As they have all week (click the links for recaps on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday), ABC’s Good Morning America had the best (or worst?) body of work gleefully devouring propaganda from the Democratic National Convention like drunk college kids hankering for late-night pizza.
On Friday, they drooled over “what a night” for Vice President Kamala Harris, giving a “Morning in America” speech that could have been given “at a Republican convention...before Trump” and doubled as “a call to action” for “moderates, middle class, and Middle America” in the mold of “Maggie Thatcher or Ronald Reagan.”
The worst part came at the end of their DNC coverage in the first half-hour as co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos beamed this doozy to chief Washington correspondent and three-time anti-Trump author Jonathan Karl: “[A]s I look at who this speech was aimed at last night, I think of a lot of m-words: moderates, middle class, middle America.”
Karl dutifully uncorked this cockamamie assertion that, “if you take out the section on abortion rights, much of this speech could have been delivered at a Republican convention, a Republican convention before Trump” and a fact-check to Republicans describing her “as a San Francisco liberal, as a radical, they call her comrade Kamala.”
“She talks tough on Iran. She promised that, as commander in chief, America would have the most lethal and strongest fighting force in the world. She talked tough on Russia, on China. She talked about border security. She really gave a speech that was designed to go at independents, moderates, disaffected Republicans, the vast majority of undecided voters in the country,” Karl added.
After making an esoteric allusion to Harris targeting “moderates” was “quite a contrast from the way she ran for president the first time” (but making no mention of the policies she held), Karl dropped this instant Notable Quotable: “This is a Kamala Harris that sounded a little bit more like Maggie Thatcher or Ronald Reagan, especially on national security, than like Bernie Sanders.”
Stephanopoulos doubled down: “Well, and it’s interesting you mention that. There was more talk about Ronald Reagan at the Democratic convention than Republican convention and the Democrats making a play to claim patriotism on their side.”
Karl obviously agreed by claiming Trump’s doom and gloom was fear-mongering and that it’s Harris who embodies Reagan. He even touted the so-called Republicans voting blue in November as “patriot[s]”:
Donald Trump has used words like American carnage to talk about America, has portrayed a more isolationist, protectionist view that is at odds with what Ronald Reagan was all about. So, this was Kamala Harris. I mean, she didn’t say the word city on a hill like Ronald Reagan did, but full embrace of patriotism. The American flags waving here. The chants of USA, USA, USA. This is a party under Kamala Harris that is saying that — appealing to patriotism. You also heard the message, George, from Republican speakers every night, saying voting for Kamala Harris is not about being a Republican or Democrat, it’s about being a patriot.
Stephanopoulos got things going in the teases, passing along Harris’s characterizations of Trump as fact: “Overnight Kamala Harris makes her case and makes history...catapulted from running mate to top of the ticket, making her case to be commander in chief...[S]he hones in on Donald Trump, calling him an unserious man and vows to take the country forward.”
“What a night at the Democratic National Convention,” he exclaimed moments later.
Chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce was eager to weigh in, boasting of Harris “stepping...into history” to “argu[e] Doanld Trump presents a danger to democracy” (click “expand”):
BRUCE: Well, Kamala Harris told the crowd she is no stranger to unlikely journeys. And, last night, she shared hers with the nation, reintroducing herself to voters, taking shots at Donald Trump and, yes, making history, too. Overnight, Kamala Harris stepping on to the convention stage and into history.
HARRIS: On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be the president of the United States of America.
BRUCE: The first black woman and first Asian-American to accept the nomination of a major party, sharing her American story, the daughter of immigrants, her world view shaped by the strength of her mother.
(....)
BRUCE: With her family watching proudly on, Harris speaking to the urgency of the moment.
HARRIS: Our nation, with this election, has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past. A chance to chart a new way forward. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] Not — not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans. And let me say, I know there are people of various political views watching tonight. I want you to know: I promise to be a president for all Americans.
BRUCE: Harris arguing Donald Trump presents a danger to democracy.
HARRIS: In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences — but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. [SCREEN WIPE] Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.
“The former prosecutor, point by point, laying out her case against Trump, saying he would put wealthy Americans ahead of the middle class, and continue to endanger reproductive freedoms,” she giddily added.
Following a portion recapping her foreign policy passage, Bruce cheered Harris giving marching orders with “with a call to action...vowing to take the country forward.”
Bruce got in one more swooning: “Women, especially black women, in their white suffragettes, overcome by emotion. This was a convention like we have never seen before, from the many celebrity appearances to those barn-burner speeches by political heavyweights.”
To see the relevant ABC transcript from August 23 (including part of an interview with Kerry Washington when she was asked about being a DNC emcee), click here.
