Vice President Mike Pence appeared on all three morning network news shows Wednesday, to discuss President Trump’s address to Congress Tuesday night. ABC was the harshest on Pence, demanding he respond to Democrat talking points the whole interview, whereas NBC and CBS were less combative with the Vice President.
On ABC’s Good Morning America, anchor George Stephanopoulos interviewed both Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and Vice President Mike Pence, but his approach to each interview couldn’t be more different. Schumer took each question as an opportunity to lay into Trump and list every complaint Democrats had with the president, and Stephanopoulos let him do just that. Conversely with Pence, Stephanopoulos had less patience.
Stephanopoulos also molded his interview around Schumer’s talking points, asking Pence to respond to them.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You heard Senator Schumer right there, he said the president's speech was detached from reality. The policies don't match the rhetoric.
When answering Stephanopoulos’ question on Obamacare, Pence was cut off repeatedly by the ABC anchor, who demanded the Vice President answer his question more directly without going to any Trump administration talking points. Stephanopoulos asked Pence repeatedly if the president could promise that not one person would lose coverage under the Obamacare replacement:
STEPHANOPOULOS: [A]re you confident the repeal is going to happen and will the replacement guarantee that everyone who has coverage now won't lose coverage? That's a promise broken, the president said, by President Obama.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But can he guarantee that everyone who has coverage now won't lose it?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Will that guarantee that no one loses coverage?
Talking about immigration, again Stephanopoulos demanded Pence respond to Schumer’s complaints, asking if Trump was prepared “to compromise now:”
STEPHANOPOULOS: The president also talked about immigration. You heard Senator Schumer right there say he doesn't really buy that the president is coming forward with a more comprehensive immigration reform plan. Is he prepared to compromise now, for example on creating a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants?
Over on NBC’s Today show, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt talked with Pence as well, in a less combative and shorter interview. But Holt began by characterizing Trump’s speech as out of character, asking repeatedly if Pence or someone else in the administration convinced Trump to adopt a different tone:
HOLT: Did you or others counsel him to dial it back a bit?
HOLT: But he wasn’t combative about it. You’re right, he has talked about a lot of those things, sometimes in a very combative way. He wasn't last night. So back to my question, did you or others counsel him to bring it back?
NBC’s Matt Lauer also interviewed Chuck Schumer, taking the same skeptical approach as Holt, asking if Schumer “bought” the “kinder, gentler Trump.”
CBS This Morning, by contrast, was the longest interview of the three, but arguably the least biased. Anchor Norah O’Donnell’s first few questions to Pence were on the “incredibly moving moment” of the night, when Trump honored a fallen Navy SEAL and his widow. O’Donnell also asked Pence about any “intelligence” that was gathered from the raid that the veteran was killed in, and if competitor network NBC, was “wrong” in reporting that there was no new information learned from his mission.
O’DONNELL: NBC has reported that there was no significant intelligence gathered from that raid. Is that wrong?
O’Donnell moved on to a harder line of questioning from there, asking Pence about Trump “signaling” yesterday that he was open to a “legal pathway” for undocumented immigrants. “Are you on board with that as well?” she asked Pence. After his response she asked again, “The question, though, was whether he is open to a pathway for the undocumented immigrants here or are you just not there yet?”
O’Donnell followed up by asking about the revised executive order on the travel ban, asking about what countries would be on the list. To finish off the interview, she mirrored Lester Holt’s questions about the president’s “changed” tone.
O’DONNELL: Last night's speech, did that signal a change? It was different in tone from the inaugural address. Did it signal a change?
CBS’ Gayle King also interviewed Chuck Schumer and took the opposite approach of ABC’s Stephanopoulos, asking Schumer what he “liked” about Trump’s speech and if Democrats felt “pressure” to unite with the GOP after the well-received speech last night.
