On Wednesday, the big three of ABC, CBS, and NBC used their flagship morning news shows to wave their blue, rhetorical pom-poms for Vice President Kamala Harris following a Georgia rally featuring rapper Megan Thee Stallion, cheering the “fired up” crowd symbolizing “an intense new wave of enthusiasm” for Democrats.
ABC’s Good Morning America, the reliably liberal and superficial network, led the way again.
Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos made sure to start with the Harris team’s talking point: “Kamala Harris rallied Democrats in the key battleground state of Georgia last night — issued a debate challenge to Donald Trump as she closes in on her choice of a running mate.”
Chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce shilled as she always has, gushing over “quite a crowd” in which “[t]housands” were “fired up for Harris in this critical state” while the candidate herself “challeng[ed] Donald Trump to make good on his promise to debate.”
“Harris also going head-on after the issue Republicans have been hammering her on: immigration. Trying to flip the script, Harris blaming Trump for convincing Republicans to tank the bipartisan border deal earlier this year,” she added.
Bruce was ebullient over Megan Thee Stallion and kept alive the now week-plus-old narrative about Trump running mate and Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) as some sexist bore (click “expand”):
MEGHAN THEE STALLION: If you wanna keep loving your body, you know who to vote for.
BRUCE: Harris tapping into star power with the performance by Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion. Looking to keep the energy going, Harris now moving at warp speed. Her campaign just over a week old but she is already expected to announce her running mate in the coming days.
(....)
BRUCE: Harris hoping her pick will build on her early momentum while Trump looks to calm the controversy swirling around his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance. Vance under fire for new comments that have surfaced from his past attacking the character of people who don't have children.
J.D. VANCE [in November 2020]: The fact that so many people, especially in America's leadership class, just don't have that in their lives, you know, I worry that it makes people more sociopathic and, ultimately, our country a little bit less — less mentally stable.
BRUCE: Out on the trail in Nevada, Vance taking on the traditional running mate role of attack dog.
VANCE: She is a San Francisco liberal. She is dangerously liberal. And thanks to the people in this room, she is never going to be the president of the united States! [CHEERS]
BRUCE: Now Trump has been coming to Vance's defense. Vance, meanwhile, said he expected his record to come under intense media scrutiny in these first days out of the gate and he says doesn't think he's disappointing Trump[.]
NBC’s Today found time amid its Olympics coverage to fluff the Harris campaign.
Senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez boasted of Harris holding “a raucous rally in battleground Georgia, including rap megastar Megan Thee Stallion” that’s part of “rid[ing] an intense new wave of enthusiasm among young Democrats” and “gaining ground” on Trump “in critical swing states.”
Gutierrez threw in his Vance knocks as well, claiming he’s “drawing new scrutiny for referring to some Democrats without children as, ‘childless cat ladies,’ in 2021” and played dumb in saying “a separate interview from 2020 is resurfacing” instead of having the balls to tell viewers this was coordinated opposition research.
CBS Mornings, meanwhile, was also raring to go. Co-host Nate Burleson hailed Harris’s “raucous rally” while senior White House and campaign correspondent Ed O’Keefe was moved by Atlanta having “turned up and turned out for” her with Megan Thee Stallion starting a new campaign catchphrase of “Hotties for Harris”.
Instead of challenging her, O’Keefe merely repeated the Harris team’s narrative of the day and held up women voters braving the heat to see Harris (click “expand”):
O’KEEFE: For the first time she responded to Republican attacks on her immigration record by recalling work she did as California attorney general, going after drug cartels and human traffickers...Her immigration record is the subject of new ads by Donald Trump designed to raise doubts at a time polls show Harris pulling even or ahead of the former President. Thousands waited hours to see Harris speak.
CHERYL FREEMAN: In three weeks we’ve gone from an emotional feeling of no hope to hopefulness.
O’KEEFE: Does she make it easier for Democrats to win Georgia in November?
WOMEN: Yes.
JENNIFER HARVEY: Having a younger person finally at the table, bringing energy, bringing excitement, bringing joy back into politics makes a huge difference.
O’KEEFE: Harris also used her rally to once again try luring Trump back into a debate as he still won’t commit to one.
HARRIS: Well, Donald — [SCREEN WIPE] — as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face! [CHEERS]
The show’s “Eye Opener at 8” ended with fill-in co-host Michelle Miller fawning over Harris and Megan Thee Stallion (click “expand”):
BURLESON: And Megan Thee Stallion was also at Kamala Harris's rally yesterday putting on a show to support the VP.
MEGAN THEE STALLION: Let's get this done, honey. Hotties for Harris.
MILLER: Midriff.
DUTHIERS: Wait, what was that?
BULESON: Is that called — what is that called?
MILLER: You’ve asked what — what is that style? I was like, that's a midriff.
BURLESON: That’s a midriff? Okay.
DUTHIERS: Alright.
BURLESON: Alright, Megan Thee Stallion doing her thing.
MILLER: She was doing it. She was doing it.
BURLESON: Hotties for Harris!
MILLERS: There we go!
To see the relevant transcripts from July 31, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
