Shockingly, Tuesday’s CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today covered Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order for the Justice Department to convene a grand jury and explore criminal charges, building on the dogged work of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard exposing the Obama regime’s concoction of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax in 2016.
Along with the unfortunate bias by omission from ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS and NBC unsurprisingly dismissed these steps as “without evidence” and recklessly “turn[ing] back the clock in effect, to revisit the 2016 election.”
Between the Tuesday morning mentions, Monday’s coverage on NBC Nightly News, and one on Sunday from ABC’s This Week, the Gabbard disclosure coverage rose to 26 minutes and 29 seconds on the broadcast networks. A paltry two minutes and 17 seconds prior to Monday, the evening show tally inched up to three minutes and three seconds (still far behind the 2,284 for the probe itself). Meanwhile, the morning shows moved to six minutes and 19 seconds (from 3:32).
CBS Mornings co-host Nate Burleson kept it even-keeled in the lead-in: “Alright, on the campaign trail, President Trump promised he’d go after those who have investigated him. Now, his Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered a new grand jury probe. She wants to look into the Obama administration’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.”
Chief White House correspondent Weijia Jiang first explained the new information:
A source familiar with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s efforts tells CBS News she has directed Justice Department staff to begin legal proceedings and ordered a federal prosecutor to present evidence to a grand jury, which could consider an indictment if the DOJ pursues a criminal case. It’s unclear what the charges could be and who would face them[.]
She then dropped the straight-news act and hit all the talking points for the left looking to preserve the fable of Trump as having reached office in 2016 with help from Russia: “[B]ut we know President Trump without evidence has accused former President Obama of treason, leading an effort to link Trump to Russia and undermine his 2016 presidential campaign.”
Citing Gabbard’s remarks to reporters last month about there having been “a years-long coup and treasonous conspiracy” to destroy Trump before he even took the oath of office, Jiang tried to engage in semantics by arguing “Democrats dispute her claims, pointing to the findings of a bipartisan Senate investigation that was co-chaired by now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio that concluded that Russia had attempted to influence the 2016 election.”
In reality, Gabbard hasn’t disputed Russia interference in the election. Rather, she’s been arguing since July 18 that it was false to assert Russian finagling was done to win the election for Trump and the fact was they did so to create distrust in our electoral process and sow partisan divisions.
“Obama has not commented on Bondi’s investigation, but last month, a spokesman for him called Gabbard’s allegations ‘bizarre’ and ‘ridiculous,’” she concluded.
Today was a partial segment with co-host Craig Melvin shifting to Gabbard and Bondi from tariffs, asking chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander about “some buzz overnight with regard to the Justice Department.”
Alexander confirmed what CBS had heard as well about a grand jury, but did so with a dismissive tone:
A senior Trump administration official, Craig, tells NBC News that the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has now ordered the Justice Department to turn back the clock in effect, to revisit the 2016 election, directing DOJ prosecutors to convene a grand jury to investigate the Obama White House and the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in 2016.
Complaining this topic was merely “musings by President Trump,” Alexander huffed accountability for the Russia probe has become “a watershed moment for the DOJ taking action just days after the President himself, without evidence, accused former President Obama of treason.”
He concluded by joining Jiang in siding with Democrats, misleading viewers about what Gabbard has said about the extent of Russian funny business:
It is unclear what the charges might be and who could be charged. For their part, Democrats and former Justice Department officials have condemned this move. They say it is a dangerous political stunt. And, to be clear, a bipartisan Intelligence Committee review found significant evidence of Russian interference in 2016, contradicting the idea that there was an Obama conspiracy against President Trump, Craig.
To see the relevant transcripts from August 5, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC).
