Not Like Last Year: More Sedate Networks Scoff at Trump’s ‘Campaign Rally Speech’

Curtis Houck
March 5th, 2025 10:34 AM

Text to Speech

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Needless to say, ABC, CBS, and NBC offered far different reactions Tuesday night to President Trump’s address to Congress (think State of the Union, but not granted that title in a president’s first year) than they did in immediately celebrating last year’s partisan State of the Union from Joe Biden.

For 2025, they were more lackadaisical in their disdain for Trump’s “intensely partisan” “campaign rally speech” marred by “loud, visceral, ugly” denunciations of the theatrics throughout by Democrats, including Congressman Al Green’s (D-TX).

CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson predictably found reason to dislike it: “[W]hile voters say that lowering prices is there a key issue, it was arguably the thing that got him elected, he spent very little of the speech on that and indeed he devoted more direct attention and detail to the issue to transgender issues than he did to lowering consumer prices.”

Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan provided the partisan contrast with disgust for Trump’s white-hot speech even though her network was thrilled with President Biden’s partisan speech a year earlier: “This really felt like a campaign rally speech more slogan than substantive policy, even down to referring to Joe Biden is the worst president in history. You were very diplomatic, John, when you said words you don’t often hear in these chambers like that.”

Inside the House Chamber, January 6-obsessed correspondent Scott MacFarlane didn’t have a problem with any of the left’s theatrics. Instead, he was mad about how Republicans responded:

Dickerson and senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang gave more ammunition to the predictable double standard:

Following the Democratic response from Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett dialed back on the apocalyptic nonsense he delivered hours earlier on CBS Mornings and admitted things Washington elites were turned off by likely resonated with real America (click “expand”):

 

 

So, I've learned to be humble about analyzing speeches like this because the country often catches on to things that those of us in Washington might not sift the way the country does. When the President listed things that he thought were extravagant examples of wasteful spending, those of us around this table might say, well, that's not going to be enough, even if you cut all that to balance the budget which is $840 billion, out of balance. Americans will hear it and say wait a minute, those things found wasteful to me. Sounds like Elon Musk and the President are onto something. There was also tremendous emotive power in several parts of the speech and I think it will resonate across the country, whether it's Lake Riley slain, her mother and sister or Marc and his mother, Malphine Fogel, rescued, brought back from Russia, or a Border Patrol agent Roberto Ortiz, or Stephanie Diller, the surviving spouse of a slain New York City police officer. Those things carry emotional weight not only the moment, but probably, inevitably in the pass around social media dissection of the speech. I keep my eyes and ears tuned to emotional moments like that that often jump over the instantaneous Beltway analysis.

In contrast, chief Washington analyst Robert Costa seemed to imply Slotkin and Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger — two middle-aged white women — could be the kinds of candidates Democrats need to thwart Trumpism.

Over on NBC, Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker argued Trump gave “a culture war speech” and “so notable” and reminder of “what swept him into the White House” even though it “[t]ook him 20 minutes to talk about the top issue for voters, which is, by the way, the economy.”

Senior Washington correspondent Hallie agreed it was a speech on “culture war issues,” but had the wherewithal to note his views on DEI and transgenderism are widely popular and thus it wasn’t surprising he “lean[ed] into” what’s been “a political winner[.]”

Welker later continued hosting on the free streaming channel NBC News NOW after NBC’s coverage wrapped, firing off a series of grievances against Trump’s “intensely partisan” speech and dismissed the reality he had a decisive November win:

Prior to the speech, Jackson peddled this cartoonish anonymous anecdote:

ABC, meanwhile, came off as sedate and was perhaps out of exhaustion with the evening. World News Tonight anchor David Muir lamented “the chamber divided” with Democrats facing “a bit of challenge, it would seem” in “how to respond to what they perceive as a difficult 44 days.”

Even far-left senior political correspondent Rachel Scott conceded the contrast between the theatrics of congressional Democrats vs. the lucid Slotkin as proof of her team coming off as “disjointed.”

Beforehand, ABC had this ridiculous moment:

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