas also showed part of an interview he had taped with Trump border czar Tom Homan (click “expand”):
LLAMAS: What happens if the courts do stop the President’s deployment? I just spoke to the border czar about it, and Governor Newsom’s comments that the Trump administration is adding to the chaos. [TO HOMAN] From what you’ve seen from what you’ve heard in Los Angeles, could you conduct ICE raids now without the help of the National Guard and the Marines?
HOMAN: We can conduct ICE raids, but it’s — it’s about the — the threats and the violence right now. I mean, this job’s already dangerous, I’ve done this a long time. I mean, our ICE officers have been attacked. It’s like we’re a third world nation where people think it’s okay to threaten the life and safety of law enforcement officers and their families.
LLAMAS: I want to put up a tweet for you. This is what Governor Newsom on X, right? He put the photos you see there of Marines sleeping on top of each other. This is what he wrote in that post: “You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep. Here are they are — being forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another.” What do you say to that, Mr. Homan?
HOMAN: I’d say take a few moments, go to downtown LA, and see the damage done by these radical protesters. I mean, President Trump is saving his city. President Trump is doing what he should have done. Gavin Newsom could have responded right away and everyone — everybody wants to put the blame on President Trump and the National Guard. You know where the blame starts? It starts with the Biden administration letting over ten million immigrant aliens cross this border. We’re out there trying to respond to the chaos he created.
Kreutz was back on Wednesday’s Today and gave something to both the left and right.
First, she broke ranks from what those on ABC and CBS saw by acknowledging the business fallout, but also said this was just “in a small area”:
To make sure the left wasn’t left out, she played this snippet of Newsom fear-mongering: “This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived.”
Before signing off in the first hour, co-host Savannah Guthrie asked her “what has it really been like out there”...with the implication being it’s not chaotic. Kreutz went along with it:
Kreutz summarized both in the second hour:
That curfew is now in effect here in downtown LA and parts of downtown — we’ll show you — they now look like this with businesses boarded up. Store owners telling us they’re concerned about looting after these protests now have gone on for several days and we should point out that these protests are very much concentrated to a small part of downtown L.A. If you're in another part of the city, you probably won't even notice the impact of the protests, but as they've escalated and as they’ve continued we are now seeing a shift in tactics from law enforcement, a major crackdown overnight.
To see the relevant transcripts from June 10, click here (for ABC’s World News Tonight) and here (for NBC Nightly News). To see the relevant transcripts from June 11, click here (for ABC’s Good Morning America) and here (for NBC’s Today).
