After helping sell President Obama’s unilateral executive overreach on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012 and 2014, on Wednesday morning, the broadcast networks eagerly promoted the former president blasting the Trump administration’s “cruel” plan to end the policy.
On NBC’s Today, White House Correspondent Kristen Welker touted: “Former President Obama, who enacted the original policy, called President Trump’s decision ‘cruel,’ adding, ‘This is about whether we are people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated.’”
“It was enough to bring two former presidents back into the spotlight,” enthused correspondent Cecilia Vega on ABC’s Good Morning America. She proclaimed: “President Obama called the move to rescind DACA ‘cruel, wrong, and self-defeating,’ saying, ‘Ultimately this is about basic decency.’” The reporter also cited how “President Clinton called it ‘irresponsible, passing the buck instead of offering sensible solutions for immigration reform.’”
Introducing a report on the topic for CBS This Morning, co-host Norah O’Donnell read from the same liberal media script: “Former President Obama, who created DACA after Congress failed to produce a bill, called President Trump’s reversal ‘wrong, self-defeating, and cruel.’”
Only the CBS coverage mentioned the Republican position that Obama’s executive action was unconstitutional, as correspondent Nancy Cordes noted: “The President’s move put nearly a million people in legal limbo after the White House said former President Obama’s 2012 order protecting young immigrants from deportation was unconstitutional.”
Similarly on Tuesday, CBS This Morning was the only morning show to explain that 10 states were planning to challenge DACA’s constitutionality in court.
In their rush to herald Obama bashing Trump, the NBC and ABC broadcasts forgot that it was Obama who created the current situation by enacting a policy of questionable legality.
The biased coverage across all three networks was brought to viewers by Hersey’s, Febreze, and Walgreens.
