The evening network newscasts delivered their breaking news reports on the Colorado Supreme Court decision disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the 2024 primary ballot with little substance, but plenty of emotional impact.
Watch this brief parade of superlatives, as aired on the network evening newscasts:
DAVID MUIR: It is a significant and historic ruling…
ROBERT COSTA: It’s an explosive moment in the 2024 presidential campaign.
GARRETT HAAKE: So this is a stunning decision from the Colorado Supreme Court…
Stunning. And brave, even. ABC anchor David Muir underlined it was a "significant and historical ruling." But it wasn't significant enough to prevent ABC from leading the newscast with weather, with the flooding in the Northeast. CBS did the same. Only NBC led with Trump and Colorado, weather second. It was late-breaking news, so none of the Big Three gave it much more than a minute. Trump's campaign was only briefly quoted calling it "undemocratic" or "completely flawed."
The Left has argued that Trump should be removed from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, which prevents candidates who "engaged in insurrection." There was no time to locate the irony that all of the media outlets and Democrats claiming they're the guardians of Democracy are eager to remove Republicans from the ballot.
The ruling was certainly momentous, for reasons not disclosed on the evening newscasts. Of the three, CBS’s Robert Costa spent the most time speculating whether this ruling would be dispositive towards Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, saying Nikki Haley wonders if this will "push him out of the mainstream." He didn't wonder it won't backfire like the Trump indictments and further solidify his grip on the GOP nomination. They noted 25 states have this kind of an ballot-scrubbing lawsuit. Costa described Colorado as a "key swing state," which didn't match the 2020 election results: Biden beat Trump 55-42.
With a January 4th deadline, expect additional coverage of the decision and the subsequent appeals process- with heaping doses of “Democracy!”.
Exit question: You do know that the court now lauded for its stunning and brave constitutional interpretation is the same court that got overturned for trying to force the guy to bake the cake, right?
