ABC/CBS Potpourri: Celebrating Blue TX, Misleading on NE, Ducking Anti-Semitic Ad

The “Big Three” broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC offered an entire plate of bias Wednesday on their lead morning newscasts, with each of them pulling hard for Texas to go blue with James Talarico, CBS Mornings misleading viewers about Kansas and Nebraska Senate seats, and both ABC and NBC ignoring an anti-Semitic ad in Michigan blaming Jews for an increase in grocery bills.

Starting with the supposed MAGA network, CBS Mornings co-host Norah O’Donnell misled viewers when she suggested Kansas and Nebraska Senate seats would go blue: “Polling shows the Democrats have a good shot at taking back the House, possibly the Senate. The influential Cook Political Report this morning moved two ruby-red-state races toward Democrats: Kansas and Nebraska.”

Putting that together, she asked chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett: “Are Republicans bracing for a blowout?”

In the case of Kansas, Cook moved the race of incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall and far-left pastor Adam Hamilton from “lean Republican to toss-up,” but the Nebraska race with fake independent Dan Osborn and incumbent Republican Pete Ricketts was just from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican.” In other words, that’s still in the GOP column.

Garrett boasted Republicans should “brac[e] for a very long night next Tuesday,” but conceded “bracing doesn’t mean inevitability” even if “politics forces people to stay optimistic in the face of pessimistic realities.”

He then explained the Senate could come down to whether the GOP holds Iowa and Texas and Democrats hold Michigan. Like in the past few days, Garrett framed the objectives for the outcome on the left’s terms (click “expand”):

And, as I talk to Republicans, three states keep coming up again and again and again: Texas, Iowa, and Michigan. All three are open Senate races, meaning no incumbent. Two are held by Republicans, Texas and Iowa. Michigan is a Democratic seat. Everyone says that night, the way it plays out, those three Senate races are going to determine control of the body. So, let’s go to Texas and give you one place in Texas: Dallas. Yes, there’s a lot of concentration on Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley. They’re going to be important. But main line, Bush-aligned Republicans in the Dallas suburbs and Dallas proper, if they don’t show up for Ken Paxton, he’s going to be in trouble in that Senate race.

Let me take you to Iowa, give you another D: Dubuque. That’s eastern Iowa. Trump has a rally scheduled there for Sunday. Eastern Iowa is about the transformation of that state from blue to purple to red in the Trump era. If eastern Iowa doesn’t show up for Ashley Hinson, the Republican nominee in that race, that seat is in jeopardy. Now, let’s go to Michigan and Detroit. Abdul El-Sayed needs African American votes in Detroit to come out strong. A Detroit News poll showing him up six yesterday had a very strong contingent of African American votes. But, if they don’t, that race very much comes in jeopardy for Abdul el-Sayed. So, Dubuque, Detroit, and Dallas: watch that on election night Tuesday night.

Co-host and former Democratic donor Gayle King wanted to know about Ohio: “Can we just talk about Ohio? He’s going there today, with that controversial ad, which, by the way, President Trump is supporting.”

Garrett argued Trump has done so to national benefit to create an us-versus-them dynamic, even if “it’s a bad look in Ohio.”

This segment was cued up by senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang sharing highlights from dueling Trump and Talarico rallies. To her credit, she was alone on the broadcast networks in noting Trump noted the first tanker of Venezuelan oil post-Maduro had arrived in Texas.

ABC’s Good Morning America, as usual, couldn’t hide its deep-seated hatred for Trump and his voters.

Co-host and armchair pundit Michael Strahan huffed in a tease that Trump had to go “back” to Texas “as James Talarico tried to turn the seat blue for the first time in decades, with early voting surging across the country and gas prices on track to be the highest ever on Election Day.”

Correspondent Jay O’Brien dishonestly painted Talarico as a clean candidate with zero concerns from voters, whereas Paxton has “a suitcase of scandals.” Like he’s done on the trail, O’Brien found an anecdote from a voter to support his party’s messaging (click “expand”):

O’BRIEN: Overnight, a showdown in the Lone Star State: President Trump and Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico holding dueling rallies just miles apart in Lubbock, Texas. Back in a state he won by double digits, Trump appearing for the fourth time this cycle to give a last-minute boost to Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and attacking Talarico.

TRUMP: The other guy does not deserve it. He doesn’t represent your values.

O’BRIEN: But Paxton comes with a suitcase of scandals, and Democrats are hoping Talarico can become the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat in more than 30 years. Talarico, holding his own packed rally just miles away, poking fun at the President’s nickname for him.

TALARICO: I know that we’re not the only show in town tonight, and I appreciate all 4,000 of you that showed up here this evening. That — that’s a lot of Talafreakos in one room.

O’BRIEN: Texas voters telling us the economy is their top issue. Single mom Patrice Deadrick emotional when we asked about rising prices. [TO DEADRICK] You’re working more than one job?

PATRICE DEADRICK: I do. I have multiple streams of income, and every day I have to get up. I dread getting up sometimes because of the amount of work I have to put in just to pay for the minimum of things, of gas.

A second segment from D.C.-based correspondent Elizabeth Schulze was meant to drive home the state of the economy (which ABC did everything to explain away ahead of the 2022 midterms) (click “expand”):

Prices across the economy are going up the fastest pace in four months, driven by the spike in fuel costs, and that’s putting new pressure on the Federal Reserve. Later this afternoon, the Fed, under Chairman Kevin Warsh, is expected to keep interest rates on hold. It already hiked rates last month to try to fight high prices, but the Fed can’t control the price of oil, which is now close to its highest level since the start of the Iran war. Gas prices averaging $4.25 a gallon this morning. That means the cost to fill up a Ford F-150, the most popular truck on the road, now about $100. It’s costing drivers $30 extra every fill-up compared to the start of the war. And, in all, American households have now spent an extra $1,100 in gas and diesel since the war began at the end of February. This is the longest stretch on record, with gas prices averaging $4 or higher. We are also on track to set an Election Day record too[.]

Over on NBC’s Today, chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles also hawked the Texas rallies, but went a step further than Jiang and O’Brien by pointing out “Paxton and the President portray[ed] Talarico as too liberal.”

Nobles shifted his focus to Michigan to lament: “El-Sayed, a Michigan-born public health official, would be the country’s first Muslim senator if elected, [has] fac[ed] a barrage of GOP attacks over his religion.”

Also to his credit, Nobles relayed concern over a new, pro-el-Sayed ad in Michigan:

NOBLES: But now, el-Sayed’s campaign also facing scrutiny for an ad from his supporters, being widely criticized as anti-Semitic, connecting high grocery prices to U.S. aid to Israel.

WOMAN [in anti-Semitic ad]: Apparently, it’s costing us a lot of money to drop bombs on Gaza.

NOBLES: The el-Sayed campaign saying, it is not affiliated in any way with the ad.

To see the relevant transcripts from October 28, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).