Immediately following the conclusion of President Biden’s State of the Union address, the commentary cast of CBS News attempted to clutch their pearls into diamonds as they decried heckling of Republicans in the chamber. Ignoring how Democrats routinely used former President Trump’s address to protest, heckle, make statements, and tear up his speech, the Biden-friendly network declared Republicans “chaos entrepreneur[s].”
“Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to present a new image, standing on many occasions but there were a lot of disruptions from the crowd,” huffed CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell.
Chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes framed the heckling as something only Republicans do at these addresses:
Norah, we’ve seen Republican hecklers at states of the union before, but this time the speech or most turned into a call and response at some point. And at least four times the House speaker had to visibly shush members of his party because they were shouting at the president of the United States. They called him a liar, they accused him of causing the fentanyl crisis, and on and on as we went through various issues. So definitely was not what the House speaker was seeking this evening.
Shortly thereafter, O’Donnell called on January 6-obsessed correspondent Scott MacFarlane who lamented how guests up in the gallery found it “jarring”:
What you can't see on TV is the crowd in the upper level, these guests, these citizens who came with the members of Congress. It was so jarring. You could see it in their body language, you could see it in their facial expressions. When the heckling grew in intensity and in grew in volume as the speech went along. When Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled "Liar," it was visibly jarring to some in the chamber area. When a House Republican yelled "It's your fault" when President Biden mentioned the fentanyl crisis, it was jarring.
Were they making fruit preserves up there? That’s a lot of jarring going on.
Some 12 minutes later, chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa ignored the many instances of Democrats interrupting Trump (linked above) to recall when Congressman Joe Wilson shouted “you lie” at President Obama. “It was a seismic moment in American politics. It almost seems like it's cascading over the scene now as just another interruption in a chaotic political war,” Costa lamented.
CBS News anchor John Dickerson quickly jumped in to note that Wilson’s fundraising spiked after the incident. He then suggested Republicans enjoyed “shouting out where norms are established – maintained” because “shouting out is actually perfectly fine if you are a chaos entrepreneur in the political realm these days.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS News: State of the Union 2023
February 7, 2023
10:23:25 p.m. Eastern(…)
NORAH O’DONNELL: But one of the other things I think we should note tonight too, Nancy Cordes is the reaction from Republicans tonight. Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to present a new image, standing on many occasions but there were a lot of disruptions from the crowd.
NANCY CORDES: Norah, we’ve seen Republican hecklers at states of the union before, but this time the speech or most turned into a call and response at some point. And at least four times the House speaker had to visibly shush members of his party because they were shouting at the president of the United States. They called him a liar, they accused him of causing the fentanyl crisis and on and on as we went through various issues. So definitely was not what the House speaker was seeking this evening.
(…)
10:24:23 p.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: I want to bring in Scott MacFarlane, he is inside the House chamber. What was the reaction there when, for instance, we heard Marjorie Taylor Greene shouting of the President, calling him a liar?
SCOTT MACFARLANE: What you can't see on TV is the crowd in the upper level, these guests, these citizens who came with the members of Congress. It was so jarring. You could see it in their body language, you could see it in their facial expressions. When the heckling grew in intensity and in grew in volume as the speech went along. When Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled "Liar," it was visibly jarring to summon the chamber area. When a House Republican yelled "It's your fault" when President Biden mentioned the fentanyl crisis, it was jarring.
(…)
10:36:47 p.m. Eastern
ROBERT COSTA: But she is competing against Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tonight for attention. I mean, you think back to Joe Wilson, the congressman from South Carolina, when he held "You lie" at President Obama, it was a seismic moment in American politics. It almost seems like it's cascading over the scene now as just another interruption in a chaotic political war.
NIKOLE KILLION: He was reprimanded for that and the question is will Marjorie Taylor Greene get reprimanded
JOHN DICKERSON: But his fund-raising also skyrocketed. And that's the change is that Marjorie Taylor Greene will probably also see a benefit from this. In politics that’s driven by attention and fund-raising, shouting out where norms are established – maintained, shouting out is actually perfectly fine if you are a chaos entrepreneur in the political realm these days.
(…)
