INVESTIGATIONS

Days after its sister newscast NBC Nightly News bemoaned tariffs hitting Chinese slave labor-linked shopping apps Temu and Shein, NBC’s Today sent Beijing-based correspondent Janis Mackey Frayer to gallivant around Vietnam for the communist regime’s propaganda parade marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, a shameful scar on the country that’d be repeated in 2021 with Afghanistan.

The networks have done this in the past, but there was no mention of the millions dead at the hands communist dictator Ho Chi Minh — either in camps, executions, or while at sea trying to flee — after the U.S. evacuated remaining forces and personnel when the North Vietnamese army crashed through the gates of the South Vietnamese presidential palace on April 30, 1975.

 

 

Instead, it was mostly hunky dory. Co-host Craig Melvin had the first of two teases: “Coming up on a very busy Wednesday morning, we’re going to look back on the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War some 50 years later. A live report from Ho Chi Minh City just ahead.”

Co-host Savannah Guthrie had the other, saying in-between a soundbite from a 1975 news report: “Plus, 50 years later, we look back at the fall of Saigon…The historic milestone marking the end of the Vietnam War, and we are there live.”

Later, Melvin tossed to Frayer like this was something to celebrate: “Meanwhile this morning, Vietnam is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the end of the war and they’re celebrating with a military parade and a focus on a peaceful future. The fall of Saigon marked the end of a Vietnam that was divided between the Communist north and U.S.-allied south.”

Frayer kept the triumphant mood going:

It was here on April 30, 1975 that North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops rolled into this city as the last Americans were being air-lifted out and the Vietnam war came to an end. 50 years after the fall of Saigon, a victory parade where spectators waited overnight to witness history. Every year, Liberation Day — as it’s called here — is marked with celebration and this is their biggest yet to commemorate not only the communists’ victory in Vietnam, but America’s defeat. The events included helicopters and jets over the palace where, 50 years ago, a tank smashing the gate ended the war that killed millions of Vietnamese and 50,000 U.S. troops. For the U.S., the fighting came down to a last desperate airlift from the U.S. Embassy here.

She then met with a South Vietnamese Army veteran who doubled as a U.S. interpreter, saying he “wasn’t able to escape” after the war and “now blind.” No word on why he’s blind or what his life was like in the 50 years since!

The only thing we did learn? That he requested Frayer and the NBC crew bring him a can of Coca-Cola because he had not had one in 40 years.

Once she admitted the country is “still changing” since “most of the country’s population born after the fighting stopped,” Frayer saved the only negative comments for….the United States of America:

FRAYER: After serving here in the 1970s, reconciliation lured U.S. veteran Matthew Keenan to come back. He volunteers at a center for victims of Agent Orange, a chemical sprayed by U.S. forces here that he believes caused his own cancer.

MATTHEW KEENAN: They cannot explain why they have a problem they can’t explain about toxic chemicals. I can, and I do that for them.

Only towards the end did Frayer arrive at a more apt view: “While old wounds still linger, today Vietnam and Americans here are no longer enemies. The war pushing further into history.”

Back live, she gushed that “[t]here were several U.S. veterans who were are the parade today, as well as journalists who covered the war back in the day and there were U.S. diplomats spotted on this stage” despite the Trump administration’s ask they not go.

Whether it was the AP falsely claiming Ho Chi Minh was inspired by Thomas Jefferson in leading Vietnam (with an iron fist), taxpayer-funded NPR touting a Time magazine war correspondent being a communist spy, the broadcast networks fawning over Barack Obama’s 2016 visit, or the endless lionizing of the era’s (liberal) legacy journalists (like here and here), the liberal media will always have a soft spot for the war that tore America apart.

To see the relevant NBC transcript from April 30, click here.

On Tuesday afternoon, CNN climate correspondent Bill Weir declared that the Donald Trump administration is in an “all-out assault on science,” and compared global warming to a burning theater that the administration is forcing people to stay inside. His assessment came during a segment about the administration firing researchers who were working on a regular report on the climate. 

At the top of the 3:00 p.m. hour of CNN News Central, co-host Boris Sanchez teased: “And also, scientists agree that climate change is a threat, but the government under President Trump may soon know far less about it. This is after the White House dismisses all the researchers working on a key new report.”

About 3:33 p.m., Sanchez returned to the story and informed viewers of the firing of scientists in charge of putting together the National Climate Assessment report, which is due every five years. Weir noted that a law was passed in 2000 requiring that the report be done, and then recalled:

In 2018, it was a really blunt assessment and with a prediction that 10 percent of the global economy could disappear by the end of the century as a result of an overheating Earth — too much fossil fuel pollution. The Trump administration then buried it. They released it on Black Friday — the shopping day after Thanksgiving.

After noting that there was a report released in 2023, he added:

…this next one, which is supposed to come out in 2028, was just killed in the cradle. Like, they’re working on it right now, and it is a law that they have to deliver something. So the fear is that they’re just going to deliver pseudoscience and ideology — the kind of stuff we’re seeing in all these environmental and climate-related press releases — executive orders coming out of the White House right now. But this is yet another blow, Boris, in the first 100 days of just an all-out assault on science across every agency. Anything with a hint of climate change attached to it or even ground-level pollution

Which side of this debate — which the Left refuses to acknowledge as a debate — has been delivering “pseudoscience and ideology”? Way back in 1992, CNN ran a scare special called The People Bomb saying the world was overpopulated, and they wouldn’t allow any air time to scientists who disagreed with their doom-saying (and anti-humanitarian) viewpoint.

As he concluded his analysis, Weir took a hyperbolic shot at the Trump administration:

So, right now, everybody is hurting on the front of this story, and it remains to be seen what becomes of this assessment, the people working on it. If they can do one, do they release it to the public? Who knows? But, once again, really hiding the science, telling people essentially to stay seated in a burning theater and removing the exit signs as well.

Wrapping up, Sanchez echoed him: “Staying seated in a burning theater — what a way to put it. Bill Weir, thanks so much for the reporting. Appreciate it.”

Transcript follows:

CNN News Central

April 29, 2024

3:00 p.m. Eastern

BORIS SANCHEZ:  And also, scientists agree that climate change is a threat, but the government under President Trump may soon know far less about it. This is after the White House dismisses all the researchers working on a key new report.

(…)

3:33 p.m.

SANCHEZ: President Trump marked the end of his 100 days — his first 100 days of his second term by firing hundreds of people in charge of a critical report on how climate change is affecting the country. CNN obtained an email sent last night confirming the dismissal of scientists and authors tasked with putting together the National Climate Assessment. Scientists say the report is a valuable resource for officials dealing with extreme weather events at the regional, state and local levels. Let’s get more from CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir. So, Bill, what is the goal here by eliminating these scientists?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, it’s to eliminate the science that is the underpinning of many lawsuits — that could be a main sort of motive. We saw that in the Project 2025 sort of layout there. But, just to set some perspective here, in 2000, Congress passed a law that, every few years, the best Earth scientists in the country — about 400 of them — would put together a comprehensive assessment that would inform local governments, states, even private industries, about what’s happening when the — to the country — water supplies, energy supplies, to farms and fisheries — every aspects of the economy, and let them know, just no holds barred, so we could better prepare.

In 2018, it was a really blunt assessment and with a prediction that 10 percent of the global economy could disappear by the end of the century as a result of an overheating Earth — too much fossil fuel pollution. The Trump administration then buried it. They released it on Black Friday — the shopping day after Thanksgiving. I still remember this — I was in Paradise, California, covering that epic wildfire there, and nobody really paid attention. In 2023, under Biden, a new one came out, but this next one, which is supposed to come out in 2028, was just killed in the cradle.

Like, they’re working on it right now, and it is a law that they have to deliver something. So the fear is that they’re just going to deliver pseudoscience and ideology — the kind of stuff we’re seeing in all these environmental and climate-related press releases — executive orders coming out of the White House right now. But this is yet another blow, Boris, in the first 100 days of just an all-out assault on science across every agency. Anything with a hint of climate change attached to it or even ground-level pollution — PFAs, plastics, these sorts of things.

Lee Zeldin just announced they’re going to tackle microplastics, these sorts — but with no real policy plan in place. Meanwhile, laying off the best and brightest scientists really in the world at a time is creating, as you can imagine, incredible angst in this space right now. But, at the same time,  the price of oil is about 50 bucks a barrel, which is a huge money loser for all the oil executives that Donald Trump promised to help with deregulation. So, right now, everybody is hurting on the front of this story, and it remains to be seen what becomes of this assessment, the people working on it. If they can do one, do they release it to the public? Who knows? But, once again, really hiding the science, telling people essentially to stay seated in a burning theater and removing the exit signs as well.

SANCHEZ: Staying seated in a burning theater — what a way to put it. Bill Weir, thanks so much for the reporting. Appreciate it.

President Donald Trump’s approval declined after he announced broad tariffs not just on China but on trading partners who, in his opinion, take advantage of America with their tariffs on American goods. But how quickly those rooting for Trump’s failure forget the mood of the country during the Biden administration.

In September 2024, NBC News wrote: “Two in 3 voters say the country is on the ‘wrong track’ as voters weigh whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump would be better able to change that less than two months from Election Day.” Not exactly a tough act to follow.

Critics call Trump 2.0 an “imperial” presidency careening toward a “constitutional crisis,” meaning Trump intends to ignore lower court rulings that thwart his agenda. Yet most sat silently when one of the Democrat stars, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.,) demanded that President Joe Biden ignore a 2023 lower court ruling to ban the so-called abortion pill. AOC called the ruling a “mockery of our democracy and a mockery of our law.”

When the Supreme Court ruled the Biden student debt forgiveness program unconstitutional, Biden insisted the ruling left him undeterred. He said, “The Supreme Court tried to block me from relieving student debt. But they didn’t stop me.”

Trump has secured the southern border and is fulfilling his promise to deport the estimated 15 million illegal aliens — prioritizing violent criminals — intentionally admitted into the country by Biden. Former First Lady Michelle Obama recently fretted: “I worry for people of color all over this country. … And that makes me — that frightens me. It keeps me up at night.”

Michelle Obama must not have gotten much sleep during her husband’s administration, when even Democrats derisively referred to President Barack Obama as “deporter-in-chief.” In January 2024, PolitiFact wrote: “Under Trump, from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2020, the Department of Homeland Security recorded 2 million deportations … During Obama’s first term, fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2012, there were 3.2 million deportations (removals and returns).”

Suddenly, Democrats are pro-“insurrection.” Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently called for “mass protests” against Trump: “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once. Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.”

“Fight everywhere and all at once”? The governor will no doubt claim he means “fight” peacefully. But when Trump, on Jan. 6, 2021, urged his supporters to “fight like hell,” his critics described this as the equivalent of ordering his supporters to set the country on fire. Never mind Trump also said, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Suddenly, “mocking” one’s disability isn’t such a bad thing after all. An August 2016 Bloomberg poll of likely voters found what most bothered them about then-candidate Trump was that he supposedly “mocked” a disabled reporter, something Trump has denied doing. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Trump supporter, has since 1984 been paralyzed from the waist down. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) in March, at a California Human Rights campaign event, elicited laughter when she said: “Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there. Come on now. And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot a– mess.” Crickets from most Democrats.

Polls show a majority of Americans support Trump’s border wall and a plurality support his goal of mass deportation. Democrats therefore find themselves thrashing about to decide on an effective anti-Trump attack strategy. What’s their message? Waste, fraud and abuse are to be protected? Illegal alien MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the equivalent of a political prisoner? Teslas are bad — so much for climate change?

Democrats continue to claim that only the very rich stand to benefit from extending the Trump tax cuts. Biden in his first major speech since leaving office repeated the nonsense that Trump wants to “cut and gut” social security. So, there’s that.

If Trump is proven right on his tariff strategy and our trading partners cut deals that eventually turbocharge the economy, what’s left for the Democrats? Apart from mass suicide, there’s always the Trump’s a “racist/fascist/Nazi” card. It’s better than nothing.