Kamala Harris refused to show up next to Trump at the Catholic Charities “Al Smith Dinner" in New York. But the TV “news” people were furious that Trump would mock her intelligence and say he would “dispose of her” in the election. But you can suggest he’s a unglued fascist, and that’s considered fair game. Managing editor Curtis Houck explains all the cranky coverage.
Was that decision to skipt it politically inept? Did she look hard-hearted? Never, not if you listen to the pro-Kamala media. As usual, Trump showed up and was painted as the villain.
ABC’s Good Morning America featured reporter Rachel Scott warning Donald Trump deployed “dark language” to level “very personal attacks” and “grievances that “crossed the line.” His talk of disposing of her drew a laugh, but not from Scott. “There were audible gasps in the room” she claimed. Well in the fuller clips we’ve seen we heard the laughs, not the gasps.
In contrast, ABC showed no such concern about Harris going after Trump, swooning she “[took] Donald Trump to task” by “upping the pace and intensity of...her warnings about” him and making “a blistering rebuke of” Trump on abortion. The networks paint verbal pictures with carefully chosen words.
CBS Chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes fretted the Al Smith Dinner features a “gentl[e] roast,” but Trump’s “jokes were not that gentle.” Okay, but Harris mocking Trump’s election denial is not gentle. It’s fair game, but it’s not gentle. Trump "lobbed insults at his rival." So did Harris, but they don't use that tone for her.
NBC's Kristen Welker explained Harris is now "calling the former President unhinged and unstable. Harris campaign officials tell NBC News that describing him that way is an effective messaging tool to win over persuadable voters." They don't say Harris is lowering herself into "darker rhetoric." They find Democrats to say it's an "effective messaging tool."
As you saw in Peter’s piece, Trump is no stranger to darker rhetoric. He’s taken aim at the Vice President, trying to paint her at mentally incompetent, even questioning her race, which he did again overnight. He just discussed in on the Patrick Bet-David podcast, abc had that.
On ABC's The View, They all were upset that Catholic Charities invited Trump. Joy Behar complained they were "normalizing a guy who’s already broken 11 of the 10 commandments." Sunny Hostin demanded they abandon the tradition: "He had Melania next to him. His third wife, who he cheated with Stormy Daniels while she was pregnant. I think he stands against everything and flies in the face of everything that a Catholic believes and holds dear. He is not a faithful man." If they had any diversity of opinion, a conservative could point out Bill Clinton showed up for this dinner, and then Hillary Clinton showed up. They weren't ideal Christian role models, either.
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