CBS This Morning journalists on Monday chided Donald Trump for his “tone” in reaction to Saturday’s mass murder of Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Despite the President condemning the acts as evil and ordering flags at half staff, co-host Norah O’Donnell and reporter Weijia Jiang repeatedly brought up Trump’s outside political activities. This is in stark contrast to the network spinning for Barack Obama after a vacation in the wake of the beheading of American James Foley.
With a graphic that said, “presidential tone,” Jiang lectured, “It will be interesting to see if the President's tone continues to waiver with just over a week before election day he has so many rallies planned this week across the country in Trump-friendly states.” If the point wasn’t clear, the journalist underlined that the President “spent the weekend trying to deal with a country in mourning while still trying to gain momentum ahead of the midterm elections.”
O’Donnell reminded, “The White House says President Trump plans to visit Pittsburgh though his schedule is already packed with a number of campaign rallies across the country.”
In 2014, American journalist James Foley was beheaded by ISIS terrorists. Obama did not cancel his planned vacation to Martha’s Vineyard. In contrast to Trump, This Morning guest host Jeff Glor on August 22, 2014 defended the Democratic President, saying, “You can’t appear to be held hostage to events.”
Reporter Major Garrett happily recounted all the fun vacation activities, saying Obama’s “vacation score card includes three dinners out, two beach days, one bike ride, a jazz concert, and a fund-raiser for Senate Democrats, aught to mention a five hour bachelor party Monday in the Washington home of former White House chef Sam Kass.”
Some credit to CBS that day for at least pointing out that then-British Prime Minister David Cameron returned from his vacation early after Foley was murdered.
A transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
10/29/18
7:16:22 to 7:17:58CBS Graphic: Presidential Tone
NORAH O’DONNELL: The White House says President Trump plans to visit Pittsburgh though his schedule is already packed with a number of campaign rallies across the country. He did order flags at federal build buildings to fly flags at half staff until Wednesday in honor of the victims. The President also mixed condemnation of the killings with verbal attacks on his critics. Weijia Jiang is at the White House. Weijia, good morning.
WEIJIA JIANG: Good morning, Norah. President Trump spent the weekend trying to deal with a country in mourning while still trying to gain momentum ahead of the midterm elections. The President said he considered canceling his rally on Saturday, but would not let evil win. Then he joked, he could have bailed because of his, quote, “bad hair day” after answering reporters' questions about the shooting in the rain. The President condemned anti-Semitism though his stance on gun control did not sway, claiming a shooter would have been stopped if an armed guard was posted inside the synagogue.
Critics, including billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer, a target of last week’s mail bomb scare accused Mr. Trump of creating an atmosphere of political violence. Steyer is behind a flurry of anti-Trump advertisements. The President, after watching Steyer on CNN, wrote, “He comes offs a crazed and stumbling lunatic.” Steyer fired back, criticizing the President for name calling during this tragic time. Of course, it will be interesting to see if the President's tone continues to waiver with just over a week before election day he has so many rallies planned this week across the country in Trump-friendly states. Gayle?
