CBS and ABC journalists on Tuesday and Wednesday fawned over the “primal” scream actress Meryl Streep gave at the Democratic National Convention last month. Appearing on CBS This Morning, Wednesday, the movie star explained her pro-Hillary Clinton speech, saying, “I felt it was a moment in history and I felt like I was surfing this huge wave of wonderfulness.”
Co-host Charlie Rose, of course, offered no tough questions. Instead, he fawned, “We were both on the floor and saw you speak. Was that, for you, an easy experience? Was that a passionate experience?”
Guest co-host Dana Jacobson questioned the British Hugh Grant, who appeared with Streep and lobbied the actor to weigh in on “U.S. politics right now, how it looks.” After making a joke about Britain “shooting ourselves in the foot” with Brexit, he fretted about American extremism:
HUGH GRANT: I'm afraid there is a certain comedy value to be had for strangers watching what is happening here. But, I mean, frightening comedy as well. And it's not just here. One sees it in, you know, in the various European countries where quite scary people are coming to the fore.
On Tuesday, Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos touted Streep’s “very primal” speech and cheered, “Well, it was clear you swept up a lot of people in the moment as well.”
A transcript of the CBS exchange is below:
CBS TM
8/10/16
8:37CHARLIE ROSE: Can I change the subject to politics?
GAYLE KING: We saw you at the DNC.
ROSE: We were both on the floor and saw you speak. Was that, for you, an easy experience? Was that a passionate experience?
MERYL STREEP: It was personal. It was sort of — it meant an enormous amount to me because I just felt the press of history behind me. I felt my grandmother and my mother, imagining what they would feel. My mother was born before women could vote. It's very recent that we have been admitted to the United States with our rights, and so I felt it was a moment in history and I felt like I was surfing this huge wave of wonderfulness.
ROSE: Where are you living, Hugh??
GRANT: In London.
ROSE: You're in London?
GRANT: Yeah, yeah. Also, oddly enough, almost a life almost entirely devoted to politics now. I was hauled back to show business to do this film.
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DANA JACOBSON: Was that a nice break? You were doing a lot with the media reform.
GRANT: That's right.
JACOBSON: Sort of a nice break to get back to acting?
GRANT: Yes, it was. It's been lovely. Because instead of, you know, worrying about press regulation and changing the law and a number of votes we can get in the House of Lords, you're also worrying about what shade of makeup should I wear? It did feel relaxing.
JACOBSON: We ask a lot of people when they come here what sort of the way it looks, the U.S. politics right now, how it looks from afar. When with you have seen it, you're smiling already, how has it looked to you from afar?
GRANT: Well, we are in no position to laugh because we just —
JACOBSON: Brexit, right.
GRANT: We just hit ourselves in the foot. But, yeah, I'm afraid there is a certain comedy value to be had for strangers watching what is happening here. But, I mean, frightening comedy as well. And it's not just here. One sees it in, you know, in the various European countries where quite scary people are coming to the fore.
KING: Do you have any desire for politics here? Because you're very actively involved in the organization to cut down on hacking. I think it's amazing the work you're doing in London.
GRANT: You get the feeling they do have a nice time. It's quite a, sort, of enjoyable game of Snakes and Ladders that they are playing all day every day. I can see how that could become addictive and fascinating. But in the end, I don't know.
ROSE: I hear a maybe?
KING: I do too.
GRANT: I think you don't think you get enough done in the end, really.
ROSE: Can you imagine because of what has happened, because a first woman to become president, if, in fact, she is elected, you might feel the compulsion to serve, to do something, to be involved in a way that you haven't been involved before?
STREEP: It's a tricky thing, too. I love being an actor. So it interferes with my, dare I say, art or the thing that I love doing, to be political, and so I try to stay out. But it keeps pulling me in! Because — because the other part of it, as a citizen right now, we are obliged to stand up and say, I don't — this can't stand. This is impossible.
ROSE: And this is what we have to stand for?
STREEP: This cannot represent us. Yes. So every person is obliged to do that, even the most private people like me.
