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Deranged: CBS Lectures Scalise on Rhetoric, Whines GOP Is ‘Angry’ Trump Was Shot
On Saturday following the attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, CBS was out of control in demanding Republicans be the ones to lower the proverbial temperature and alter their rhetoric to soothe our collective body politic. Of course, as our Alex Christy wrote about earlier, they even expressed concern about the well-being of…themselves.
The worst moment came when Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan had the gall to lecture House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) about rhetoric even though Scalise himself was nearly assassinated in June 2017 by a far-left kook.
Click the tweet to watch the video and click “expand” below to see the transcript:
CBS's Margaret Brennan lectures Steve Scalise, who was nearly assassinated in 2017 by a leftist: "Have you specifically instructed members...to rein in some of the rhetoric...some are using online that is somewhat incendiary...really blaming this, somehow, on the administration?" pic.twitter.com/M3MQINzuuH
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 14, 2024
BRENNAN: Have you specifically instructed members in the coming hours, to rein in some of the rhetoric, that – that I will point out, some are using online, that is somewhat incendiary in terms of really blaming – blaming this, somehow, on the administration. Have you asked them to refrain from that?
SCALISE: I’ve already been very vocal within moments of the shooting that – that political violence is not something anybody should tolerate. But also, I came out one further and said that we needed to dial down the rhetoric. And there’s been a lot of rhetoric the last few months. And, you know, I think some of that, you know, this idea and Bob Barr are even said it, Donald Trump is some threat to democracy, that kind of language, all it takes is one person to hear that and act on it and I don't know if that’s the case today, but those are the kind of things that should not be said. And, you know, all of us need to do better and dialed the language down. Let's focus on the issue. We have real serious issues that divide us and real serious problems in this country. Let’s the next four months be how to fix and solve those problems in America and – and not have the incendiary language that – that, unfortunately, we’re seeing right now.
Brennan wasn’t done debasing herself as she twice tried to have Scalise denounce Republican Congressman Mike Collins (R-GA) for having tweeted “Joe Biden sent the orders” in reference to Biden rhetorically stating earlier in the week that Trump had to be “put…in a bullseye”.
She wouldn’t mention that context, of course.
Instead, she demanded Scalise answer whether there was “any information whatsoever to link…the U.S. government to what happened”. Obviously, Scalise said no and vaguely alluded to “comments form Joe Biden” earlier, but said any rampant speculation should “stop immediately”.
The CBS host continued to pummel Scalise about rhetoric demanding he state “that no member should in any way insinuate anything without actually knowing fact first considering we’re in a “very dangerous moment.”
Chief elections and campaign correspondent Robert Costa kvetched just after 8:30 p.m. Eastern that “many Trump supporters on social media tonight are extremely angry”, further enflaming “a political charged moment” that’s also “a crime investigation”:
CBS's Robert Costa complains "Trump supporters on social media tonight are extremely angry" at the assassination attempt, lamenting "this is still a politically charged moment".
Margaret Brennan demands Republicans "take the political temperature down" pic.twitter.com/LznPL6WtC6
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 14, 2024
Not to play Captain Obvious, but how should they feel about a former President and someone millions admire and support nearly being murdered on live TV?
Brennan backed up Costa’s allusion to it being incumbent that Republicans alter their rhetoric, not anyone else (click “expand”)
And, to that point, Bob Costa, I was texting Robert O’Brien, the former national security advisor to Donald Trump, who sent out a statement saying, we’ve got to take the political temperature down, he and Mike Lee, the senator issued this jointly. We’ve got to take the political temperature down as evidenced by what happened in Pennsylvania today. So, two key Republican Trump supporters calling for the rhetoric, the political violence, the threats of it, to be lowered. That is in stark contrast to the head of the Trump campaign – one of the top Trump campaign officials, you were reading statements from earlier. We are also looking at social media posts from other Republicans who are quite angry – everyone should be angry this security failure happened -- but in a way that will raise further concern of someone misinterpreting things and perhaps carrying out further political violence. Law enforcement will want to lower the temperature. And words matter right now very much.
An hour later, Brennan went to a dark place when she suggested Trump supporter could be scheming to commit violence:
CBS's Margaret Brennan, out of control: "We want to make clear that this
is something we are reporting...as a historic event...We are very mindful that this kind of event can inspire violence, it can inspire retaliation, and we want no part of that." #TrumpAssassinationAttempt pic.twitter.com/FOpk9Q3B9U
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 14, 2024
Brennan and Costa spoke by phone to the Republican congressman who represents the area where the shooting took place, Mike Kelly, and demanded his “fellow lawmakers” watch themselves “in terms of the rhetoric and word choice”:
DISGUSTING: CBS's Margaret Brennan lashes out at GOP Rep. Mike Kelly after he said what happened was an assassination attempt against Trump, claiming he's trying to poison viewers into thinking the govt. tried to kill Trump.
She argues "rhetoric and word choice" has to change. pic.twitter.com/QqVhoVdGVu
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 14, 2024
Just as he did when hit with this smear by NBC’s Lester Holt, Kelly calmly dispensed with this gotcha by invoking the Scalise shooting and observing too many Americans “have become too casual about life, too casual about what role the United States plays,” and “too casual about the basic belief system we have”.
Fast-forward to the top of the 10:00 p.m. Eastern hour, Brennan bemoaned to correspondent Scott MacFarlane that “our fellow journalists, I know, have become target – in many ways – of hateful rhetoric at some of these rallies” with “one of the initial reactions by some of the people there, was to turn and yell at journalists like you” following the gunshots.
MacFarlane tried to defuse it by chalking up the boos to being par for the course and arguing there’s still common humanity in Trump supporters as some checked on them after the shooting.
Despite that, Brennan tossed that pivot aside to go back to there needing to be a “rhetoric” change from Trump and his supporters since we’re all “responsible for protecting our democracy”:
CBS's Margaret Brennan defends her comments lecturing Trump and his supporters as the ones responsible for changing the "rhetoric" in our body politic, claiming it's incumbent on them to protect our fragile democracy pic.twitter.com/ka1iR8khZx
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 14, 2024
Costa didn’t disagree, as evidenced by reiterating his observation of “a lot of anger” among Trump supporters at what happened.
To see the relevant transcript from July 13, click here.
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