On Monday night and Tuesday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC were not only ebullient but thoroughly touched in their metaphorical erogenous zones with Vice President Kamala Harris undemocratically “barreling toward” the Democratic presidential nomination, gushing it’s been a “dizzying, history-making” time further buoyed by “momentum”, a “stunning amount of donations”, and an “emotional and energized team”.
In contrast, they proclaimed the Trump-Vance campaign as dead in the water against this supposedly unstoppable queen, saying the GOP is not only “frustrat[ed]” and “venting”, but “struggl[ing]” to adapt, so they’ve turned to “apocalyptic” language and a “darker tone” that made their “unifying message” at last week’s Republican National Convention go “out the window” and “very much a thing of the past.”
ABC’s Good Morning America took its place as North Korean-level state-run TV for Harris. After co-host and former Clinton flack George Stephanopoulos described Monday as the latest set of “seismic moves”, chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce beamed from ear-to-ear in proclaiming Harris as “barreling towards the top of the ticket”.
“Harris now kicking off her campaign and rallying her troops,” she added, even adopting Harris talking points that she will “prosecute the case against Donald Trump” now she’s “consolidat[ed]” power at “lightning speed”.
In contrast, ABC made the GOP seem rudderless. Stephanopoulos said the party’s “off balance” and congressional correspondent Rachel Scott bragged insisted the mood is one of “frustration” with Trump “not happy” and, along with Senator JD Vance (R-OH), “clearly distressed”.
Scott also argued age will remain a top issue, but only for the GOP: “For months, Trump questioned Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness. But now, with Biden out of the race, Donald Trump, at 78, becomes the oldest nominee in U.S. history. Democrats ready to flip the script.”
Hours earlier on World News Tonight, Bruce bragged that Harris had “a dizzying, history-making 24 hours” that included her “furiously working the phones, reaching out to Democrats across the country” to go with “a groundswell” of money to “prosecute” Trump and make this election “about more than just her and Trump”.
Scott was also there to further sneer at Trump and Vance, arguing they’ve violated some sort of promise to not attack Democrats (click “expand”):
MUIR: Tonight, just days after the Republican National Convention, former President Donald Trump venting clear frustration after President Biden dropped out. Trump with multiple posts on social media, messages late last night, then early this morning, saying, “now we have to start all over again”, a clear indication they had hoped it would be President Biden he was up against. Rachel Scott on the Hill.
SCOTT: 24 hours after the political earthquake transformed the race for President, Donald Trump remaining out of sight, venting on social media, still attacking Joe Biden, though Biden is no longer his opponent. Trump’s promise for a unifying message after the attempt on his life seems to have gone out the window. The overwhelming message today — frustration....Trump posting a flurry of messages, unloading on Biden until 10:46 p.m. last night and picking up where he left off at 6:05 a.m. this morning with more attacks on Biden, even though by then Harris was his likely opponent. Democrats meanwhile, flipping the script, making an issue of Trump’s age, just as Trump had done for Biden.
GOVERNOR JARED POLIS (D-CO) [on CNN’s Inside Politics, 07/22/24]: The other side has a nominee that can barely get a sentence out. He’s approaching 80. He brings us back to the past.
GOVERNOR ROY COOPER (D-NC) [on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, 07/22/24] If you want a nominee who can put Trump’s age and fitness at the forefront, Kamala Harris is the person.
SCOTT: At 78, Trump is now the oldest Presidential nominee in history. If he is elected, he’ll be Biden’s current age three years into his term. In Ohio today, Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, lashing out.
(....)
SCOTT: But it turns out that Trump himself was once a supporter of Kamala Harris. He donated $6,000 to her 2014 campaign for re-election as California attorney general, including this check.
MUIR: Incredible reporting....What concerns the Trump campaign most with this switch, with the Democratic ticket? And how is the Trump campaign responding to what appears to be a message from a growing number of Democrats, there in the piece, that it’s now Donald Trump the oldest in this race, and he alone will face that scrutiny over age and mental fitness moving forward?
SCOTT: David — and tonight, Donald Trump’s senior advisers and his aides are aware this is something they are now going to have to grapple with. They wanted to run against President Biden, especially given all the questions about President Biden’s age and his mental fitness. But now, it is Donald Trump at 78 years old who is the oldest candidate in this race[.]
Tuesday’s Today on NBC was just as enthralled. Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander insisted “it feels like this race changed almost overnight” with Harris having the “surge of energy and enthusiasm” thanks to donations and volunteer sign ups.
He also adhered to the Harris team’s talkers in saying Harris will play the role of “prosecutor going after...convicted criminal” Trump.
Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake sounded like ABC’s Scott in telling the peacock network that Harris has caused “the Trump campaign...to struggle” and thus adopting an “apocalyptic” tone as one speaker at a Vance rally said there would have to be “a civil war” if Trump doesn’t win.
Haake used this to peddle the left’s “bloodbath” hoax and argued the GOP had tried to argue at its convention they wouldn’t criticize Democrats (click “expand”):
HAAKE: The language from some in the GOP turning apocalyptic. Introducing Vance at his first state, Ohio state senator George Lang warning of violence if former President Trump doesn’t the election.
OHIO STATE SENATOR GEORGE LANG (R): I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil war to save the country.
HAAKE: Lang later apologized for the comments. For his party, President Trump who had previously warned of a “bloodbath” if he didn’t win, in a newly-aired interview, taped before Biden’s announcement, saying he’s ready to face any opponent.
TRUMP: Look, they have bad policies. Forget about the people. [SCREEN WIPE] The whole thing is a mess — our country — if we don’t win this election, we may never have another election. I’m telling you, this may be one of our last elections.
HAAKE: Now, covering both of those Vance events yesterday, you can see the Republican VP nominee step up his attacks on Kamala Harris in real-time with a dramatically darker tone setting in between his first event in Ohio and that second one in Virginia. The Republican message of trying to unify the country, so prevalent at last week’s convention in Milwaukee, now seems very much a thing of the past in this new presidential race.
On Monday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt proclaimed “the political universe has shifted” to Harris seeing as how she’s “energized the Democratic Party” and White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell held up Harris’s “whirlwind” Monday as “[a]n extraordinary campaign reset”.
Senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson bragged about Harris “capitaliz[ing] on this critical moment” with a multi-racial ethnicity and penchant for “turn[ing] congressional hearings into cross-examinations” that will translate to being “a prosecutor...press[ing] the case against” Trump.
Haake was also there, fixating on the age question as fair game for the GOP.
Monday’s CBS Evening News was also off-the-wall in fawning over Harris as “a money machine” filled to the brim with “momentum” and a “message” (click “expand”):
O’DONNELL: [B]ut, first, presidential campaigns are about money, momentum and message. And Vice President Harris is raking in a stunning amount of donations, both big and small...The Vice President today kicking off the first full day of her presidential campaign by visiting the newly minted Harris headquarters, greeted by hundreds of enthusiastic staffers in Wilmington, Delaware, who you heard chanted "Kamala." And she is moving swiftly to consolidate party support, and now every single Democratic governor has endorsed her, plus Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi...There’s also a new CBS News poll out tonight that shows Democratic voters are on board; 79 percent of them say the party should nominate her.
(....)
WEIJIA JIANG: Tonight, Vice President Harris is wasting no time as she builds her case for taking over the White House. In remarks to campaign staffers, she thanked them for all their work and urged them to keep going as she drew a contrast between herself and Donald Trump.
(....)
JIANG: Then, the emotional and energized crowd heard from Vice President Harris in her debut as the campaign’s ticket-topper.
[HARRIS SOUNDBITE]
JIANG: Harris is already a money machine. Groups backing her have raised $81 million since yesterday, setting a record for the most raised by a presidential candidate in 24 hours, according to her campaign. That’s on top of another $150 million generated by Democratic PAC Future Forward, which also came flooding in after Biden’s announcement to step aside. Along with cash, high-profile endorsements are pouring in from powerful congressional leaders[.]
(....)
JIANG: Harris is expected to focus on her experience as a former prosecutor who stands up to fraudsters and criminals. Donald Trump is a convicted felon, according to a new campaign message. Republicans blame Harris for the influx of migrants at the southern border and claim she is weak on crime. They have unleashed the first TV ad targeting her.
On Tuesday’s CBS Mornings, co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King celebrated there being “a lot of numbers to crunch” with Harris’s donations” and calling it “interesting how quickly she seems to have caught people’s attention.”
Business correspondent Jo Ling Kent was in town from Harris’s California and patently celebrated the return of “deep-pocketed Democratic donors” now that the coup against President Biden was successful.”
“The cash and the calls are flooding in for Vice President Kamala Harris,” she said, citing an interview with Harris’s failed 2020 campaign finance director having received “over 400 texts, e-mails and phone calls from people saying I want to raise money, I want to donate money.”
Kent even held up deranged Hollywood liberal Rob Reiner, who falsely told her the Democrats are the underdogs in the money race because the wealthy elites “want deregulation on you know, for AI, the internet and all of that stuff”.
To see the relevant transcripts from July 22, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC). To see the relevant transcripts from July 23, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
