Well, that wasn’t an encouraging start. Chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett on Tuesday was asked to contrast his past reporting of Donald Trump to the incoming Joe Biden. The CBS journalist expected Biden’s coverage to be “slightly opaque.”
After a retrospective report on Trump, co-host Gayle King wondered, “Now we're moving into Joe Biden. Two very different men. Different philosophies on just about everything. How do you think that’s going to change your coverage?”
Here’s Garrett’s answer:
Well, look, this new president, President Biden, will probably be more like many of the presidents before President Trump that I've covered, slightly opaque. One of the parts of the Trump beat that never existed was, “I wonder what the President is thinking?” For Joe Biden, we may wonder it sometimes. But with Trump, we never did.
Slightly opaque? According to Dictionary.com, one definition is “not transparent.” One assumes the opaque coverage could include anything related to Hunter Biden. Journalists certainly weren’t interested in that during the presidential campaign.
Earlier, Garrett’s analysis of Trump included reminiscing over “my first inkling that candidate Trump, soon to be President Trump, was willing to put the bully in bully pulpit.”
Showing how little he’s bothered by controversial Democrats, the journalist flashed a picture of the far-left, so-called Democratic squad (Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib) and accused the current President of “demonizing enemies, real and imagined.”
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A partial transcript of the CBS This Morning segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
1/19/2021
8:15 AM ET
GAYLE KING: This morning, on President Trump's last full day in the White House, we'll take a look back at four years of leadership that, as you know, left America deeply divided. So we asked our chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett to open the notebook to show us what it was like to cover a presidency unlike any other.
…
MAJOR GARRETT: To meet Donald Trump for the first time is to meet him forever.
DONALD TRUMP: Major, fantastic.
…
GARRETT: Mr. Trump argued with me over who won the first GOP debate.
TRUMP: Excuse me, did I win?
GARRETT: That's for you to decide.
TRUMP: If you don't say yes, you’re not a fair reporter.
GARRETT: That was my first inkling that Candidate Trump, soon to be President Trump, was willing to put the bully in bully pulpit.
….
GARRETT: To cover Mr. Trump is to be astonished by his energy, his combativeness and his ability to divide, inspire, market and deceive all at once. The Trump effect has reshaped the Supreme Court, the tax code, the Middle East, trade relations and America's image as an immigrant's welcoming home. But overall, the pump presidency was about one man relentlessly at the center of his own vortex, demanding loyalty, barking orders, pardoning friends, demonizing enemies, real and imagined. [Picture of The Squad appears on screen.]
…
KING: Now we're moving into Joe Biden. Two very different men. Different philosophies on just about everything. How do you think that’s going to change your coverage?
GARRETT: Well, look, this new president, President Biden, will probably be more like many of the presidents before President Trump that I've covered, slightly opaque. One of the parts of the Trump beat that never existed was, “I wonder what the President is thinking?” For Joe Biden, we may wonder it sometimes. But with Trump, we never did.
KING: All right. Major Garrett. Thank you.
