Instead of covering any of the developments that have boiled to the surfice since Tuesday concerning Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal, ABC’s World News Tonight spent a portion of its 2016 report on Sunday dithering over recently-posted video of a young Ted Cruz telling the camera that he’s wishing for growing up to have “world domination.”
Campaign correspondent and Saturday anchor Cecilia Vega explained about just past halfway through her report that “Cruz's younger personality on full display in this new clip posted on YouTube” that actually came out on Saturay in which the 18-year-old Cruz joked about his future aspirations.
Following a clip of Cruz asking the camera what he “want[s] to do in life,” Vega hyped that there was Cruz as a “lanky teenager, talking about his life goals, seem[ing] to know exactly what he wants.”
A second clip of Cruz then followed (before going onto the cold open from Saturday Night Live) in which he trumpeted his goals: “Take over the world, world domination, you know, rule everything. Rich, powerful, that sort of stuff.”
Of course, Vega only mustered three sentences about the Democratic campaign before tossing back to Sunday anchor Tom Llamas:
A lot of laughter last night, but the race is just as heated on the Democratic side where right now, it's a battle for turnout. Today, so far, at Hillary Clinton's biggest event, 600 people showed up to see her in Iowa. For Sanders, the number was 2,000.
As my colleague Kyle Drennen and I repeatedly chronicled last week (see here, here, here, and here), the networks have shown almost zero interest in news that, among numerous developments, included the revelation that Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server contained information that was beyond top secret and specifications on human assets in the field (known as HCS-0).
While this story has fetched a few mentions on the morning newscasts, none of the network evening newscasts (ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News) have uttered a word on these details were first reported on Tuesday (by FNC’s Catherine Herridge).
The relevant portions of the transcript from ABC’s World News Tonight on January 24 can be found below.
ABC’s World News Tonight
January 24, 2016
6:40 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Tight Race]
TOM LLAMAS: We turn now to the race for 2016. A new poll tonight with good news for Donald Trump. With the Iowa caucus just one week away, the New York billionaire surging past Ted Cruz there, taking the lead. Marco Rubio and Ben Carson, Rand Paul, all behind them and in New Hampshire, Trump ahead of Cruz by double digits. ABC’s Cecilia Vega has it all from Iowa tonight.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Race for 2016; Caucus Countdown; Trump Clashes with Protester]
CECILIA VEGA: Donald Trump kicking off his Sunday on the campaign trail, right here in an Iowa church and he ended it with a rally surrounded by 2,000 supporters.
DONALD TRUMP: So, this is crunch time.
VEGA: And one protester. The man in the red turban interrupted Trump as he spoke about terrorism.
(....)
VEGA: His GOP rivals, still hoping for a victory of their own.
REPUBLICAN SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (Fl.): Voters here take their vote very seriously.
REPUBLICAN SENATOR TED CRUZ (Tex.): Wow!
VEGA: It was Texas Senator Ted Cruz's younger personality on full display in this new clip posted on YouTube.
CRUZ [in old video as teenager]: What I want to do in life?
VEGA: The lanky teenager, talking about his life goals, seems to know exactly what he wants.
CRUZ [in old video as teenager]: Take over the world, world domination, you know, rule everything. Rich, powerful, that sort of stuff.
VEGA: Dominating the airwaves overnight.
SNL’s SARAH PALIN [on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, 01/23/16]: I wanted to take a break from my full-time career of writing things on Facebook.
VEGA: SNL's version of Trump and Sarah Palin, played by none other than Tina Fey.
(....)
VEGA: A lot of laughter last night, but the race is just as heated on the Democratic side where right now, it's a battle for turnout. Today, so far, at Hillary Clinton's biggest event, 600 people showed up to see her in Iowa. For Sanders, the number was 2,000.
