ABC News split their time this inauguration morning between fawning over Joe Biden as the healer of our country and bashing outgoing President Trump as the divider-in-chief who stole America’s unity.
The absurd, partisan polarity showcasing ABC’s attitude towards both men was displayed over-and-over again on this morning’s special coverage on Good Morning America. But some moments stood out as ABC News reporters and commentators couldn’t help but launch nasty attacks against Trump one more time, as leaves the White House.
During the 8:00 am EST hour, anchor George Stephanopoulos, senior national correspondent Terry Moran and chief national correspondent Byron Pitts took pleasure in mocking Trump leaving the White House “in shame” this morning. Stephanopoulos made comparisons to President Richard Nixon, while Moran lectured Trump not attending Biden’s inauguration was his last act “vandalizing” the country, and Pitts used the Bible to chastise the president:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I can't help it. Even though Donald Trump is not resigning here he's leaving office after being defeated, the image in my head is Richard Nixon, 1974.
PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN MARK UPDEGROVE : Without question, George. That's exactly what comes to mind for me as well.
...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Terry Moran, leaving behind a divided country right now.
TERRY MORAN: ...One of the things the President does upon departing for 150 years is with his body, the defeated person acknowledging the transfer of power, the presence, the physical presence of the president at the inauguration is meaningful and necessary for the country and it's his last act of vandalism.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Byron Pitts, we're missing that moment of grace seeing the presidents drive up together.
BYRON PITTS: George, it's a painful moment for our nation because as Terry just said, I mean, this is a tradition that allows us as a nation to say it's over, let's move on and thinking about the images we'll see this morning, the split screen of one president leaving in shame, I mean you could argue, and the other going to church and mindful of the scripture in the book of Matthew that says, ‘for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’ Donald Trump is a man who prided himself on winning. He was the one that fired people. Well, America fired him.
Can you imagine an ABC reporter using the Bible to ostracize outgoing President Bill Clinton, or criticize "devout Catholic's Biden supporting abortion? But of course not, they are Democrats!
The hate-fest continued as ABC News' deputy political director, MaryAlice Parks, sounding more like a liberal college professor, bashed Trump for "otherizing" "people of color" and liberals as "less American" the past four years:
...So much of President Trump's politics was about making Democrats seem like the other, otherizing all kinds of Americans, often he would talk on the campaign trail about voters, people of color as somehow less American, Progressives as somehow less American. He delivered a politics of division and in these last moments he is once again saying he’s not interested in talking to that other half of America.
The final hate highlight came from guest commentator, Leah Wright Rigueur, a historian and professor at Brandeis University. Not mincing words, she bashed Trump as an "anarchist president:"
...I think this is how we remember him and right down to the bitter end what we see is that this was the chaotic president, this was the almost, you know, anarchist president but this was also the divisive president who spent so much of his time catering to his base, talking to his base and rejecting the rest of the nation and I think he does lasting damage, lasting damage for the American public that is going to take us a very long time and it's going to be very hard to get through, particularly given the divisive nature of which he has stoked after the past four years.
Centrum and Greenlight sponsored this special ABC News report, you can contact ABC's advertisers at the Conservatives Fight Back page here.
Read relevant transcript portions below:
Good Morning America: The Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr.
1/20/2021
8:19:00 AM EST
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I can't help it. Even though Donald Trump is not resigning here he's leaving office after being defeated, the image in my head is Richard Nixon, 1974.
PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN MARK UPDEGROVE : Without question, George. That's exactly what comes to mind for me as well. Richard Nixon left the White House on August 9th, 1974 after having resigned from the presidency, the first president in history to resign. It was a very sad and somber day and Gerald Ford was left to take the oath of office on his own without his predecessor looking on as is the custom in our country and that's exactly what's happening here like Richard Nixon, Donald Trump is going home to face a very uncertain future including his legal fate which will be determined in the Senate later this month and into February.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Mark Updegrove, thanks. Terry Moran, leaving behind a divided country right now.
TERRY MORAN: A terribly divided country. And it is symbolized in what we're about to see. Inaugurations are rituals and rituals embody meanings and values and this is taking place inside a ring of steel and firepower and that embodies where we are as a country and what we're seeing right now the president leaving. One of the things the president does upon departing for 150 years is with his body, the defeated person acknowledging the transfer of power, the presence, the physical presence of the president at the inauguration is meaningful and necessary for the country and it's his last act of vandalism.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Byron Pitts, we're missing that moment of grace seeing the presidents drive up together.
BYRON PITTS: George, it's a painful moment for our nation because as Terry just said, I mean, this is a tradition that allows us as a nation to say it's over, let's move on and thinking about the images we'll see this morning, the split screen of one president leaving in shame, I mean you could argue and the other going to church and mindful of the scripture in the book of Matthew that says, ‘for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’ Donald Trump is a man who prided himself on winning. He was the one that fired people. Well, America fired him.
…
ABC NEWS DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR MARYALICE PARKS: No, and his decision not to attend the inauguration should be remembered that way as not just a disrespect to the Bidens but a disrespect to more than half of the voters, those 81 million voters who chose Joe Biden instead and I guess that's not surprising, though. So much of President Trump's politics was about making Democrats seem like the other, otherizing all kinds of Americans, often he would talk on the campaign trail about voters, people of color as somehow less American, Progressives as somehow less American. He delivered a politics of division and in these last moments he is once again saying he’s not interested in talking to that other half of America.
….
Leah Wright Rigueur, Professor of Brandeis University: Absolutely and I think this is the way that Donald Trump will be remembered. This is how we will think about him. It's the last act of his presidential administration and we can trace a straight line from proceeding events whether it be the descent down the golden escalators in 2015 and say that Mexico was sending their worst, whether it was calling people on both sides at Charlottesville fine people in 2017 and essentially inciting an insurrection against sitting politicians in the Capitol. I think this is how we remember him and right down to the bitter end what we see is that this was the chaotic president, this was the almost, you know, anarchist president but this was also the divisive president who spent so much of his time catering to his base, talking to his base and rejecting the rest of the nation and I think he does lasting damage, lasting damage for the American public that is going to take us a very long time and it's going to be very hard to get through, particularly given the divisive nature of which he has stoked after the past four years.
