The Holy Grail of anti-Trump authors would be to have their writings promoted and cited by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Riot, because it would be a boon to sales. And during Sunday’s Good Morning America, ABC’s chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl made that sales play by actively pitching and urging the members of the committee to get copies of his book because it has “revelations” they would “certainly” want to learn about.
GMA co-anchor Dan Harris shilled for Karl’s book by noting the timing compared to the Trump campaign discloser that said he had raised $80 million:
The timing is interesting for you Jon since the title and cover art for your forthcoming book were just revealed. Here it is: Betrayal: the Final Act of the Trump Show. However, if we look at the war chest Trump is amassing, how are we to believe we've seen his final act?
“Well, well, first, the number is staggering. The idea of an ex-president, especially one that left office the way this president left office, raising that kind of money is astounding,” Karl noted, suggesting it hinted at a serious 2024 campaign consideration.
Explaining the concept behind the obnoxious title of his book, Karl opined about how former President Trump had and was betraying everything Americans held dear. “The reason I say ‘Betrayal: the final act of the Trump show,’ is: betrayal is the final act of the Trump show, the betrayal of American democracy, the effort to undermine our very system of government, the way we run elections. The betrayal is not over, but it is the final act,” he said.
Karl then made a direct pitch to the committee to use his book to help guide their investigation:
And as I made clear in this book – and by the way, there will be revelations in this book that will all but certainly want to be looked at by the committee investigating the January 6th riot – the betrayal is ongoing, and Donald Trump – even with all that has gone down – remains, by far, the most important and influential figure in the Republican Party.
“Your last book was excellent. I look forward to this one as well,” Harris touted, noting Karl was interviewing Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) later on This Week (Karl did not bring up his book during that interview).
Earlier in this segment, Harris teed up Karl to lament how the pandemic was making President Biden look bad:
It's a huge challenge for the President; both in terms of his promise to deal with the pandemic, making it clear from the start that his biggest priority was getting the pandemic under control. So, the step backwards is a big issue there. There was the other promise he made, Dan, and that was the promise to unite the country.
He went on to blame Republicans for dividing the country on the issue. “He's facing an all-out rebellion from Republican governors to the question of reinstituting mask-wearing and a rebellion from Republicans in Congress,” he sneered. “The country seems easily as divided, if not more divided an ever over how to deal with COVID.”
Jonathan Karl’s selfish play to drive his book sales was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Allstate and Disney. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Good Morning America
August 1, 2021
8:15:06 a.m. EasternDAN HARRIS: Jon, good morning. I’d love to hear from you a sense of what you think the political ramifications are of this COVID surge for the President.
JONATHAN KARL: It's a huge challenge for the President; both in terms of his promise to deal with the pandemic, making it clear from the start that his biggest priority was getting the pandemic under control. So, the step backwards is a big issue there. There was the other promise he made, Dan, and that was the promise to unite the country.
And right now, not only do we seeing a resurgence of COVID thanks to the delta variant, [but] we also see that the country is as divided as ever over how to deal with it. He's facing an all-out rebellion from Republican governors to the question of reinstituting mask-wearing and a rebellion from Republicans in Congress. The country seems easily as divided, if not more divided an ever over how to deal with COVID.
HARRIS: Let's talk – while I have you – for a moment about the former president, Donald Trump. Overnight, we got some news. We learned that he has raised more than $80 million in campaign cash in the first six months of this year.
The timing is interesting for you Jon since the title and cover art for your forthcoming book were just revealed. Here it is: Betrayal: the Final Act of the Trump Show. However, if we look at the war chest Trump is amassing, how are we to believe we've seen his final act?
KARL: Well, well, first, the number is staggering. The idea of an ex-president, especially one that left office the way this president left office, raising that kind of money is astounding. And if you listen to his advisers, including his former chief of staff, Mark meadows, it sounds like he is gearing up for an all but certain run for [the] presidency.
The reason I say "Betrayal: the final act of the Trump show," is: betrayal is the final act of the Trump show, the betrayal of American democracy, the effort to undermine our very system of government, the way we run elections. The betrayal is not over, but it is the final act.
And as I made clear in this book – and by the way, there will be revelations in this book that will all but certainly want to be looked at by the committee investigating the January 6th riot – the betrayal is ongoing, and Donald Trump – even with all that has gone down – remains, by far, the most important and influential figure in the Republican Party.
HARRIS: Your last book was excellent. I look forward to this one as well. Jon, thank you very much. I want to remind everybody, Jon has a big show this morning including an exclusive interview with Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican on what's next for the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. Jon just mentioned that committee.
