Wednesday's evening shows all led with the House of Representatives authorizing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden on a party-line vote. ABC, CBS, and NBC all echoed the preposterous "no evidence" claims of the White House. ABC spun for Biden the hardest, while NBC came closest to a middle-ground approach.
On ABC's World News Tonight, David Muir began the program: "Tonight, breaking news involving President Biden. The House voting moments ago to formally open the impeachment inquiry despite no proof of high crimes or misdemeanors. The president's response just in....Republicans voting to formalize the impeachment inquiry involving the president, but where is the evidence? And the stunning moment today the president's son Hunter Biden coming before the cameras."
Then he repeated it at the top story: "We do begin tonight with the breaking news from Capitol Hill just a short time ago. House Republicans voting to formalize the impeachment inquiry into president Biden despite providing no evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors. They say they need the inquiry to find the evidence."
Then came reporter Mary Bruce: "For years, Republicans have tried to tie president Biden to his son's business dealings, but have found no concrete evidence of wrongdoing. Hunter Biden already indicted for failing to pay taxes he has since repaid, today insisting his father did nothing wrong."
After three soundbites of Hunter, Bruce repeated: "House Republicans have spent a year investigating the Bidens and have come up with nothing on the president." Then she added a Biden statement: "The president is calling this a baseless political stunt, not supported by facts. Biden saying instead of doing their jobs, House Republicans are focused on, quote, attacking me with lies."
On the CBS Evening News, anchor Norah O'Donnell sounded the same note, just a little less: "This next step follows the years-long scrutiny of the president and his family that has turned up no proof of high crimes, and misdemeanors. But Democrats tonight are calling the move by Republicans, an extreme political stunt, that has no credibility and no legitimacy."
CBS had four Hunter soundbites. Reporter Scott McFarlane concluded: "In a statement tonight President Biden said of Republicans, instead of doing anything to make Americans live better, they are focused on attacking me, with lies."
NBC Nightly News was the mildest of the three. Anchor Lester Holt opened: "The house moments ago narrowly voted to authorize the probe that has so far produced no evidence of wrongdoing."
But the report by Ryan Nobles featured several facts the other two didn't.
Nobles said Hunter Biden "snubbed" a subpoena, even showing an empty desk with his name on it. Nobles noted that Hunter Biden wouldn't take questions, and showed video of his attempt to question Hunter. He also showed Joe Biden refused to take questions. NBC had two Hunter soundbites, but unlike the others, NBC offered substantive soundbites from Republican leaders Jim Jordan and Jim Comer. Nobles also ran a soundbite of Biden in 2019 lying that he'd never spoken to his son about his business dealings.
So Hunter Biden drew nine soundbites overall. None of the three network stories featured any video of Karine Jean-Pierre's evasive answers at the Wednesday briefing.
