Get ready for a stark transition as journalists in the media stop speaking truth to power and turn into stenographers for the incoming Democratic administration. On Wednesday’s CBS This Morning, the show’s hosts and reporters hailed the “pioneer” Jill Biden and talked to a guest who hyped a First Lady “so much closer to our lives.”
Co-host Gayle King, a Democratic donor, introduced the segment with praise: “When Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president one week from today, his administration will make history for a number of reasons, including having the first female vice president, Kamala Harris, who is also a woman of color. Both spouses on the ticket will also be pioneers.”
After highlighting Jill Biden’s past as a teacher, reporter Nikole Killion insisted this will be a “lesson for the country.” She then talked to a Smithsonian official who lauded the Democrat for being “so much closer to our lives.”
NIKOLE KILLION: Now a lesson for the country as Dr. Biden becomes the first First Lady to hold a job outside of the White House.
LISA KATHLEEN GRADDY (Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Curation): It’s going to make the first lady so much more like the rest of American women.
KILLION: Lisa Kathleen Graddy is a curator for the first ladies exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
GRADDY: Now there's going to be someone who's living something so much closer to our lives.
Killion lamented, “Does it surprise you that we're just now taking this step?” This is the same journalist who in 2019 pushed the constitutionally ineligible socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as vice president. (She’s too young.) Killion didn’t seem to know this, asking Bernie Sanders "If you are the nominee, Senator, would you consider the Congresswoman as your running mate?”
Will democracy still die in darkness, as The Washington Post declared during the Trump administration? Sounds like things are just fine as we enter the Biden administration.
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A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
1/13/2021
8:45 AM ETGAYLE KING: When Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president one week from today, his administration will make history for a number of reasons, including having the first female vice president, Kamala Harris, who is also a woman of color. Both spouses on the ticket will also be pioneers. Nikole Killion is in Wilmington, Delaware, with that part of the story. Nikole, good morning to you.
NIKOLE KILLION: Good morning to you, Gayle. This high school is where Dr. Biden spent the early part of her teaching career. As First Lady, she will teach at a community college outside of Washington just as she did when she was Second Lady, and aides say she intends to keep her roles separate.
JILL BIDEN: Teaching is not what I do, it's who I am.
KILLION: It's the philosophy incoming first lady Jill Biden has maintained throughout her more than three decades in education.
JILL BIDEN: When I taught English here at Brandywine High School —
KILLION: Last summer during the Democratic National Convention she returned to the Delaware classroom where she taught in the early '90s.
CARRIE SANDERSON: There's Dr. Jill.
KILLION: Kerry Sanderson was down the hall and taught math.
SANDERSON: She was two doors up from me and just the nicest person.
KILLION: What was she like as a teacher?
SANDERSON: My son had her. They loved her. She just made learning fun.
KILLION: I heard she was a tough grader.
SANDERSON: Yes. But she -- you know, tough teachers, that's when you learn the most.
KILLION: Now a lesson for the country as Dr. Biden becomes the first First Lady to hold a job outside of the White House.
LISA KATHLEEN GRADDY (Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Curation): It’s going to make the first lady so much more like the rest of American women.
KILLION: Lisa Kathleen Graddy is a curator for the first ladies exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
GRADDY: Now there's going to be someone who's living something so much closer to our lives.
KILLION: Does it surprise you that we're just now taking this step?
ANITA MCBRIDE (American University Executive in Residence): We take sometimes baby steps as a nation to change things.
KILLION: Anita McBride was chief of staff to former First Lady Laura Bush. She says throughout history each First Lady has defined her role, and many have broken the mold.
HILLARY CLINTON: Human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights.
KILLION: Taking on policy issues sometimes to deal with current problems.
NANCY REAGAN: Just say no.
KILLION: And using their experience to create new initiatives.
MICHELLE OBAMA: It has become harder not easier to raise healthy kids in this country.
MCBRIDE: Each person changes it a little bit more. And it's almost incumbent upon the individual to really carve out what that role means to them.
KILLION: Something Doug Emhoff, husband of vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, will also have to consider as the first second gentleman.
MCBRIDE: Not only is he a trailblazer, but so is his wife. As the first female vice president in our country's history. I have no doubt given that they support each other publicly so much that they will make it work for each other and take on this new very demanding role.
KILLION: Do you think it paves the path for a First Gentleman one day?
MCBRIDE: Yes. I hope that it does. That is coming, too. Took us a long time to elect an African-American president. And now it's taken us a long time to have a female win actually at a national ticket. So incremental changes, but they do make a difference.
KILLION: Mr. Emhoff will also work outside of the administration as a former entertainment lawyer. He will teach entertainment law at Georgetown University. He says it's something he's long wanted to do and is excited about the opportunity. Tony?
TONY DOKOUPIL: All right. Thank you very much.
