After ignoring a gratuitous slam on Donald Trump’s 13-year-old son on Wednesday, CBS on Thursday finally got around to mentioning Democratic impeachment witness Pamela Karlan’s out-of-the-blue shot: While the “President can name his son Barron, he can't make him a baron,” she needled. CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King conceded that the remark made her “cringe just a little bit.”
The show’s journalists waited until the 8 AM hour to discuss the story, but King eventually noted, “One of the three scholars that Democrats called to testify had to apologize for mentioning the President's 13-year-old son during testimony. Republicans blasted Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan after she tried to make a point that Mr. Trump does not have the same powers as king.”
She played a clip of Congressman Matt Gaetz chiding Karlan: “When you invoke the President’s son’s name here, when you try to make a joke out of referencing Barron Trump, that does not lend credibility to your argument. It makes you look mean.”
King admitted it mader her “cringe just a little bit.”
Barron's mother, First Lady Melania Trump, tweeted, “Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering and using a child to do it.” The White House press secretary called the professor “classless.” I am avery glad that she did apologize. I admit when I was watching, cringed just a little when she brought Barron’s Trump name into it. And Melania Trump rightfully turned into mama bear at that moment.
The MRC’s Nicholas Fondacaro on Wednesday explained that CBS completely skipped the nasty remark. ABC insinuated it was witty, calling the comment a “quip.”
A transcript of the segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
12/5/19
8:05 AM ETGAYLE KING: One of the three scholars that Democrats called to testify had to apologize for mentioning the President's 13-year-old son during testimony. Republicans blasted Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan after she tried to make a point that Mr. Trump does not have the same powers as king.
PAMELA KARLAN: The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility. So while the President can name his son Barron, he can't make him a baron.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): When you invoke the President’s son’s name here, when you try to make a joke out of referencing Barron Trump, that does not lend credibility to your argument. It makes you look mean.
KARLAN: I want to apologize for what I said earlier about the President's son. It was wrong of me to do that. I wish the President would apologize obviously for the things that he's done that's wrong. But I do regret having said that.
KING: Barron's mother, First Lady Melania Trump, tweeted, “Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering and using a child to do it.” The White House press secretary called the professor “classless.” I am avery glad that she did apologize. I admit when I was watching, cringed just a little when she brought Barron’s Trump name into it. And Melania Trump rightfully turned into mama bear at that moment.
TONY DOKOUPIL: She could have made the same point legally without —
ANTHONY MASON: Without doing it.
KING: But she did apologize.
