Newsbusters

On CNN This Morning, Jonathan Kott, a DC lobbyist and former aide to senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), predicted that Trump supporters will give him six to eight months, but then “turn quickly” on him when the improvements in their lives he promised don’t materialize.

That’s soothing speculation for CNN’s base, but Kott’s powers of prognostication have a questionable track record. Less than two months before the 2024 election, here’s what Kott, in a Fox News appearance, predicted:

“I think voters are still getting to know Kamala Harris. And she’s introducing herself. And the more she does, the more they like her, and the more her poll numbers come up. I’d be worried if I was Donald Trump.” 

Contrary to Kott’s conjecture, the more voters got to know Kamala, the less they liked her. And when it turned out she was for “they/them,” and Trump was for you, it was game, set, and match.

Kott’s no Nostradamus. If couldn’t see just a few weeks into the future, don’t bet the rent on his ability to see six to eight months ahead to a day when Trump fans will supposedly “turn quickly” against him! As the song says, he sounds like the King of Wishful Thinking.

Here’s the transcript.

CNN This Morning
2/5/25
6:09 am ET

KASIE HUNT: Jonathan Cott, you worked for Joe Manchin for many years, right? Interesting, you know, cuts his own figure, but also represented a state that really exemplifies the way our politics has changed, right, in the last 30 years, where it went from voting consistently for Democrats for years and years, and then ultimately became essentially the Trumpiest state in the union. 

What of what Donald Trump has been doing here is kind of resonating, not with MAGA and the far right of the party that’s very online and very politically engaged, but with regular people who are unhappy with their economic prospects and their lives. 

I mean, what’s he doing that’s good, and what is he doing that is politically risky for him? 

JONATHAN KOTT: All of it right now is good because they love action. And Donald Trump is very good at making voters and people believe he’s doing something. 

The executive orders he’s signing, 90% of them mean absolutely nothing. They don’t do anything. But he’s showing them that he’s doing something. And that’s where Democrats faulted in the last four years. So people in West Virginia see the action, and they love it. 

I think what’s gonna happen is, when they start realizing their prices aren’t going down, the government programs that a state like West Virginia relies on desperately are going away, you’re gonna see a turn from him.

And they’re gonna say, wait, you promised us all of these things, and now we’re just getting this. And I would point out, not only tariffs were promised as a threat. Donald Trump told us they would lead us to this new gilded age of an economic boom. If they’re so good, why aren’t we implementing them? Why are we accepting that these sort of concessions that mean nothing and were already happening are good for the American economy? We were told throughout, tariff was the best word in the English language. Which is what he told his voters. And a lot of them believed if Donald Trump got in there, he was going to impose tariffs. 

And there was going to be all this money flowing into our bank accounts. They’re going to wait for that to happen. They’ll give him six, eight months. But they’ll turn quickly. 

On Tuesday, White House Correspondents’ Association President Eugene Daniels of Politico announced that Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Amber Ruffin will be this year’s featured comedian at the organization’s annual dinner.

Daniels wrote, “Her perspective will fit right in with the dinner’s tradition of honoring the freedom of the press while roasting the most powerful people on all sides of the aisle and the journalists who cover them. This dinner is about centering the importance of a functioning democracy and Amber is the type of entertainer who understands both the significance of that mission as well as the mechanics of power in this country.”  

That might be the funniest thing to come from this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner, and the actual dinner isn’t until April 26. Ruffin, who also once hosted a late night show on Peacock and is currently part of CNN’s Have I Got News For You, does not roast “all sides.”

Recently, Ruffin tried to smear Sen. Deb Fischer’s husband Bruce as a racist for not shaking then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s hand at his wife’s recent swearing-in while omitting that he had the Bible in one hand and a cane in the other.

 

 

During the recent campaign, she responded to JD Vance by proudly declaring herself to be “a childless sociopath. I am an ageless sociopath with unlimited free time and disposable income.”

In February 2023, she dishonestly attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, “Which means in Florida, today it’s January 59th. Hey, but really if you live in Florida and you want to read more about Black History Month, too bad.” 

After the 2022 midterms, she was stunned the Georgia Senate election between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker would need to go to a runoff, “For the first time, I was like maybe there is voter fraud because there is no way someone would want to give this man an ounce of power. If you put this man in charge of Georgia, he’s only going to get it pregnant, take it to another state, and get it an abortion.”

Far from “roasting” “all sides,” she went Gaga for Maxwell Frost, “Then I found out that 25-year-old Maxwell Frost got elected to Congress, and I was like, ‘Go ahead, Gen Z, what-what?’ And he was like, ‘No one says what-what anymore.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, dang, children.’” 

When Roe v. Wade fell a solemn Ruffin told Late Night, “We are devastated and disappointed in our country right now. We’re joke writers, but we didn’t want to come out here tonight and tell jokes or do goofy bits, that didn’t feel right.”

Does that sound like someone who goes after both sides?

One week ago, Jon Stewart took to The Daily Show on Comedy Central to implore his fellow liberals to choose their fights with President Donald Trump carefully lest they become the boy who cried wolf. However, on Monday’s episode, Stewart appeared to have failed to take his own advice as he labeled Trump “a dick” for removing the T from LGBT on government websites and banning pronouns on government email signatures.

In his usual sarcastic tone, Stewart teed up a clip of a local news reporter, “And two weeks into the Trump presidency, we have a better sense of the evil and powerful forces that have been dragging our once great nation into decline.”

 

 

The reporter then recalled how, “The Trump Administration removed transgender references from federal government websites. It now reads ‘LGB’ instead of ‘LGBT.’”

After the booing from the audience subsided, Stewart cued up another clip from a local news anchor, “They have no idea the damage T was doing to our nation. Consonants! Because I think you will agree with me, there is no T in USA. If you spell it out, obviously, that becomes an issue. And if you want a BLT for lunch, things could get ugly. But nothing will stop America’s low-T like no T. What other changes are making us great again?”

This time, the anchor reported, “The Trump Administration ordering all gender ideology references be removed, including pronouns, in email signatures.”

Stewart replied, “Oh, yeah. Consonants and pronouns. You are next, prepositions. No more pronouns in email signatures. Good luck signing your emails now, President Xi. Or should I say President Him? Those are just the actions that this president has taken to prove he is still kind of a dick.”

If Stewart wants to stay focused and not get distracted by everything Trump does, attacking him for acknowledging simple biological reality is an odd way to do that.

Here is a transcript for the February 3 show:

Comedy Central The Daily Show

2/3/2025

11:02 PM ET

JON STEWART: And two weeks into the Trump presidency, we have a better sense of the evil and powerful forces that have been dragging our once great nation into decline.

LOCAL NEWS ANCHOR: The Trump Administration removed transgender references from federal government websites. It now reads “LGB” instead of “LGBT.” 

STEWART: They have no idea the damage T was doing to our nation. Consonants! Because I think you will agree with me, there is no T in USA. If you spell it out, obviously, that becomes an issue. And if you want a BLT for lunch, things could get ugly. But nothing will stop America’s low-t like no T. What other changes are making us great again?

LOCAL NEWS ANCHOR 2: The Trump Administration ordering all gender ideology references be removed, including pronouns, in email signatures.

STEWART: Oh, yeah. Consonants and pronouns. You are next, prepositions. No more pronouns in email signatures. Good luck signing your emails now, President Xi. Or should I say President Him? Those are just the actions that this president has taken to prove he is still kind of a dick.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is scaring the liberal media by demanding a hearing into the journalistic tilt at PBS and NPR before the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on government efficiency. Politico’s panicked headline was “NPR and PBS first target in MTG’s DOGE crosshairs.”

“As an organization that receives federal funds, both directly and indirectly through its member stations, NPR’s reporting should serve the entire public, not just a narrow slice of likeminded individuals and ideological interest groups,” Greene declared in a Monday letter sent to NPR CEO Katherine Maher, with nearly identical language sent to PBS.

“Public” broadcasting should labor intensely to be the most balanced branch of the media, since all taxpaying Americans fund it. They don’t see it that way, even though they preposterously claim they’re currently impartial.

NPR said in a statement, “We welcome the opportunity to discuss the critical role of public media in delivering impartial, fact-based news and reporting to the American public.” This is wrong on several levels. NPR CEO Katherine Maher failed to appear before a House hearing into NPR last May, and nobody familiar with NPR’s journalism would call it “impartial” and “fact-based.” It’s woke and very opinionated.

A PBS statement was just as brazen: “PBS and our member stations are grateful to have bipartisan support in Congress, and our country. We’ve earned this support from decades of noncommercial and nonpartisan work in local communities: providing all Americans with content they trust…” It’s shameless.

See our ‘Public Broadcasting’ tag for up-to-date examples

NPR also touted that “We constantly strive to hold ourselves to the highest standards of journalism, as evidenced by our publicly available standards and ethics guidelines, the presence of a Public Editor – a position relinquished by all other major news organizations.”

But “Public Editor” Kelly McBride made it plain in a Brian Stelter podcast that NPR doesn’t take conservative criticism seriously, assuming that no conservatives are regular listeners, so their reaction is “disingenuous.”

Online on January 9, McBride addressed the issue of liberal bias by suggesting it’s fixed by more content from red-state NPR reporters. Like they’re not liberals in red states? Instead of discussing political coverage, she addressed….snow! 

When people accuse NPR of being too liberal, they often say that NPR stories are too focused on D.C., New York and Los Angeles, which is where NPR’s main offices are. Conversely, critics say that NPR doesn’t cover issues that are central to less-populated states like Missouri, Indiana or Idaho. We’ve noticed this as well. In January 2022, for example, Iowa received a record amount of snow. New York and D.C. also got snow, but not as much. When we asked why the Iowa snowstorm didn’t get any coverage, an editor told us it was because not as many people were affected in Iowa as on the East Coast.

This question of which snowstorm to cover is admittedly a small example. But it illustrates how difficult the task of providing news to all of America can be with finite resources.

No one with a functioning mind thinks that just reporting weather from Iowa is a “balance” in the political tilt of NPR. McBride later gives away that just because they’re doing more on snow doesn’t mean NPR won’t compromise their DEI focus on race and gender (they let their journalists attend BLM protests): 

To fulfill its mission and defend itself against its critics, NPR will have to do more than expand the topics it covers. It has to demonstrate a commitment to this level of geographic and cultural diversity across the entire news portfolio. And just to get it on the record, this new effort to expand coverage can’t come at the cost of covering race, gender and other forms of diversity, which NPR also strives to do well. It’s all important.

NPR should cover race and gender, but it’s how they do it that demonstrates their left-wing orthodoxy. 

When White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week that the briefing room is now open to reporters for “new media,” including podcasters and websites, she was acknowledging the power and reach of these outlets, which was demonstrated in the last election when President Trump made himself available to outlets that were ignored by the Kamala Harris campaign.

The “legacy media” are in decline and the new media are surging. Part of this has to do with evaporating trust in what many regard as biased coverage by The New York Times – from which broadcast news frequently takes its marching orders – and other major newspapers and networks that reflect built-in biases. Just two weeks after President Trump’s inauguration, a guest essay appeared in the Times titled “Trump is Already Failing. That’s the Key to a Big Democratic Rebound.” Is anyone other than the liberals who read the Times paying attention to Democrats’ real problem? It appears not.

Chuck Todd, who has been with NBC News for 18 years, is resigning. The former host of “Meet the Press” once said he would never have a guest on the program who didn’t believe in “climate change.” Liberal Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus has resigned from the paper’s editorial board to focus more on her column. The Post has laid off 100 employees and 25,000 subscribers have canceled their subscriptions, outraged that the paper declined to endorse Kamala Harris. The Post continues to lose money.

On “The View,” co-host Sunny Hostin blamed Trump and those who voted for him for last week’s collision between an American Airlines commercial jet and an Army helicopter. These and other outrageous and biased claims may feed the anger of many anti-Trumpers, but they do nothing to improve the credibility of the media, or increase their subscriptions, advertisers and ratings. As reported by the conservative NewsBusters.com, “The leftist media began (the week) by attacking President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and dumping on his (inauguration) moment. They then proceeded to libel Trump and Elon Musk as a bunch of fascist Nazis, while tossing final bouquets to Joe Biden.”

Then there was the legacy media cover-up of the Biden family’s business dealings, Biden’s cognitive decline and the infamous Hunter Biden laptop.

During other cultural transitions of the past there were die-hards who tried to keep the future from happening. People opposed to civil rights legislation to protect minorities from discrimination may be the most obvious recent example, but there are many others. There were those who resisted the transition from horses to motor cars. There were some who thought the telephone was a fad and that man was not made to fly. Some Hollywood moguls believed TV wouldn’t last. There were people who once opposed coffee and refrigeration. Now it’s driverless cars that are raising alarms.

The one constant among resisters to change is that they are left behind when change comes. This is a continuing problem for much of the legacy media. Most seem incapable of self-reflection and have an ideological view that resembles “eat your vegetables because they are good for you.” Their attitude seems to be that consumers of news should swallow whatever they offer, whether they like it or not.

This doesn’t mean the media should avoid questioning the policies and pronouncements of President Trump or anyone in his administration. What it does mean is that their approach should not be one of “he can do no right’. (Yes, some conservative media think Trump can do no wrong, which is equally bad). It also means when Trump and other Republicans succeed, that success should be acknowledged, instead of ignoring it and moving on to new rounds of cynical questioning.

It may be too late for legacy media to redeem itself given the leftist bent of many within that cocoon. If they go the way of previous outmoded and irrelevant things, they will have only themselves to blame.

A free press is essential to a strong America. The arrival of new media may be journalism’s savior.

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).

NBC’s Seth Meyers was greatly displeased with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday’s episode of Late Night after he argued Democrats need to be like baseball star Aaron Judge and choose which pitches to swing at.  Meyers, on the other hand, demanded that Democrats “get your bat off your [bleep] shoulder” because “Trump is barraging us with such an intense fuselage of non-stop bull[bleep].”

After a clip of Jeffries’s remarks, Meyers attacked, “All right, first of all, you guys aren’t Aaron Judge. You’re more like Bartolo Colon. It’s a wonder you can swing without your helmet coming off. Second, most of Trump’s pitches are 65 miles an hour right down the center of the plate. Get your bat off your [bleep] shoulder. Democrats should be teeing off on this guy. Right? But instead of teeing off on this guy, they’re putting up goose eggs.”

 

 

After a digression about eggs, Meyers returned to his point, “So, pundits and Democratic elders want us all not to freak out at everything Trump does, but what if every day he does multiple things that are freak-out worthy? What do we do then? For real, what do we do? Does anyone know? Anyone? How about you, Wally?”

Cue card holder Chris “Wally” Feresten then played the role of progressive political theory nerd, “Well, Seth, I believe we have to start by addressing the root causes of America’s slide into autocracy, beginning with our culture of elite impunity and a veracious greed of moneyed interest, who over the course of the mid to late 20th century captured our political establishment—”

After that bit, Meyers got back on track, “but seriously, though, Trump is barraging us with such an intense fuselage of non-stop bull[bleep].”

Is bureaucratic reorganization, wherein USAID becomes subordinate to the State Department, “freak-out worthy” or an “intense fuselage of non-stop bull[shit]”? Most would say no, but Democrats spent Monday acting like it was. If Democrats and Meyers think they need to go to bat for taxpayer-funded Irish DEI musicals, then they will continue to strike out.

Here is a transcript for the February 3-taped show:

NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers

2/4/2025

12:50 AM ET

SETH MEYERS: All right, first of all, you guys aren’t Aaron Judge. You’re more like Bartolo Colon. It’s a wonder you can swing without your helmet coming off. Second, most of Trump’s pitches are 65 miles an hour right down the center of the plate. Get your bat off your [bleep] shoulder. Democrats should be teeing off on this guy. Right? But instead of teeing off on this guy, they’re putting up goose eggs. [Goose sound] Oh, sorry, birdie. I wasn’t — I wasn’t talking to you, honey, but still, you know. Business is going to be rocking on the street corner tonight. Any chance you can also lay some avocados? Sorry. Real quick, I have to reset these eggs back under the desk in case we call back that joke again. 

NBC said they would pay for four eggs, but not under any circumstances six. Meanwhile, Lorne Michaels, full omelet station. 

So, pundits and Democratic elders want us all not to freak out at everything Trump does, but what if every day he does multiple things that are freak-out worthy? What do we do then? For real, what do we do? Does anyone know? Anyone? How about you, Wally?

CHRIS “WALLY” FERESTEN: Well, Seth, I believe we have to start by addressing the root causes of America’s slide into autocracy, beginning with our culture of elite impunity and a veracious greed of moneyed interest, who over the course of the mid to late 20th century captured our political establishment –

MEYERS: Not [bleep] now, Wally. Jesus. It’s rhetorical bro! We don’t have your time for your treatise on American decline.

FERESTEN: Well, fine. If anyone at home would like to hear more, you can purchase a copy of my new pamphlet, The Cue Munist Manifesto. 

MEYERS: Wally, you’re a communist?

FERESTEN: What can I say, communism sells, baby. 

MEYERS: Okay, well, I actually then think you’re doing it wrong, but seriously, though, Trump is barraging us with such an intense fuselage of non-stop bull[bleep].

The sad sacks at The New York Times are once again whipping out the “race” card to wokescold readers into condemning President Donald Trump’s unraveling of leftist diversity, equity and inclusion policies within the federal government.

Do they still believe anybody takes them seriously at this point? 

“As Trump Attacks Diversity, a Racist Undercurrent Surfaces,” read the race-baiting Feb. 3 headline from Times White House correspondent Erica Green that was framed as a news item.

Green seethed at Trump for connecting the previous administration’s obsession with putting wokeism ahead of competence in hiring to the horrific plane crash near Reagan National Airport. Green then twisted Trump’s words to screech “That’s racist!” at a strawman, following a typical media pattern. “The meaning behind his words was clear, that diversity equals incompetence. And for many historians, civil rights leaders, scholars and citizens, it was an unmistakable message of racism in plain sight at the highest levels of American government,” according to Green’s triggered screed.

Of course, “diversity equals incompetence” is not at all what Trump was saying. Rather, Trump was simply alluding to the common sense notion that the color of one’s skin should have no bearing on a government or company’s considerations of a candidate for their workforce in place of their merit and ability. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Then again, this is the same Green who went on a tear against supposedly racist “white parents” in 2021 for daring to take issue with their children being indoctrinated by activist educators with critical race theory (CRT) propaganda. 

Old habits die hard?

The irony is that Green quotes Trump as saying that the predicate for his anti-DEI purge was to foster in a “‘colorblind and merit-based’ society.” This radically undercuts her whole argument, but still insisted in her sub-headline that Trump was “equating diversity with incompetence,” which is just flat-out false:

In his actions, Mr. Trump has aligned himself with those who are brandishing the term D.E.I. as a catchall for discrimination against white people, and using it as a pejorative to attack nonwhite and female leaders as unqualified for their positions. After some of Mr. Trump’s allies in Congress disparagingly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as a ‘D.E.I. hire’ during the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump refused to disavow the remarks. 

What makes Green’s rant even more ridiculous is that not even all diversity consultants agree with her assessment of Trump’s actions. In fact, Georgia-based diversity consultant James O. Rodgers’s response to National Review on Trump’s anti-DEI initiatives on February 3 was simply: “‘Great.’”

According to National Review, “[Rodgers] calls what he does ‘diversity management,’ which was never intended [to] empower one group over another or to pit alleged oppressors versus the oppressed. ‘The work I did,’ he said, ‘was intended to benefit everybody.’” But following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, wrote National Review, Rodgers’s “style of diversity work was ‘hijacked’ by social-justice advocates who used similar language to push DEI programs aimed at benefiting certain minority groups over others.” 

But if The Times wasn’t as obsessed as it is with trying to make everyone and their mother see “racism” in their soup, Green and her race-hustling colleagues would potentially be out of a job. 

The Department of Government Efficiency’s decapitation strike against USAID over the weekend has caught the media off guard. Nonetheless, they are mustering a desperate response in hopes of saving the agency that embodies both the Deep State and the worst excesses of bloated government bureaucracy.

Most representative of the overall reporting is the brief that ran on the CBS Evening News, which provides both a convenient summary of the story’s narratives now and going forward:

CBS EVENING NEWS

2/3/25

6:38 PM

JOHN DICKERSON: Doors were locked at the Washington headquarters of USAID today at the mutual agreement of President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, whom he has empowered to remake the federal government. The USAID, established by President Kennedy and Congress, fights starvation and disease in more than 100 countries including Sudan, scene of the worst humanitarian crisis on Earth. Debora Patta will take us there later this week.

The narrative elements are all there. Trump and Elon, Elon is a billionaire, USAID is a nice agency that helps poor and starving people overseas. In addition, viewers learn that Debra Patta is doing a supporting story from Sudan, where there is an ongoing famine.

ABC and NBC took similar approaches to this emerging narrative. Jon Karl handled the assignment for ABC and provided a similar humanitarian angle:

JON KARL: Tonight, backlash after Elon Musk seized control of USAID, the agency that provides U.S. humanitarian assistance around the world. Locking out employees, essentially shutting it down. It’s Musk’s first major move to slash government spending.

ELON MUSK: As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that we have here is not an apple with a worm in it but we have, actually, just a ball of worms.

KARL: USAID’s $43 billion budget is a tiny fraction of what the government spends. About 1%. But its support is a critical lifeline for people in need around the world. Helping an estimated 32 million children suffering malnutrition and bringing food, water, shelter, and healthcare to victims of natural disasters.

Karl’s report would disclose that the salvageable remnant of USAID is getting folded into the State Department, under supervision of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But not before hilariously airing a woke USAID employee’s efforts to mask their wokeness as DOGE approached:

ABC actually aired a USAID employee’s description of the scramble as DOGE rolled up to the office, and their hurried removal of woke iconography a la the documents burning scene in Downfall:
“@DOGE was in the building. We started — we took down our pride flags, we took down- I… pic.twitter.com/gSsx3H6Mgc
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 4, 2025

KARL: But Elon Musk’s influence is sweeping throughout the administration. It was late last week that the DOGE team showed up at USAID offices in Washington and demanded access. USAID employee Kristina Drye described the scene.

KRISTINA DRYE: DOGE was in the building. We started — we took down our pride flags, we took down- I took out any books I felt would be incriminating. No one was talking, We heard they started taking transcripts automatically of all of our Google meets. We — they unplugged the news in the little kitchen galleys. It didn’t feel good. And then Saturday, all of the websites went down. And then I lost complete access to my computer.

NBC News also pushed the humanitarian aid angle: 

KELLY O’DONNELL: A top Musk target, the U.S. Agency for International Development. He argues there’s too much waste in its $42 billion budget. USAID delivers food, medicine, vaccinations and humanitarian support to 60 countries, help that is considered vital to U.S. national security. 

Additionally, Kelly O’Donnell featured protesting Democrats, and a former USAID doctor before pivoting to potential firings at the FBI. It goes without saying that the reports didn’t air all the OTHER stuff that USAID notoriously funds, from transgender opera in Colombia to gain-of-function bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Virology Institute, to Soros DA candidates in the United States.  

Gutting USAID was a deep strike to the beating heart of the American left and all that it funds. The media are aiding and abetting the left in their scramble to save their revered cash cow.

Click “exoand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective newscasts on Monday, February 3rd, 2025:

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT

2/3/25

6:36 PM

DAVID MUIR: Tonight, there are new questions about Elon Musk’s role. He’s now been classified a ‘”special government employee”, so, what does this mean? ABC News had already learned that Musk has been given access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, including the personal information of millions of American workers. And tonight, Musk working to shut down USAID, or vastly reimagine the agency. Workers informed to stay home. Today in the Oval Office, President Trump was asked, “why has Musk been given access to the Treasury, the payment systems, the information involving millions of Americans?” The president answering on Musk: “to let people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him.” Here’s Jonathan Karl.

JON KARL: Tonight, backlash after Elon Musk seized control of USAID, the agency that provides U.S. humanitarian assistance around the world. Locking out employees, essentially shutting it down. It’s Musk’s first major move to slash government spending.

ELON MUSK: As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that we have here is not an apple with a worm in it but we have, actually, just a ball of worms.

KARL: USAID’s $43 billion budget is a tiny fraction of what the government spends. About 1%. But its support is a critical lifeline for people in need around the world. Helping an estimated 32 million children suffering malnutrition and bringing food, water, shelter, and healthcare to victims of natural disasters. But Musk, the world’s richest man, says the agency is hopeless, posting on X, quote, “we spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” This comes as sources tell ABC News Musk’s team at the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, now has access to the Treasury Department’s payment system. This is essentially the government’s checkbook. It processes trillions of dollars in payments and includes the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans.

REPORTER: Mr. President, why is it important for Elon Musk to have access to the payment systems at Treasury?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, he’s got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him. And it’s only if we agree with him. He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs.

KARL: Democrats are outraged.

PATTY MURRAY: An unelected, unaccountable billionaire with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China, and an indiscreet axe to grind against perceived enemies is hijacking our nation’s most sensitive financial data systems and its checkbook.

KARL: But Elon Musk’s influence is sweeping throughout the administration. It was late last week that the DOGE team showed up at USAID offices in Washington and demanded access. USAID employee Kristina Drye described the scene.

KRISTINA DRYE: DOGE was in the building. We started — we took down our pride flags, we took down- I took out any books I felt would be incriminating. No one was talking, We heard they started taking transcripts automatically of all of our Google meets. We — they unplugged the news in the little kitchen galleys. It didn’t feel good. And then Saturday, all of the websites went down. And then I lost complete access to my computer.

KARL: And this morning, all the agency’s employees received a notice, telling them not to come to work today. Now, what is left of USAID is going to be folded into the State Department under the direction of the new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

MUIR: All right. Jonathan Karl and our team following all of this from Washington. Jon, Elon Musk now classified, as I mentioned, as a ‘”special government employee”. So, tell us exactly what this means tonight.

KARL: A ‘”special government employee”, David, is basically somebody who is on the job temporarily. A maximum of 130 days. They are not bound by the same ethics requirements that full-time government employees are, but again, can only be on the job for 130 days. Elon Musk is not being paid for his work at the Department of Government Efficiency, but David, his companies have taken in nearly $19 billion in federal contracts over the last ten years.

MUIR: Jon Karl in Washington tonight, Jon, thank you.

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS

2/3/25

6:35 PM

HALLIE JACKSON: Also playing out tonight, a sprawling effort to scale back parts of the federal government, and a push led by Elon Musk. And President Trump facing new questions about the role of the unelected billionaire. Here is Senior White House Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell.

KELLY O’DONNELL: Tonight, this partnership of power under intense new scrutiny. President Trump and the world’s richest man Elon Musk, upending federal agencies, to overhaul government and/spending. The president acknowledged that Musk can get inside sensitive government computers, like the Treasury Department Payment System.

DONALD TRUMP: Well, he’s got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good if we agree with him, and it’s only if we agree with him.

O’DONNELL: The White House says in his role running the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk is designated as a ‘”special government employee” with top-secret security clearance.

TRUMP: Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval and we will give him the approval where appropriate. Where not appropriate, we won’t.

O’DONNELL: A top Musk target, the U.S. Agency for International Development. He argues there’s too much waste in its $42 billion budget. USAID delivers food, medicine, vaccinations and humanitarian support to 60 countries, help that is considered vital to U.S. national security. Musk spoke on his X platform, declaring the agency must be shut down.

ELON MUSK: What we have here is not an apple with a worm in it but we have, actually, just a ball of worms.

O’DONNELL: Secretary of State Marco Rubio says core life-saving programs will not be frozen during a 90-day review.

MARCO RUBIO: These are not donor dollars, these are taxpayer dollars. (VIDEO SWIPE) So far, a lot of the people that work at USAID have simply refused to cooperate.

O’DONNELL: USAID is authorized and funded by Congress. Today, Democratic lawmakers blasted the shutdown as illegal and dangerous.

JAMIE RASKIN: Elon Musk did not create USAID, he doesn’t have the power to destroy it. (VIDEO SWIPE) We are going to stop him.

O’DONNELL: USAID workers told to stay home as many relief programs are halted.

Are lives on the line because of this?

ATUL GAWANDE: Lives have already been lost because of this.

O’DONNELL: Former USAID official Dr. Atul Gawande says the relief workers he knows are devastated.

GAWANDE: They’re in fear for what this means for America, what this means for the people that they touch and they are in fear for themselves.

O’DONNELL: Fear is also rattling the FBI tonight. Eight top career officials fired Friday, and a top official seeking names of agents who worked on January 6th cases. The FBI Agents’ Association in a statement described agents as “extremely fearful of being removed”, and some “started to pack up their desks.”

JACKSON: Kelly is joining us now from The White House and Kelly, all of this is happening as the Senate is considering President Trump’s nominee for FBI Director, Kash Patel.

O’DONNELL: That’s right. And in his hearing and under oath, Kash Patel pledged all FBI employees would be protected against political retribution. But tonight Senate Democrats are now demanding additional information about all of this. Hallie.

JACKSON: Kelly O’Donnell. Thank you.

 

According to content cops at Elon Musk’s X, a tweet mocking CBS News for their softball interviews with Kamala and “Feeble Joe” was tagged under their “Hateful Conduct” policy. This was the tweet: 

We have determined your post violated our rules against Hateful Conduct.

You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease…

As a result, your post may stay on the platform but we have limited its reach.

It’s the “Feeble Joe”? It’s mocking someone’s age or disability? Or is someone just super-sensitive about mocking CBS?

This was based in part by my old MRC Special Report titled “Syrupy Minutes,” lining up the softball sessions on 60 Minutes from 2006-2010. But we certainly saw the sap with Joe Biden and with Kamala Harris. The Kamala Harris interview is exactly the sleazy-editing matter that Trump sued over, demanding they make public the transcript of that interview. 

As I noted when Scott Pelley interviewed Biden in 2023, “Some thought the president looked doddering — and the interview was carefully edited by his CBS friends. Pelley admitted Biden was, well, ‘tired’ from running the country.” Pelley oozed “America’s oldest president seemed tired from directing all of this. But he was very clear on what he stood for and how his policies, in his view, would see America through.” 

In 2022, Pelley promoted Biden on more domestic concerns (while the 2023 segment was entirely about the Israel-Hamas war). The worst question was Pelley suggesting “hard-right Republicans” are making the world more dangerous with their failure to elect a new Speaker.

CBS has a long history of leftist bias and Democrat partisanship. Going back to Edward R. Murrow ripping Joe McCarthy through Dan Rather ripping George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Today, Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan is embarrassing herself trying to embarrass J.D. Vance. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced she wanted the presidents of PBS and NPR to testify before the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Government Efficiency. NPR CEO Katherine Mayer claimed she’s all about touting the “impartial” and “fact-based” NPR news product. This is false on several levels. Mayer declined the invitation to testify in 2024 and they aren’t demonstrating any commitment to an “impartial, fact-based” approach.

In a note to staff this morning, NPR’s CEO said House R’s are planning a hearing on bias in federally funded media and NPR “welcomes opportunities to discuss the critical role of public media in delivering impartial, fact-based news and reporting to the American people.” pic.twitter.com/7GV9QpRe7x
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) February 3, 2025
Exhibit A is their dismissal of the Hunter Biden laptop in October 2020. Their news boss Terence Samuel poured acid on the topic: “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”

Enjoy the podcast below or wherever you enjoy podcasts.

On Saturday’s Ayman show on MSNBC, during a panel discussion of President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions, contributor Dean Obeidallah declared public ICE raids to be a “fascist spectacle” like those by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, and fellow analyst Maria Hinojosa compared Trump’s deportation efforts to the Holocaust and American slavery.

While discussing President Trump’s actions against DEI, Obeidallah went on to decry the President as a “vile, racist piece of garbage.”

After host Ayman Mohyeldin brought up public figures like Doctor Phil McGraw and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem being filmed accompanying federal agents on ICE raids, Obeidallah brought Nazi references to the discussion:

…but these are fascist spectacles. That’s what historians call them. They are fascist spec — Mussolini did it. Hitler did it — huge marches, big rallies, the 1936 Olympic Games. Same thing Mussolini — huge march on Rome. They are spectacles to get press to make them look more powerful and bigger than life. Their goal is to make the rest of us be intimidated and be fearful — paralyzed with fear as Timothy Snyder talks about in his book, On Tyranny. We can’t be paralyzed with fear … This is fascism — we’re seeing it right in our streets right here. The use of the military — well, it should be next — in the streets of America to round up people who are brown.

 

 

Following up, Mohyeldin lamented:

The problem with this, though, is that we’re talking about it, but there are probably large swaths of the country who are just watching right-wing media and who follow Doctor Phil, and they’re probably buying the fact that, like, “Finally, Donald Trump is in power — two weeks in, he is fixing the immigration system,” and they are just eating it all up.

The MSNBC host soon suggested that illegal aliens would be mistreated as he brought up Trump’s plans to detain some at Guantanamo Bay as they await their deportaion flights:

Maria, the — probably one of the uglier parts of this saga that is unfolding is Guantanamo Bay and this facility that was notorious for abuse and torture now again being used in this draconian way. You know, President Obama, I remember, tried to shut it down. President Biden tried to shut it down. They couldn’t do it. And yet this — this facility continues to haunt us in ways that perhaps we probably never imagined.

Hinojosa compared the deportation of illegal aliens to the Holocaust and American slavery:

But one thing that did make AOC tear up was talking about the fact that people in her community are coming and saying, “Look, I’m signing the custody of my child to my neighbor. I’m going to self-deport so that I can come back in a decade.” Because if you get deported, you can’t come back. … But the thought of, again, family separation. It’s not the first time it’s happened in our country. Enslaved people were giving their children to other people so that they would get out of slavery, right? In the Holocaust, people were hiding people — getting their children outside. … So it’s fascism, and it’s happening, though we won’t see that part of the family giving their child over to a neighbor to take care of them.

In a later segment, as the group discussed President Trump blaming DEI for the recent plane crash in D.C., and his mocking reporters for asking him if he would visit the site of the crash even though it was underwater, Obeidallah erupted: “Donald Trump’s a scumbag. I mean, I think we can say that. He’s a vile, racist piece of garbage. He happens to be President of the United States, so we have to pay attention. If he wasn’t, he’d be one of vile people out there in this country.”

The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:

MSNBC’s Ayman
February 1, 2025
8:05 p.m. Eastern

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: By bringing Doctor Phil, what does it do? It gets more press. Doctor Phil promoted the night before like a World Wrestling Federation event. He goes, “I’m going out tomorrow, and it’s not going to be safe.” Maybe they’ll work in other right-wing celebrities — Hulk Hogan will be out there or Kid Rock. And it’s the idea — but these are fascist spectacles. That’s what historians call them. They are fascist spec — Mussolini did it. Hitler did it — huge marches, big rallies, the 1936 Olympic Games. Same thing Mussolini — huge march on Rome. They are spectacles to get press to make them look more powerful and bigger than life.

Their goal is to make the rest of us be intimidated and be fearful — paralyzed with fear as Timothy Snyder talks about in his book, On Tyranny. We can’t be paralyzed with fear — we have to step up and fight this stuff. This is fascism — we’re seeing it right in our streets right here. The use of the military — well, it should be next — in the streets of America to round up people who are brown.

And in New Jersey, they detained a guy who was a U.S. military veteran — a U.S. citizen — and they mocked him because he said, “I’m an American.” And they mocked him for it. … So this is a spectacle. It is called a “fascist spectacle.” People can Google that term — it is real.

(…)

AYMAN MOHYELDIN: The problem with this, though, is that we’re talking about it, but there are probably large swaths of the country who are just watching right-wing media and who follow Doctor Phil, and they’re probably buying the fact that, like, “Finally, Donald Trump is in power — two weeks in, he is fixing the immigration system,” and they are just eating it all up.

(…)

MOHYELDIN: Maria, the — probably one of the uglier parts of this saga that is unfolding is Guantanamo Bay and this facility that was notorious for abuse and torture now again being used in this draconian way. You know, President Obama, I remember, tried to shut it down. President Biden tried to shut it down. They couldn’t do it. And yet this — this facility continues to haunt us in ways that perhaps we probably never imagined.

(…)

MARIA HINOJOSA, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: But one thing that did make AOC tear up was talking about the fact that people in her community are coming and saying, “Look, I’m signing the custody of my child to my neighbor. I’m going to self-deport so that I can come back in a decade.” Because if you get deported, you can’t come back. If you remove yourself, you can potentially come back. But the thought of, again, family separation. It’s not the first time it’s happened in our country. Enslaved people were giving their children to other people so that they would get out of slavery, right? In the Holocaust, people were hiding people — getting their children outside. So this is what’s happening now that people are living in — that’s what’s happening. So it’s fascism, and it’s happening, though we won’t see that part of the family giving their child over to a neighbor to take care of them.

(…)

8:21 p.m.

OBEIDALLAH: Donald Trump’s a scumbag. I mean, I think we can say that. He’s a vile, racist piece of garbage. He happens to be President of the United States, so we have to pay attention. If he wasn’t, he’d be one of vile people out there in this country.

(…)

And this idea that Donald Trump is the defender of white supremacy has been with us. White supremacy is as American as apple pie. You have to look at the history of this country from the original Constitution which had the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause to after the Civil War. The Civil War itself was to defend white supremacy. Jim Crow, George Wallace — “Segregation today, tomorrow and forever.” Donald Trump is just the next iteration of that. So the point is, we got to stand up to this guy because, if not, they just — they just — that’s everything. Diversity to them is different shades of white people.