Billionaire and former independent presidential candidate Ross Perot passed away Tuesday after losing his fight with leukemia at age 89. Of course, the liberal media remembered Perot’s life by celebrating how he helped Democrat Bill Clinton become President in 1992 by spoiling the election for then-President George H.W. Bush, the Republican.
The broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) seemed to be in such a rush to praise Perot for his performance ’92 that they forgot to mention his age until the very last moments of their reports (as the transcripts below show). In fact, they focused so much on celebrating the effect he had on the election that only one of them (CBS Evening News) cared to mention how he died. But that too seemed like an afterthought.
All three reports also had the obligatory comparisons to President Trump. “He was the original billionaire who tapped into working-class anger as a foundation for a presidential campaign,” fill-in anchor Jim Axelrod said on the CBS Evening News.
Axelrod boasted about how Perot “joined Bill Clinton on the attack against George H. W. Bush, framing him as the protector of the status quo.” “And won 19 percent of the vote, the most successful third-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt,” he added.
Meanwhile, on ABC’s World News Tonight, anchor David Muir hyped how Perot’s “third-party run for the White House in 1992 made history” and highlighted an interview the then-candidate did with Barbara Walters:
MUIR: During his 1992 campaign, Barbara Walters asking is him this --
WALTERS: What have you learned from this experience?
PEROT: How good the American people are. That down where the rubber meets the road, this country has millions and millions and millions of good people.
“He won 19 percent of the vote that year, running as an independent. Many argued afterward he helped seal George W. Bush's fate up against Bill Clinton,” Muir touted.
As for NBC Nightly News, chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell lauded Perot for having “turned the 1992 presidential race upside down with his self-financed independent run. At one point he was leading President Bush 41 and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton in a three-way race.”
“Abruptly quitting and reentering the race and still winning nearly 20 percent of the vote. The Bushes long blaming Perot for their loss to Bill Clinton,” she noted. “And running again for president. A Naval Academy graduate, Ross Perot was inspired by Winston Churchill.”
It’s likely that if the parties were switched, between Bush and Clinton, that the tone of these remembrance reports would be dramatically different. If they even cared to remember him at all.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s World News Tonight
July 9, 2019
6:42:29 p.m. EasternDAVID MUIR: We are also remembering an American original tonight. Ross Perot, a plain-talking Texan, a self-made billionaire, whose third-party run for the White House in 1992 made history. In fact, 19 percent of American voters chose him that year for president.
[Cuts to video]
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Ross Perot.
MUIR: He was the self-made billionaire from Texarkana, Texas. The blunt, folksy presidential candidate promising voters a break from politics as usual.
(…)
MUIR: His populist message: Washington isn't working for you.
(…)
MUIR: During his 1992 campaign, Barbara Walters asking is him this --
BARBARA WALTERS: What have you learned from this experience?
ROSS PEROT: How good the American people are. That down where the rubber meets the road, this country has millions and millions and millions of good people.
MUIR: He won 19 percent of the vote that year, running as an independent. Many argued afterward he helped seal George W. Bush's fate up against Bill Clinton. But Perot earned votes across the spectrum.
(…)
MUIR: Ross Perot on the eve of the '92 election, always dancing to his own tune.
[Cuts back to live]
And Ross Perot was 89.
CBS Evening News
July 9, 2019
6:41:40 p.m. EasternJIM AXELROD: And we learned today that Ross Perot has died. He was the original billionaire who tapped into working-class anger as a foundation for a presidential campaign.
[Cuts to video]
(…)
AXELROD: One of the wealthiest men in the country when he ran for president in 1992. H. Ross Perot bought his suits at Men's Warehouse, and as he showed Morley Safer on 60 Minutes, drove an eight-year-old Oldsmobile. The Texan's populist campaign lasered on stagnant wages and big government.
(…)
AXELROD: The political reality of 1992 was ripe for populism. Perot railed against the Gulf War and out-of-control spending.
(…)
AXELROD: He joined Bill Clinton on the attack against George H. W. Bush, framing him as the protector of the status quo.
(…)
AXELROD: With his home-spun style --
(…)
AXELROD: -- Perot became a favorite target of comedians.
(…)
AXELROD: -- And won 19 percent of the vote, the most successful third-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt.
[Cuts back to live]
Ross Perot died after a battle with Leukemia. He was 89.
NBC Nightly News
July 9, 2019
7:13:54 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: One of the more colorful characters ever to run for president of the United States has died. Ross Perot, the self-made Texas billionaire who tried to reach the White House twice as a plain-talking independent. Andrea Mitchell tonight on an American original.
[Cuts to video]
ANDREA MITCHELL: He was a populist billionaire before Donald Trump.
(…)
MITCHELL: A quirky brash country boy from Texas-born into poverty who built a computer services empire, launched daring missions to Vietnam and Iran, and turned the 1992 presidential race upside down with his self-financed independent run. At one point he was leading President Bush 41 and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton in a three-way race.
(…)
MITCHELL: With folky sayings and a nasal twang that was instant fodder for Dana Carvey on SNL.
(…)
MITCHELL: Always combative on TV.
(…)
MITCHELL: Using a dizzying array of charts and graphs to sell the idea of fixing the deficit.
(…)
MITCHELL: Abruptly quitting and reentering the race and still winning nearly 20 percent of the vote. The Bushes long blaming Perot for their loss to Bill Clinton. Later, fighting the NAFTA trade deal.
(…)
MITCHELL: And running again for president. A Naval Academy graduate, Ross Perot was inspired by Winston Churchill.
(…)
MITCHELL: And by his never-ending love for the Lone Star State.
(…)
MITCHELL: Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington.
HOLT: Ross Perot was 89.
