ABC, CBS, and NBC displayed strong fan boy and fan girl energy on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning with segments salivating over the “boisterous,” “ecstatic,” “energized,” “enthusiastic,” and “raucous” Wisconsin crowd Tuesday afternoon for Vice President Kamala Harris in her first official rally as the likely Democratic presidential nominee that signaled “a whole new race” as she “prosecute[s] the case against” former President Trump.
In contrast, some smeared the GOP ticket for labeling basic criticisms of Harris as “personal” “attacks”, including the tag that she’s a DEI candidate and fulfilling the warning leveled in a New York Times op-ed by Hillary Clinton that Harris’s “record and character will be distorted and disparaged by a flood of disinformation and the kind of ugly prejudice we’re already hearing from MAGA mouthpieces.”
Monday’s CBS Evening News began with anchor Norah O’Donnell beaming over Harris triggering “renewed enthusiasm” and “ecstatic Wisconsin Democrats” combining for “a boisterous crowd” that ate up Harris’s “relatively short speech”, which O’Donnell said “pulled no punches, framing the 2024 race as the prosecutor versus the convicted felon.”
Senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang trumpeted with pride how it all went down featuring Harris as the candidate with “momentum...fueled by cash” and “powerful endorsements”. Jiang even celebrated Harris’s newfound “brat” moniker (which our own Mary Clare explained to us on Tuesday) (click “expand”):
JIANG: One word said it all: Kamala.
[HARRIS SOUNDBITE]
JIANG: Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, went right after former President Donald Trump’s criminal record.
[HARRIS SOUNDBITES]
JIANG: Harris’s momentum is fueled by cash. Her campaign says she’s raised more than $100 million since President Biden dropped out of the race and by powerful endorsements. Today, the top two Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, announced their formal support of Harris.
[JEFFRIES SOUNDBITE]
(....)
JIANG: Without a VP pick, all the attention is on Harris, especially on social media, with new posts popping up on all platforms. Her campaign is leaning in, even changing its profile picture to embrace this one shared by pop star Charli XCX: "Kamala is brat," which has gone viral. [TO SPRAGG] Is it a compliment if Kamala is brat?
SARAH SPRAGG: Yes, 100 percent, it is a compliment.
JIANG: Wisconsin rallygoer Sarah Spragg says it is less about what brat means, more about how Harris can connect with younger voters, who Biden struggled with.
SPRAGG: She is authentically herself, and she’s playing with that youthful side.
JIANG: As part of that outreach to younger voters, and now that Biden’s age is not a campaign issue, sources say Harris will zoom in on Trump’s age as part of her case against him. He’s 78 years old, and she’s 59. That’s nearly 20 years younger[.]
Like the networks did yesterday, the Harris fluff was countered with kicking up dust in the eyes of Republicans. Chief campaign and election correspondent Robert Costa blasted Trump for having “falsely claimed” Harris “wants open borders” (even though she supports decriminalizing illegal border crossings).
Costa also kvetched about Trump running mate and Senator JD Vance (R-OH) for the supposed crime of “question[ing] her love of country” and heaping “scorn” on Democrats like Harris, whom he described in a 2021 Fox News appearance as one of the “childless cat ladies...without children” who are “run[ning]...this country”
The former conservative reporter also huffed about Harris being called a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) candidate, describing them as “sharp comments”
Tuesday night also saw World News Tonight anchor David Muir fired up about Harris’s “enthusiastic crowd” and chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce proclaimed “Harris remind[ed] voters...is uniquely qualified to prosecute the case against Donald Trump” and “hammer[ed] Trump on abortion.”
NBC Nightly News put its chief White House correspondent on the Kamala beat. Peter Alexander told viewers that Harris had “an energized” and “raucous event” in which she “pitch[ed] herself as a former prosecutor, going after her political rival”.
Bruce was still on cloud nine during Wednesday’s Good Morning America:
Well, I can tell you the energy in that room at that rally was palpable. The crowd was fired up and energized. It was the largest crowd the Democrats have seen in this race so far. And, from the moment Harris stepped onto that stage, it was clear that this is a whole new race. This morning, Kamala Harris is hitting the ground running. Her first campaign rally in battleground Wisconsin, electrifying a crowd of 3,000 supporters.
Cuing up a clip of Harris hawking abortion, Bruce described it as “the issues that will determine this race” while putting the economy in separate bucket as “top of mind for so many voters.”
Senior White House correspondent Selina Wang played stenographer for the outgoing Biden regime, gushing over how his upcoming Oval Office speech on why he dropped out would be one he’ll deliver “speaking from his heart”.
NBC’s Today was dominated by partisan quackery. Co-host Savannah Guthrie insisted Republicans are “sharpening their attacks and getting personal” against Harris and, back again from Tuesday, Alexander touted this “burst of new energy” for Democrats.
Alexander delivered more fluff, including fawning over a Hillary Clinton column in The New York Times warning of “disinformation and...ugly prejudice” from Republicans. Alexander implicitly cited the DEI discourse as an example (click “expand”):
ALEXANDER: Marking her presidential campaign debut in Wisconsin, Vice President Kamala Harris walking out to Beyoncé’s hit, Freedom. Harris, now the de facto Democratic nominee, accusing former President Trump of looking to take the country backwards, while comparing herself, a former prosecutor, to Mr. Trump, a convicted criminal.
[HARRIS SOUNDBITES]
ALEXANDER: The two top Democrats in Congress, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the latest to endorse her candidacy. And, overnight, Hillary Clinton who lost to Mr. Trump in 2016, praising Harris in a New York Times op-ed, writing, “I know she can defeat Donald Trump”, but warning, “Ms. Harris’s record and character will be distorted and disparaged by a flood of disinformation and the kind of ugly prejudice we’re already hearing from MAGA mouthpieces.” And on the Republican side, there is new backlash to some attacking her race. One Republican congressman referring to Harris as a “DEI” — or diversity, equity and inclusion — “Vice President”.
CONGRESSMAN TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): 100 percent she was a DEI hire.
ALEXANDER: Some other conservative members echoing that language.
CONGRESSWOMAN MARRIETT HAGEMAN (R-WY): I think it’s just a failure from top to bottom. I think she was a DEI hire.
ALEXANDER: Republican leaders warning against those attacks.
HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): This election is going to be about policies, not personalities. This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris and her — her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.
ALEXANDER: Meanwhile, old video of Mr. Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance is resurfacing, referring to Harris and other prominent Democrats as “the childless left”.
JD VANCE [on FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, July 2021]: We’re effectively run in this country via the Democrats and our corporate oligarchs by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.
To see the relevant transcripts from July 23, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC). To see the relevant transcripts from July 24, click here (for ABC) and here (for NBC).
