Wednesday saw disgusting acts of sedition and insurrection from radical elements of the far-right as Trump supporters launched an assault on the Capitol, breaching its halls and offices. The acts were roundly and justly condemned by most sound people on the right, both from lawmakers and right-wing media figures. But the CBS Evening News wasn’t having it.
Instead, they ignored those evenhanded voices, demanded House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) join the chaos, and ignored the bomb that was discovered outside the Republican National Committee.
Despite how Republican lawmakers and right-wing media influencers had spent most of the day condemning the acts of violence, anchor Norah O’Donnell pretended like they were dead silent and it was a mystery where they stood:
And Nancy, you have just so clearly laid out what we are going to see in the drama that still awaits us this evening, because the question is whether those Republican members of Congress will walk back what President George W. Bush is called “reckless behavior,” in objecting to what he called the constitutionally mandated meeting of Congress.
A few minutes later, O’Donnell spit bile at Leader McCarthy in a phone interview by insisting he was in league with the mob, demanding that he stop hiding and join them:
O’DONNELL: Why have you all run from the Capitol? Why not stay there and meet these – these people who believe the same way you do? Why not meet them with courage?
MCCARTHY: Well, I can't tell you where we are out of safety for everyone else. But the one thing I will tell you is, people can have a disagreement. We disagree every day when it comes to politics. People can have that. Not this. Nobody supports this. Nobody encourages this. Nobody wants this. I want to be very clear, I condemn any of this activity. This is not anything I support. This is not anything that I would be a part of and this has got to stop.
What O’Donnell and CBS were refusing to admit was the fact that there was a long list of right-leaning media figures who condemned the violence. They also didn’t report how the extremists also targeted the Republican Party, planting a bomb at the RNC HQ.
In contrast, NBC Nightly News made sure to highlight how even Republicans were on the receiving end of the chaos.
“Now, there are also more serious things being investigated. There were two improvised explosive devices, homemade pipe bombs in essence,” reported Chief Justice correspondent Pete Williams. “We don’t know if they were working devices or not. Found outside the headquarters of the Republican and separate Democratic National Committees. Both of which have their offices on Capitol Hill. The RNC is right near the House office buildings. The DNC is a little further away. Those were both identified and destroyed.”
Later on, NBC reported that the Press Secretary for the Office of the First Lady (and former White House Press Secretary) Stephanie Grisham had resigned over the incident and noted that many White House staffers were upset over how President Trump had handled things.
So, in reality, Republicans and people on the right were not for the violence that unfolded in Washington, D.C. But CBS was trying to make it seem like they were proponents.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
January 6, 2021
6:57:21 p.m. Eastern(…)
NANCY CORDES: And Nancy, you have just so clearly laid out what we are going to see in the drama that still awaits us this evening, because the question is whether those Republican members of Congress will walk back what President George W. Bush is called “reckless behavior,” in objecting to what he called the constitutionally mandated meeting of Congress.
(…)
7:09:12 p.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: And for those Republicans who said today was unimaginable, there have been some who’ve been saying, “no, this is the culmination of continuing to allow President Trump to have no guardrails. “And that was part of the exasperation, you could call desperation, that we heard in the voice of the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, who we spoke with earlier today. He was the first indication that we got that they were desperately calling the White House, telling the President this must end. Take a listen.
Why have you all run from the Capitol? Why not stay there and meet these – these people who believe the same way you do? Why not meet them with courage?
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Well, I can't tell you where we are out of safety for everyone else. But the one thing I will tell you is, people can have a disagreement. We disagree every day when it comes to politics. People can have that. Not this. Nobody supports this. Nobody encourages this. Nobody wants this. I want to be very clear, I condemn any of this activity. This is not anything I support. This is not anything that I would be a part of and this has got to stop.
(…)
