Following a morning in which NBC’s Today offered only criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his visit to the United States, Monday’s NBC Nightly News continued piling on the denunciation of Netanyahu for creating a “storm of controversy” during “a tense and critical moment” in U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations.
In one of the show’s opening teases, fill-in anchor Savannah Guthrie proclaimed that a “storm of controversy” was brewing “as the Israeli Prime Minister arrives in Washington to deliver a warning to America.”
Later, Guthrie introduced chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell’s report by telling viewers that Netanyahu “has arrived in the U.S. at a tense and critical moment” while:
The U.S. [is] trying to get a nuclear deal with Iran to stop it from getting a bomb and Israel warning the U.S. a bad deal endangers its very existence. Our chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell is in Washington where the Prime Minister will make his controversial address to Congress tomorrow.
Mitchell picked up the bashing of Netanyahu from there:
Prime Minister Netanyahu told supporters today he's not trying to be disrespectful to President Obama even as he prepares to lobby Congress tomorrow against the President’s nuclear negotiations with Iran. Embattled at home and facing re-election in only two weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu tried to play down his war of words with the White House, but said he cannot remain silent about a U.S. nuclear deal with Iran that he says would let Iran get a nuclear weapon.
Adding that relations between Netanyahu and Obama had reached “at a new low,” Mitchell parroted the White House argument that the well was “poisoned” when the Israeli Prime Minister accepted “a Republican invitation to lobby Congress against Obama's Iran policy.”
The liberal NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host continued to paint Netanyahu’s message as political by spotlighting the number of congressional Democrats who are skipping his speech: “Some prominent no-shows tomorrow, Joe Biden is in Guatemala and almost 40 Democratic House members and five Senators will boycott.”
She concluded with even more White House spin: “Asked if Netanyahu speech tomorrow to Congress is destructive to the relationship, President Obama said tonight it has been a distraction, but in the meantime, the negotiations with Iran are going full speed ahead.”
Over on the CBS Evening News, substitute anchor Charlie Rose joined NBC’s two newscasts in labeling Netanyahu’s upcoming address to Congress a “controversial speech” while a report from correspondent Major Garrett brought up the arguments on both sides (as he did on Monday’s CBS This Morning).
Garrett reported that while “[t]he White House sees Netanyahu's speech to a joint session of Congress tomorrow as an effort to torpedo a deal with Iran,” he also mentioned that the President’s decision to not meet with Netanyahu has “prompted sharp criticism of the administration's policies toward Israel.”
The CBS News chief White House correspondent then brought up an ad from Saturday’s New York Times by “a conservative Jewish group” that “suggested National Security Adviser Susan Rice might allow genocide in Israel.”
While CBS and NBC had full segments on the matter, ABC’s World News Tonight stuck to a 51-second news brief that, in comparison to their fellow networks, offered no sort of inflammatory language in describing Netanyahu’s speech or the Israeli Prime Minister besides referring to him as a “vocal critic” of the U.S.-Iran negotiations.
Anchor David Muir reported the following:
Back here at home now, and to a major effort to diffuse the tension in Washington between the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the eve of his address to Congress. Netanyahu, speaking beforehand today in Washington, saying the two countries are “like a family.” He’s been a vocal critic of the U.S.-led nuclear talks with Iran, concerned they won’t do enough to prevent Iran from being able to build a nuclear bomb, but he insists he respects the President and his office. The White House, meanwhile, tonight saying the President will likely not watch the speech.
The relevant portions of the segment from March 2's NBC Nightly News are transcribed below.
NBC Nightly News
March 2, 2015
7:00 p.m. Eastern [TEASE][ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Storm of Controversy]
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Storm of controversy as the Israeli Prime Minister arrives in Washington to deliver a warning to America. Are we about to make a bad deal with Iran?
(....)
7:05 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: High Stakes]
GUTHRIE: Israel's Prime Minister has arrived in the U.S. at a tense and critical moment. The U.S. trying to get a nuclear deal with Iran to stop it from getting a bomb and Israel warning the U.S. a bad deal endangers its very existence. Our chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell is in Washington where the Prime Minister will make his controversial address to Congress tomorrow. Andrea, good evening.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Good evening, Savannah, Prime Minister Netanyahu told supporters today he's not trying to be disrespectful to President Obama even as he prepares to lobby Congress tomorrow against the President’s nuclear negotiations with Iran. Embattled at home and facing re-election in only two weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu tried to play down his war of words with the White House, but said he cannot remain silent about a U.S. nuclear deal with Iran that he says would let Iran get a nuclear weapon.
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there's still time to avert them.
(....)
MITCHELL: The administration's pointed response, at the same moment John Kerry in Geneva was trying to close the deal with Iran's foreign minister, a deal the President believes would make the world safer, not more dangerous.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There is a substantial disagreement in terms of how to achieve that and what it boils down to is what's the best way to ensure that Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon?
MITCHELL: The relationship between the two leaders at a new low. Poisoned, U.S. officials say, by Netanyahu's acceptance of a Republican invitation to lobby Congress against Obama's Iran policy.
FOREIGN POLICY’s DAVID ROTHKOPF: He's trying to kill the one thing that Obama has that might redeem a weak foreign policy.
MITCHELL: Some prominent no-shows tomorrow, Joe Biden is in Guatemala and almost 40 Democratic House members and five Senators will boycott.
INDEPENDENT SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (Vt.): Despite Prime Minister Netanyahu's assertions, obviously what's taking place is extremely partisan.
MITCHELL: Asked if Netanyahu speech tomorrow to Congress is destructive to the relationship, President Obama said tonight it has been a distraction, but in the meantime, the negotiations with Iran are going full speed ahead.
