Tonight John Dickerson, Maurice DuBois and Margaret Brennan take the reins of the CBS Evening News as they replace departed anchor Norah O’Donnell. NewsBusters already said goodbye to O’Donnell and her biased coverage last week.
A look at the new crew’s most recent work (particularly Dickerson and Brennan) shows the leftist tilt in the evenings will continue unabated.
Most recently, Dickerson dumped all over President Donald Trump’s Inaugural moment and Brennan dubiously joined O’Donnell in live fact-checking J.D. Vance at the 2024 vice presidential debate.
The following are just a few of the most obnoxious outbursts from Dickerson and Brennan over the years (via the MRC archives):
JOHN DICKERSON
Dickerson Dumps on Trump’s Inaugural Moment
“As a tonal matter, we were talking about this day which has a kind of special grace that hovers over it, political grudges are paused. Donald Trump benefited from that grace in the ceremony, but as is often the case, he did not feel obliged to extend the same grace or ceremony. He talked at some length about the horrible betrayal about the President who is sitting right over his shoulder. The question is, as we have seen before, does he enjoy the benefits of the office but not the obligations? And I should note one other thing. He took an oath today. He’s the only person ever to take the presidential oath who’s been accused by the leaders of his party in the House, the Senate and his own Vice President of actively working to overthrow an election and therefore break with that oath.”
— Correspondent John Dickerson on CBS News’s live coverage of Donald Trump’s Inauguration, January 20.
Kamala’s Speech Was a “Call” to Defend America From “Peril” of Trump
“What she [Kamala Harris] delivered was not just her record and not just a very strong indictment of Donald Trump and his positions, but a definition of America, and an America out of which….she grew….A middle-class America surrounded by nurses, firefighters, a blended family. One of the best lines…‘None of the family bound by blood but all of them bound by love.’ A family bound by love. She defined the America she came out of, and then is basically prosecuting the case to defend that America….The idea of her story could only happen in America and her argument is, and unless we defend that America will go away….That is a call to be inspired by her story, but it also contains that other part which is the peril.”
— Correspondent John Dickerson on CBS’s live coverage of night four of the Democratic National Convention, August 22, 2024.
Obama Speeches At DNC Providing Needed “Nourishment”
“In 2012 I was in the Obama campaign headquarters. And they were feeling a little low, and staffers used to watch his old speeches on their computers as nourishment. These two speeches by the Obamas are going to serve that purpose.”
— Correspondent John Dickerson on CBS News America Decides, August 20, 2024.
Hailing Heroic Joe for Stepping Down
“Here is somebody giving up power, okay, somebody who their whole career was counted out, so it’s giving up power and moving against personal instinct, which is ‘I’m going to show ‘em when they count me out’ and it’s worked for him. And that’s quite a contrast to Donald Trump, who was so desirous to hang on to power that according to the leaders in his own party, he inspired an attack on the Capitol.”
— Correspondent John Dickerson on CBS News’s live coverage of President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race, July 22, 2024.
Biden Started the State of the Union Speech in “Fifth Gear”
“If you are going to set the stakes for a political moment, you can’t set them any higher than 1941 fighting before World War II. So, he [Joe Biden] set them immediately, he started in fifth gear….The only other historical moment that you would pick that has equal weight is the Civil War and he name-checked that too and why? He’s calling on the ghosts of January 6, which aren’t even ghosts. There are people in that room there who helped that happen….and one of America’s leading political parties in a democracy has just nominated or is going to nominate in a democracy, to be their candidate, someone who has worked actively to undermine democracy.”
— CBS chief political analyst John Dickerson on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, March 7, 2024.
Mocking Trump When He Got COVID
Co-host Anthony Mason: “The President seemed to be flirting with the coronavirus by not wearing a mask and going to big rallies.”...
Senior political analyst John Dickerson: “The President has downplayed the virus, he’s mocked mask wearing as recently as in the debate. And yet, the pandemic is relentless and does not care where it goes….it keeps that issue right at the center of the campaign, and the President’s response to it, which is not something that he wants at the center of the campaign because the polls have consistently shown that the country is disappointed with his handling of the issue.”
— CBS This Morning, October 2, 2020.
America Does Not Need “Jagged,” But Trump Brought a “Saw Tooth”
“We have 200,000 dead from COVID, an economy that is cratering, and we have significant ongoing racial unrest over the injustices in the American system and when the stakes were that high, the debate couldn’t have been lower. And it was not an equal opportunity experience. The President of the United States, who has a duty and stewardship role in caring for those three things was, by far, responsible for a greater share of the jaggedness of tonight at a time when America does not need jagged….The President came, it seemed, with just a saw tooth.”
— CBS 60 Minutes correspondent John Dickerson on CBS News: The First Presidential Debate, September 29, 2020.
Honesty Is So Overrated
“FDR and Lincoln were both talented at letting both sides of an issue think that they agreed with both of them. Is honesty overrated as a presidential quality?”
— Correspondent John Dickerson’s question to Barack Obama on CBS’s Face the Nation, July 24, 2016.
Hillary: The Grandmother Running for Commander-in-Chief
“Finally today, a word about motherhood. No matter how partisan or tough things get in politics, it’s always okay to praise your mother....And now we’ve got a mother and grandmother running for Commander-in-Chief. [to Hillary Clinton] When you’re out campaigning, are you following the example of your mother, or thinking about the example you’re setting for your daughter and granddaughter?”
— Moderator John Dickerson wrapping up a tribute to mothers in politics on CBS’s Face the Nation, May 8, 2016.
Scoffing at Hillary’s E-Mail Scandal: It’s a “Stupid Issue”
“What irritates people about Hillary Clinton, which is basically she was trying to have it both ways — and trying to have it both ways not on a stupid issue about e-mails, but on an important policy issue....”
— CBS Face the Nation host John Dickerson on Slate’s “Political Gabfest” podcast, April 22, 2016.
Dickerson’s Advice to Obama: “Go for the Throat” and “Destroy the GOP!”
“The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat….Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents….By exploiting the weaknesses of today’s Republican Party Obama has an opportunity to hasten the demise of the old order by increasing the political cost of having the GOP coalition defined by Second Amendment absolutists, climate science deniers, supporters of ‘self-deportation’ and the pure no-tax wing.”
— CBS News political director John Dickerson in January 18, 2013 Slate article: “Go for the Throat! Why if he wants to transform American politics, Obama must declare war on the Republican Party.”
MARGARET BRENNAN
Trump Is “Wrong” About Kamala, “We’ll Tell You Why”
Host Margaret Brennan: “A new line of false attack on Vice President Harris.”
Clip of Donald Trump: “Kamala went full communist. You heard that? She went full communist. She wants to destroy our country after causing catastrophic inflation.”
Brennan: “We’ll tell you why that’s wrong and how the voters see the candidates’ handling of the economy in our new CBS News poll.”
— Host Margaret Brennan’s opening to CBS’s Face the Nation, August 19, 2024.
He Just Got Shot But Trump Really Needs to Lower “The Temperature,” “Tamp It Down”
“He is recovering from these injuries now. This was a traumatic event no doubt for him, but I did notice there was no call for lowering the temperature, condemning all political violence, and really trying to signal to his supporters as well not to retaliate or to have any kind of escalation here. I just am looking at these [Trump’s Truth Social] statements.”
— CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on CBS News live coverage of the Trump assassination attempt, July 13, 2024.
Highlighting Trump’s Grandchildren Takes “Rough Edges Off the Strongman”
“You heard one of the grandchildren, Kai Trump, say ‘oh, grandpa calls me too.’ There wasn’t a lot of acknowledgement that the former First Lady was not here. Ivanka Trump was not here until tonight. But it takes some of the rough edges off of the strongman when you see he has a family, too.”
— CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on CBS Evening News, July 18, 2024.
“Move On” From Hunter, Nothing to See Here
“There are so many legal issues in this campaign, and I want to ask you about one involving the President’s son Hunter Biden, who’s gonna appear in court this week to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and will enter into an agreement that could avert conviction on a gun-related charge. The deal has infuriated many congressional Republicans who were holding their own hearings. And I wonder after this plea happens if you would advise your party to move on?”
— Host Margaret Brennan to former New Jersey Governor and current GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie on CBS’s Face the Nation, July 23, 2024.
