Instead of considering why Americans voted for Trump and his campaign promise to task Elon Musk with creating a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to attack government spending, Wednesday’s CBS Evening News and Thursday’s CBS Mornings chose to tug at one’s emotional heartstrings by holding up food sent through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to starving babies in Sudan as why the agency shouldn’t be shut down.
Nothing about $400 million for LGBTQI Africans to have access to the internet, launching a social media platform in Cuba, workshops about white men threatening “gender equity” in artificial intelligence programs, $2 million for sex changes in Guatamala, or even $32,000 to produce a trans comic book in Peru. No nuance!
Starting with the former, co-anchor John Dickerson pivoted from a piece by Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan commiserating with a scared USAID employee as though they’re a whistleblower in witness protection to stating that “[s]ome of the humanitarian aid USAID provided went to the African nation of Sudan,” which has been in years-long civil war.
South Africa-based correspondent Debora Patta took awhile to actually get to her point about USAID after saying it took her “nearly two years to get visas to enter Sudan” and tough images of starving adults, children, and newborns with some struggling for life inside shanty hospitals:
Doctors and nutritionists here all told us the same thing. Without humanitarian aid and medical intervention, the children you see in this ward would not be alive. And much of that aid comes from USAID. America is also the World Food Program’s biggest funder. And a lot of the grain you see in this warehouse is paid for by the U.S. There’s an urgent race to get it to famine-stricken areas. It had been gathering dust for more than a month, while the WFP waited for permission to transport it. Food has frequently been weaponized by rival warlords. And, if that wasn’t hard enough, then came President Trump’s announcement of a 90-day suspension of aid.
She then found someone with the World Food Program to argue USAID should have it’s funding increased, not trimmed and “every single delay means lives are lost” and thus “digging” graves “instead of feeding” people.
Back live with Dickerson and co-anchor Maurice DuBois, she lectured viewers that USAID going down the drain could mean “eight million Sudanese could starve to death” (click “expand”):
DICKERSON: Debora, I want to ask you about some of the other ramifications of this humanitarian aid from USAID. What happens down the line if it doesn’t -- if it doesn’t make it?
PATTA: Well, John, let me give you a concrete example. In the last few weeks, two ships have docked at Port Sudan, American ships carrying food provided by USAID. Now, each of those ships could potentially feed over a million people. That food has to be off-loaded, stored in a warehouse, then at some point loaded onto a truck and driven to where these starving people are. So, when we talk of aid, it’s not just food. It’s the trucks, the drivers. There’s no one to pay the drivers. Staff have been locked out of their computers. They don’t have access to their phones, their contacts. We are talking about the unraveling of an entire system, which will be hard to bring back. And, as that system collapses, one source told us, eight million Sudanese could starve to death.
DUBOIS: And, Debora, that little boy in your piece, Ibrahim is his name. His situation tugs us at your heart. Do you know how he’s doing tonight?
PATTA: Oh, thanks for asking that, Maurice. Well, we went back to see baby Ibrahim a day later, and, sadly, his condition had worsened. Now, this is a very common problem for children suffering from severe malnutrition. If left unchecked, if they do not get help, they usually develop an infection that could kill them. He was on oxygen, an intravenous drip. Doctors were very worried. But I’m happy to report that we checked up on him today, and he’s doing a lot better. In fact, he’s even gained a little weight.
On CBS Mornings, featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers set the table for a largely reracked Patta report by declaring “CBS News is seeing firsthand how U.S. humanitarian aid is vital to millions of people in war torn countries like Sudan.”
“There are fears of a shutdown of USAID in Washington, which could mean less medicine for the sick, fewer first responders to treat the wounded, and less food for starving families, including babies...We want to warn you, some of the images are graphic,” he solemnly added.
Prior to Patta’s CBS Evening News report, Brennan — a Swamp creature who seems to be a masochist when it comes to being schooled by Republicans — griped that Musk and Trump are going after an agency “work[ing] to feed the world, combat disease and respond to disaster” while only making up “a very small fraction of the federal budget, less than one percent.”
She then had a woe-is-me interview with a current USAID employee, whom they allowed to blur their face and voice as though there were on the run from a mafia (click “expand”):
BRENNAN: USAID personnel have been locked out of their offices and e-mail since Monday, leaving many confused as to whether they will even have health care or paychecks coming. We spoke with one of those individuals who has spent the past decade at USAID. [TO ANONYMOUS EMPLOYEE] Why in our conversation do you think you need to remain anonymous?
USAID EMPLOYEE: Everyone is really scared. First, we were scared for our jobs. Then we were scared for the safety of our programs. I have a family, like most Americans, and I want to be brave, and I just don’t want to put them at any more risk than I have to.
BRENNAN: Elon Musk posted on X: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” What did you think when you heard that?
USAID EMPLOYEE: He said that. He said we were vipers. He said that we were worms and not a bad apple, but just worms. He said that we are evil lunatics.
BRENNAN: In recent days, the Trump-appointed chief of staff resigned and the two heads of security put on leave after they refused to let DOGE-linked staffers access classified information. Are you still officially employed by the U.S. government?
USAID EMPLOYEE: I do not know what my status is. Part of that is that what’s been happening has been moving with incredible speed and also an incredible level of sloppiness.
BRENNAN: The Trump administration argues the cuts will increase efficiency.
USAID EMPLOYEE: Not only have we abandoned our colleagues, which is an absolute moral atrocity, but we have abandoned our partners in the world. If you have ever seen those photos of people delivering bags of food or wearing the USAID vests or delivering medicines or the big trucks coming in with aid, it’s got big USAID logos on it, right? It’s got American —
BRENNAN: It’s for a reason.
USAID EMPLOYEE: — for a reason. It’s got American flags on it. It shows people, this is the U.S. coming to your aid.
Brennan later added live to Dickerson and DuBois some emotional blackmail that refusing to dole out foreign aid left and right emboldens America’s enemies like China (and, as CNN at least noted less than an hour later, Russia).
To see the relevant CBS transcripts from February 5 and 6, click here (for the CBS Evening News) and here (for CBS Mornings).
