Between Thursday night and Friday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC used their flagship morning and evening newscasts to promote a disinformation campaign first launched by The Bulwark’s Sam Stein to use President-Elect Trump’s comments about grocery prices to argue he can’t and won’t improve the lives of struggling Americans.
Our friends at Twitchy had a breakdown of Stein’s word games in which he said Trump told Time magazine for its Person of the Year interview what “it’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”
However, he actually had a lot more to say that, in fact, he would (click “expand”):
But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken. It's broken. You see it. You go out to the docks and you see all these containers. And I own property in California, in Palos Verdes. They're very nice. And I passed the docks, and I've been doing it for 20 years. I've never seen anything like it. You know, for 17 years, I saw containers and, you know, they'd come off and they'd be taken away—big areas, you know, you know, in that area, you know, where they have the big, the big ships coming in—big, the port. And I'd see this for years as I was out there inspecting property and things, because they own a lot in California. And I look down and I see containers that are, that are 12, 13, 14 containers. You wouldn't believe they can hold each other. It's like crazy. No, the supply chain is is broken. I think a very bad thing is this, what they're doing with the cars. I think they lost also because of cars. You know, there are a lot of reasons, but the car mandate is a disaster. The electric, the EV mandate.
Thursday’s World News Tonight featured chief Biden regime apple polisher Mary Bruce declaring Trump has been “promising to deliver on his campaign promise to bring down prices fast...[b]ut in his interview with Time, Trump was asked if his presidency would be a failure if prices don't go down. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up...it’s very hard. But I think that they will.’”
Over on the CBS Evening News, congressional correspondent Nikole Killion covered Trump’s comments on immigration, the Department of Health and Human Services, January 6 pardons, and the economy.
On that last point, she channeled Stein:
KILLION: On the economy, Trump, who made curbing inflation a cornerstone of his campaign, conceded it may be difficult to lower grocery prices. He explained, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” but later said this:
TRUMP: Prices are going to start coming down because people can’t afford their groceries, and they’re going to be affording their groceries very soon.
Killion popped up on Friday’s CBS Mornings and was even worse by removing the soundbite of Trump’s remarks about grocery prices at the New York Stock Exchange.
Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King cued Killion up by falsely claiming “Trump warned...there is one key campaign promise he might not be able to keep.”
Thursday’s NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt only a had 19-second news brief:
Here at home, President-Elect Donald Trump was in New York today ringing the opening bell at the New York stock exchange after Time magazine named him Person of the Year for what it called his comeback of historic proportion. In an interview, Trump seemed to lower expectations about quickly bringing down grocery prices, saying “it’s very hard. But I think that they will.”
Skip ahead to Friday’s Today and co-host Hoda Kotb proclaimed in a tease that “Trump admitt[ed] in a new interview it will be difficult to lower grocery prices, something he vowed to do during the campaign.”
Co-host Craig Melvin was arguably worse by insisting Trump is “appearing to back off a major campaign pledge on one of the biggest issues in the election, the economy.”
Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander also tried to muddy the waters by painting a potentially grim picture (click “expand”):
ALEXANDER: President-Elect Trump says Americans being able to afford their groceries will soon be a thing of the past. Americans pay roughly 20 percent more compared to when Trump left office. But, ahead of the election, he promised to bring down those prices on day one. And now, Trump is acknowledging it may be easier said than done. President-Elect Trump taking a victory lap on Wall Street, ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange after being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. But just days after sharing this assessment with NBC’s Kristen Welker —
TRUMP: I went on groceries. It is a very simple word, groceries.
ALEXANDER: — in his interview with Time, the President-Elect backed off his central campaign promise to lower prices for consumers, including on groceries, saying, “look, they got them up. I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. I think energy will bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down.” Throughout the campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed lower prices.
TRUMP [on 08/14/24]: But prices will come down. You just watch. They’ll come down and they will come down fast. Not only with insurance, but everything. [SCREEN WIPE] [on 10/10/24] It will also bring your grocery bill way down.
To see the relevant transcripts from December 12, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC). To see the relevant transcripts from December 13, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC).
