In fairness, each of the network evening newscasts covered Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s unprecedented and repulsive foray into foreign election interference. But, as usual, it is ABC Whirled News Tonight that consistently prove themselves most willing to carry that Biden water.
Note the repetition and echoes as David Muir frames the story and then goes to correspondent Matt Gutman’s video package:
DAVID MUIR: We turn next to Israel, and to a rare and stunning rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right here in the U.S., and it came from the highest ranking Jewish official in the U.S. government. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, suggesting elections be held in Israel, and saying Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace. Matt Gutman from Israel tonight.
MATT GUTMAN: Tonight, that stunning rebuke from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, calling for Israel to hold new elections because he believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace.
CHUCK SCHUMER: As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7th.
GUTMAN: In a 40-minute speech, Schumer, the highest ranking Jewish official in the U.S., saying Israel has lost its way, and demanded it do more to protect civilians in Gaza.
Note what Muir and Gutman drill into viewers’ heads within the first minute: “stunning rebuke”, “highest ranking Jewish official in the U.S.”, “Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace”, and the call for new elections. The water was effectively carried.
Gutman even found the time, after parroting the prescribed talking points, to performatively confront an IDF commander and try to play gotcha on the semantics of whether there is hunger in Gaza, using the ever-reliable UN as reference.
As for Schumer, we can’t say we’re surprised at this new low. What's a little foreign election interference once you’ve threatened sitting Supreme Court justices with violence?
In which Chuck Schumer threatens TWO sitting Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. pic.twitter.com/pA3mryeVK2
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 4, 2020
No more crying about the norms, though. Not anymore, and not after Schumer’s grotesque stunt performed at the behest of The White House, amplified by his apple polishers at ABC News, solely intended to placate “Undecided” voters populating such places as Dearborn, Hamtramck, and Minneapolis among others.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on ABC World News Tonight on Thursday, March 14th, 2024:
DAVID MUIR: We turn next to Israel, and to a rare and stunning rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right here in the U.S., and it came from the highest ranking Jewish official in the U.S. government. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, suggesting elections be held in Israel, and saying Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace. Matt Gutman from Israel tonight.
MATT GUTMAN: Tonight, that stunning rebuke from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, calling for Israel to hold new elections because he believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace.
CHUCK SCHUMER: As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7th.
GUTMAN: In a 40-minute speech, Schumer, the highest ranking Jewish official in the U.S., saying Israel has lost its way, and demanded it do more to protect civilians in Gaza. Netanyahu's Likud party criticizing the speech, saying, "Israel is not a banana republic, who's leader can be swapped out”. The Israeli military now says it’ll evacuate 1.4 million displaced people there before it attacks. The president has said such an operation without sufficient consideration for humanitarian concerns will be crossing a red line that could be met with the withholding of military aid to Israel. And tonight, a senior Israeli official telling ABC News the U.S. has recently slowed supplies of ammunition, which, today, the White House denied. But with Gazans facing famine, the White House and Democrats under increasing pressure for a cease-fire and for increased aid into Gaza. Today, at a border crossing not far from Rafah, we spoke to the Israeli commander responsible for allowing aid into Gaza. Israel blaming the U.N. for failing to distribute aid.
Specifically, are you saying that there's no hunger, or that there is no starvation in the north of Gaza?
IDF COMMANDER: I’m saying…
GUTMAN: Because the U.N. Is about to declare a famine.
IDF COMMANDER: I'm saying that there is no starvation, there are challenges. There are challenges of accessibility also.
GUTMAN: David, here in Israel, Senator Schumer's remarks cheered by some including the head of Israel’s opposition but, despite the fact that Netanyahu is deeply unpopular in Israel, even some of his staunchest opponents said it should be only Israeli citizens who decide their prime minister. David.
MUIR: Making global headlines tonight. Matt Gutman. Thank you.
