ABC Kisses Up to Walz, CBS Torches Him on Biden’s ‘Garbage’ Smear, Late-Term Abortions

Curtis Houck
October 30th, 2024 4:50 PM

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Democratic vice presidential nominee and Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) surfaced Wednesday morning for two different broadcast network news interviews that couldn’t have been any more different between ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Mornings.

While ABC co-host and former George Stephanopoulos kissed up to Walz with a campaign strategy session, CBS held him to account for President Biden’s smear of Trump supporters, leftist rhetoric writ large, late-term abortions, male voters abandoning his campaign with Vice President Harris, and concerns about Arab voters.

Stephanopoulos first lamented to Walz that, to fulfill her promise to “seek common ground with people who disagree with her,” she’d have to see, hear, and speak “with people who supported Donald Trump, someone she calls a wanna be dictator and petty tyrant.”

Some flowery language from Walz about Harris “welcom[ing] robust debate about the issues” later, Stephanopoulos brought up Biden’s “garbage” comment that Walz dismissed since “[t]he President’s clarified his remarks” and the Harris-Walz ticket “want everyone part of” their team:

Stephanopoulos gently went about the Harris-Walz’s gender gap, wondering “how do you do it” (as in close the gap) with the cushion of “Nikki Haley say[ing] the Trump campaign has to start focusing on women and give up this macho stuff.”

His final two questions were open-ended jokes:

You and Vice President Harris have continually said you are the underdogs in this campaign. Are you behind right now?

(....)

What’s your biggest concern with just six days a go and are you confident there will be a clear result next week?

Outside of a few seconds at the end between Walz and co-host Nate Burleson on the Minnesota Vikings, CBS was an actual interview.

Co-host Tony Dokoupil had quite the table-setter. He played Biden’s “garbage” comments with this set-up: “Vice President Kamala Harris’s closing campaign message is all about unity, but critics say a new comment from President Biden could undermine that.”

After acknowledging White House denials Biden denigrated Trump supporters, Dokoupil brought Walz in with this fastball inside putting Biden’s comment in place alongside a few other examples from the last 16 years of leftist rhetoric attacking conservatives, including Walz himself referring to Trump supporters as Nazis:

Burleson had a somewhat related follow-up about the perception that Biden has been silenced so as not to be a milestone on the campaign (click “expand”):

BURLESON: You know there has been some reporting that President Biden has been sidelined during this campaign. One, is there any truth to that, and if not, is this an example of maybe why he should be sidelined?

WALZ: Well, look, President Biden is the president of the United States. He’s running it. Vice President Harris is our candidate and will be the next president, and I think there’s two different positions there. The vice president is out speaking about the things that we need to be done for the country. She’s talking about all of those issues that matter to folks, and the president’s doing what he needs to do, and that’s making sure our country is reducing inflation, making sure that we’re taking our leadership role in the world where American values are front and center, so no, it doesn’t. These are just two different positions. We’re bringing this thing home in six days, and we’re going to make sure that Vice President Harris becomes our next president.

CBS Mornings Plus co-host Adriana Diaz had the next two hardballs. The topic? Late-term abortions and the simple question of whether a Harris-Walz administration would be in favor of “any limits on abortion, including limiting third trimester abortions.”

Diaz had to ask if twice because Walz wouldn’t answer (meaning they support it, even after a baby is viable outside the womb):

Dokoupil shifted to Arab voters in Michigan who traditionally vote Democrat, but might abandon them on their ballots (if they vote at all) “because of your support for Israel’s continued war on Hamas and Gaza and all the civilian casualties that have come with it.”

Walz expressed empathy for the pro-Hamas crowd, saying he “did speak with many of them” in the campaign and while “the United States has been clear, we stand with Israel’s right to defend itself and what happened on October 7...was unconscionable...we need to make sure that the humanitarian in crisis in Gaza is brought to an end[.]”

Dokoupil tried to follow-up a few minutes later to his claim Trump would bring about further destabilization and not “push back against Islamophobia” by asking him to explain why voters aren’t believing they care about Palestinians.

In between the initial question and follow-up, Burleson noted Harris’s refusal to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast as an example of her inability to connect with male voters (click “expand”):

BURLESON: Governor, in a recent CBS News poll, we found that there is a sizable gender gap when it comes to men, as far as this presidential race is concerned and Kamala Harris, she did not go on Joe Rogan, which, you know, she can decide to do that or not but I want to ask you, what would you say to men right now, regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum, what is your message to them as we close in on the Election Day?

WALZ: Yes, several things. First of all, for the women in their lives that they love, their wives, their daughters, their partners, whoever it may be, this election, really, their lives are at stake. This issue of watching maternal mortality rates skyrocket in states like Texas is simply unacceptable, and then make sure that they’re focused on things like the manufacturing jobs coming back. Donald Trump lost more manufacturing jobs than almost any other president. We’re seeing the resurgence of that. We’re seeing a renaissance in opportunities for families and then I would tell those men too, just like women, tackling things like gun violence in our schools, protecting their little ones, are things that are on men’s minds. So I would ask them all to take a look at the issues on how it most impacts you, how it impacts the women in your lives, how it impacts a future where we can solve these problems together and then make the choice and Vice President Harris is giving us that new way forward.

To see the relevant transcripts from October 30, click here (for ABC) and here (for CBS).

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