As NewsBusters previously exposed, ABC News was in lock-step with the Biden campaign in trying to cover-up their candidate’s ridiculous, ObamaCare-Esque elect-me-to-find-out-my-position-on-court-packing declaration. And they were back at it again for Sunday’s Good Morning America as they omitted Biden’s Friday proclamation that Americans “don’t deserve” to know his position on court-packing. Well, that was until chief White House correspondent Jon Karl bucked the narrative.
Early in ABC’s Sunday morning reporting, White House correspondent Rachel Scott was full steam against President Trump; pointing out bandages on his hand, citing a dubious New York Times report which claimed he had turned “his hotels and resorts into the Beltway's new bathrooms,” and hyping an ABC poll showing Trump down 12 points.
But when she got to the issue of court-packing, Scott simply said her candidate was “still dodging questions.” She also played a soundbite of Biden suggesting that it was Trump who was packing the court and claiming the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett was somehow unconstitutional:
SCOTT: But Biden still dodging questions on whether he’ll pack the Supreme Court by adding more justices to the bench.
JOE BIDEN: The only court-packing that’s going on right now is going on with Republicans packing the court now. It's not constitutional what they're doing.
The only counterpoint she offered was Vice President Mike Pence at a rally saying, “Come on, Joe. The American people deserve a straight answer.”
A few minutes and a segment on the upcoming confirmation hearings of Judge Barrett went by before ABC cared to address the court-packing issue again. “He keeps dodging questions about whether he would support packing the Supreme Court. We saw this in Rachel Scott's piece. Is this issue a potential liability for him,” co-anchor Dan Harris asked Karl as his last question.
Harris might have gotten more of an answer than he bargained for as Karl went off on how Biden was tackling the controversy. “I think it is, Dan. And it's not just that he won't answer the question. It's the clumsy way in which he says he won't answer the question,” he lamented.
Adding: “He said in an interview yesterday asked directly ‘don't the people have the right to know?’ And he said, ‘no,’ voters don't have a right to know where he stands on this.”
And in the first time that this particular comment from Biden was ever shared on an ABC flagship newscast, Karl admitted to Biden’s sleaziness:
He also said a couple of days ago that he will give an answer on this after the election. So, it's very strange. This is a major issue. This is not a trivial issue. And he's saying he won't tell voters where he stands until after they have voted. I don't think it's very helpful.
Karl, an author of an anti-Trump book, was clearly frustrated with the way the media’s candidate was addressing the court-packing controversy. After Biden’s original elect-me-and-find-out comments, Karl took to Twitter to say “[t]his doesn’t make any sense.”
On another election note, Scott, Harris, and Karl hyped an ABC poll showing Trump trailing by 12 points nationally. But they omitted a new Gallup poll showing 56 percent say they’re better off now than they were four years ago, and more people agreeing with Trump on the issues.
ABC’s attempted cover-up of Bidens contempt for Americans and their right to know his positions was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Prudential and Old Navy. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Good Morning America
October 11, 2020
8:04:11 a.m. Eastern(…)
RACHEL SCOTT: But as the President makes his return to the campaign trail, he's down in polls and facing growing questions about his business dealings. A New York Times report painting a picture of a president who once promised to “drain the swamp” reportedly turning “his hotels and resorts into the Beltway's new bathrooms.”
ABC News has not independently verified the documents obtained by the Times, but the report showing more than 200 companies, groups and foreign governments patronizing Trump's properties. At a time when his personal empire was struggling financially.
Meanwhile, the President’s rival, Joe Biden is now leading by 12 points nationally according to our latest ABC News/Washington post poll. But Biden still dodging questions on whether he’ll pack the Supreme Court by adding more justices to the bench.
JOE BIDEN: The only court-packing that’s going on right now is going on with Republicans packing the court now. It's not constitutional what they're doing.
VP MIKE PENCE: Come on, Joe. The American people deserve a straight answer.
[Cuts back to live]
SCOTT: And in that latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, 58 percent of registered voters disapprove of the President's handling of the pandemic. But the economy is still a bright spot for President Trump. The majority of registered voters approve of his handling on that front. And when you compare it to the pandemic, twice as many registered voters say that, the economy is their single most important issue.
(…)
8:08:17 a.m. Eastern
DAN HARRIS: As we mentioned at the top of the show, our new poll has the President down by 12 points in the presidential race. Is there any precedent for a presidential candidate coming back from this deficit so close to an election?
JON KARL: Well, sort of, four years ago. There was an ABC poll in the middle of October that actually had Hillary Clinton up 12 points. But it was different because that was one poll. The rest of the polls were not as wide as this. Now, we have now had several polls that have shown double digit leads for Joe Biden.
And the other thing that's different this time around is there's much more quality state polling in the battleground states. And there's not a single one of the top dozen battleground states where Donald Trump has held a consistent lead. Not one.
HARRIS: Let me ask a question about Joe Biden. He keeps dodging questions about whether he would support packing the Supreme Court. We saw this in Rachel Scott's piece. Is this issue a potential liability for him?
KARL: I think it is, Dan. And it's not just that he won't answer the question. It's the clumsy way in which he says he won't answer the question. He said in an interview yesterday asked directly ‘don't the people have the right to know?’ And he said, ‘no,’ voters don't have a right to know where he stands on this.
He also said a couple of days ago that he will give an answer on this after the election. So, it's very strange. This is a major issue. This is not a trivial issue. And he's saying he won't tell voters where he stands until after they have voted. I don't think it's very helpful.
HARRIS: Jon, thank you very much.
