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ABC Colleagues, Fellow Libs Rush to Mary Bruce’s Defense After Trump Tussle
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the liberal media rushed to the defense of ABC chief White House correspondent and liberal tool Mary Bruce following President Trump’s extensive dressing down of her over questions about to him about the Epstein files and Trump family business dealings in Saudi Arabia and then to the Saudi crown prince about 9/11 and Jamal Khashoggi.
Unsurprisingly, ABC’s Good Morning America co-hosts Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos came to Bruce’s defense on Wednesday:
ABC’s Robin Roberts fawns over Mary Bruce after she was yelled at by President Trump yesterday: “And, Mary, I don't have to tell you, these are extremely challenging times. And thank you for your reporting and your willingness to ask these types of questions. It must be surreal… pic.twitter.com/zat2ymZ8Q4
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 19, 2025
Did Bruce just return from fighting Boko Horam? Why do liberal journalists treat asking tough questions of Republicans like the most dangerous and patriotic thing ever?
Our Jorge Bonilla hit the bullseye with this take about the adulation for Bruce: “Given the media’s outcry, you’d think Trump had Mary Bruce wiretapped or prosecuted under the Espionage Act.”
Leaving aside the content of Bruce’s questions, it was about time a Republican — anyone, really — tore this female Jim Acosta new one.
MS NOW — the artist formerly known as MSNBC — weighed in repeatedly. Here were a few. Weekday afternoon host Katy Tur expressed disgust over Trump’s clapback because Bruce is “not a employee of the president for asking the Saudi Arabian head MBS about Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed, dismembered, and the CIA — also, Marco Rubio said that it was directed by [Mohammad bin Salman].”
MS NOW White House correspondent Vaughn Hillyard joined in moments later:
Yesterday, MS NOW WH correspondent Vaughn Hillyard rushed to defend ABC's Mary Bruce -- twice in 2 mins! -- because Donald Trump was mean to her, saying she “is a fine human being and a great colleague here from ABC here at the White House” and her questions were “commendable” pic.twitter.com/998cLqvb0f
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 19, 2025
In the next hour, Tur ignored Trump’s actual answer tearing into Epstein and instead claimed Trump launched “a personal attack” on Bruce with “a multi-minute diatribe about how he doesn’t like her and how disgusting she is and how he doesn’t like ABC.”
Independent journalist Tara Palmeri agreed and reminded those unaware she used to be ABC and thus “worked with Mary Bruce at ABC and she is a stellar reporter and does not deserve that kind of abuse for asking questions, which are her right as a journalist.”
Palmeri cartoonishly then said this was Bruce’s right to ask what she wanted in “representing their constituents — representing the people.” Quite the Freudian slip!
“That is what the press does when they ask those questions. So he’s actually attacking his own constituents when he attacks members of the press,” she added.
In primetime, Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell praised Bruce by calling her “the only reporter” in the White House “who rose to the moment” in grilling bin Salman.
MS NOW kept it up on Wednesday. Way Too Early host Ali Vitali gushed she’s “looked up to Mary for years, worked alongside her on the campaign trail and the White House,” and is thus “an exceptional journalist.”
On Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Jonathan Lemire suggested Trump’s criticisms of Bruce were un-American (click “expand”):
SCARBOROUGH: Well, and — and Jon, Jon Lemire, I mean, let’s talk about when Mary Bruce ABC asks a question that that feeds off of what Trump’s own CIA concluded in his first term that Khashoggi was chopped up, tortured and chopped up at the knowledge or direction of the guy that he was praising yesterday. Now, listen, if you want to say we work with very bad people and it’s time to move on. People have made that calculation. They just have. Maybe people don’t like that that calculation has been made. But to attack a lawyer [sic] and tell her, now get this, get this, get this, he’s sitting next to a man who was responsible for the sawing up of a reporter, and then he calls an ABC News supporter — a reporter insubordinate. Think about that.
LEMIRE: There was a time when the American president, whoever it was, no matter which party, would try to be an example for the rest of the world in terms of human rights, in terms of freedom of the press. And that is something that this President has never been interested in doing. He’s cozying up to power authoritarians and the like. And yesterday, his response to that ABC reporter was, as noted, things happen. A bonesaw happened. That’s what happened to Jamal Khashoggi. He was chopped up with a bone saw at — at least the knowledge and perhaps at the instruction of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He then went the — Trump the President went on to say, there’s some people who didn’t like Jamal Khashoggi, sort of, sort of suggested that maybe he had it coming, that some people disagreed with him. And this is and then to set him at another opulent state dinner in all but name last night, described as the glitziest event that he has thrown for any leader so far this year, the most lavish event the white House has held so far this year. We’re seeing images of it now was last night in — in the honor of, of MBS, you know, a problematic ally, to say the least. And we have, again, this President using a moment with the eyes of the world on him to side to — to — to turn away from what would be considered traditional values of the office.
CNN wasn’t going to let MS NOW have all the fun. Moments after Trump’s takedown, News Central co-host Brianna Keilar called Bruce “a fine reporter” with “a lot of experience” and “is very well respected.”
The Lead host Jake Tapper — whom Bruce used to work for as a producer when Tapper was at ABC — stated on his show Bruce “is a nice person and a good reporter.”
Former conservative reporter-turned-CNN liberal Kaitlan Collins complained on her show The Source:
I think a jarring moment was when the reporter was asking about [Saudi Arabia]. They weren’t actually asking President Trump for his view. They were asking MBS, saying that there’s a lot of Americans who are upset that he’s inside the Oval Office today. It’s the first time he’s been back, since Jamal Khashoggi was killed. Obviously, after 9/11 as well, a lot of families and victims there that are — that are upset by his presence inside the Oval Office today and so, for the President to lash out at the reporter, Mary Bruce, who’s a great reporter from ABC News, saying, We’re going to threaten your license, your broadcasting license, over this, while sitting next to an authoritarian leader who the CIA says, ordered the killing of a reporter.
CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip also gave her two cents: “Of course, Mary Bruce is a very good reporter and that answer from Trump, it’s very reminiscent, Scott Jennings, of a lot of other moments of pressure for this president, where when he’s feeling the heat, he takes it out on the media and especially on female reporters[.]”
Over on X, former Obama official-turned-CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod swooned that “[e]very journalist and lover of democracy owes a debt of gratitude to [Bruce] for having the guts and professionalism to ask questions...that absolutely cried out to be asked.”
Resistance favorite Peter Baker of The New York Times played the role of comical suck-up: “It may be repeating the obvious, but [Bruce] is a first-rate reporter. In the face of a presidential tirade aimed at silencing her, she calmly and professionally showed why a free, independent media remains essential, asking questions that powerful people don't want to answer.”