Before CBS Saturday Morning officially headed off into its uncertain future, co-host Michelle Miller used her final episode to interview German author Daniel Kehlmann about his recent novel about G.W. Pabst, the silent film director who originally fled the Nazis only to return and make propaganda movies. Naturally, much of the conversation was about life in a dictatorship, but unnaturally, towards the end of their conversation, Kehlmann would compare the current United States to the East Germany his wife grew up in, and Miller offered up little resistance to the crazy idea. Miller declared that “Kehlmann splits his time between Berlin and New York with his teenage son and his wife, an international human rights lawyer who grew up under East Germany's communist rule. For them, this subject feels very personal.”     Kehlmann insisted that “she sees a lot of what she experienced in her childhood in the GDR happening in America now.” Miller could only shake her head and weakly offer, “A lot of people would disagree.” Doubling down, Kehlmann proclaimed that, “I mean, what I would say to that is it really depends where and who you are. For us, visa holders, free speech is practically suspended. Our lawyers are telling us 'be very careful, they can take away your visa, so don't go to demonstrations,' don't say, for example, what I just said to you.” As the duo laughed at the last part, Miller wondered, “Why are you saying what you just said to me?” “Well, because someone has to. Someone has to,” Kehlmann insisted. One annoying aspect of comparing Trump’s America to East Germany or Nazi Germany is the sense that the people making the analogy don’t actually believe it. Despite the timing of CBS’s interview, Kehlmann’s book has been out for months, and he’s done plenty of interviews where either he or his host suggested or flat out declared the U.S. is in a similarly dark place. Ironically, the reason Miller interviewed Kehlmann now was because he was in New York to be honored by the New York Public Library because despite all his warnings about not having free speech, he keeps speaking, and nothing bad has happened to him. Here is a transcript for the November 22 show: CBS Saturday Morning 11/22/2025 8:49 AM ET MICHELLE MILLER: Kehlmann splits his time between Berlin and New York with his teenage son and his wife, an international human rights lawyer who grew up under East Germany's communist rule. For them, this subject feels very personal. DANIEL KEHLMANN: She sees a lot of what she experienced in her childhood in the GDR happening in America now. MILLER: A lot of people would disagree. KEHLMANN: I mean, what I would say to that is it really depends where and who you are. For us, visa holders, free speech is practically suspended. Our lawyers are telling us "be very careful, they can take away your visa, so don't go to demonstrations," don't say, for example, what I just said to you. MILLER: Why are you saying what you just said to me? KEHLMANN: Well, because someone has to. Someone has to.

On Sunday, November 2nd, President Donald Trump said that he was considering sending U.S. troops to Nigeria, to help stop the killing of Christians at the hands of Muslim terror groups, claiming that these murders were being sanctioned by the Nigerian government. One day prior, the Administration placed Nigeria back on a list of "Countries of Particular Concern", those that we believe have violated religious freedoms. This past Thursday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on the killings and the major networks couldn't be bothered to cover it on their nightly newscasts. Fox News's Special Report with Bret Baier did cover the hearing.  ABC, CBS and NBC all took a pass on giving this the exposure it deserves. This really shouldn't  come as a big shock. From the moment Trump made his declaration, many on the left, including of course  the media, went on the attack against the President, for daring to care about innocent Christians being slaughtered for being Christians. The list includes MSNBC's Reverend Al Sharpton and his guest, House Democrat Whip, Congresswoman Katherine Clark of Massachusetts. CNN's Abby Phillip, also had a major problem with Trump, and went at it hard with her panelist Scott Jennings.  In September Senator Ted Cruz introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025. The bill protects Christians and other religious minorities being persecuted in Nigeria. Cruz has pointed out that since 2009, 52,000 Nigerian Christians have been murdered by jihadists and over 20,000 Christian churches and religious-based institutions have been destroyed, and on June 13 more than 200 Christians were murdered by Fulani jihadists in a Nigerian village. On Thursday's Special Report, Fox News host Bret Baier introduced their report on the hearing, and Senior National Correspondent Aishah Hasnie, who began her report this way:  HASNIE: Tonight, the Trump Administration says it's developing a plan to compel the Nigerian government to protect Christians from persecution. JONATHAN PRATT, STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: This plan will consider U.S., State, and Treasury engagement on sanctions as well as possible Department of War engagement on counter terrorism and other efforts to protect religious communities. HASNIE: The announcement coming at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing as it looks into the President's redesignation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern. REP CHRIS SMITH (R-NJ): This is not random violence. It is deliberate persecution. Of course, as previously mentioned, for some reason the left has a problem with Trump's concern over the killing of Christians, and his consideration of dealing with it in the strongest terms.  HASNIE: The President has already threatened taking military action. Democrats blasting those threats. REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D): I don't think that's the right way, to go just go on Truth Social and threaten guns a blazing. Hasnie then pointed out some somber stats: "According to the the Observatory For Religious Freedom in Africa. amongst the 30,000 civilians killed in a four year period, more than 6,000 were Muslim while nearly 17,000 were Christians." And Congressman Bill Huizenga (R-MI) got emotional as he declared, "I went to school with kids from Nigeria....It ought to be outrageous."  Yes, "outrageous." The killing of Christians in Nigeria and throughout Africa is and has been "outrageous" for decades. The lack of media interest and coverage of it all is also "outrageous", as is the outrage from the left aimed at those like President Trump, who address this and are trying to put an end to it all. This must be stopped once and for all, and the media must do their part in educating the public about this inhumane horror, and all efforts to end it.

MS Now host Jonathan Capehart did not appreciate the idea that certain Democratic politicians making a video urging the military to disobey President Trump was a problem. During PBS News Hour’s Friday weekly news recap, Capehart condemned the American Enterprise Institute’s Matthew Continetti for declaring that “both sides” disgraced themselves with the video because, in his mind, only President Trump’s reaction to it was worth discussing. Host Amna Nawaz began with Continetti, “I want to ask for your response to the video, but also to put to you that Senator Slotkin, who's in that video, said she and other members of the video have gotten close to 1,000 threats since it was posted. Congressman Crow posted some of the threats he's been receiving calling for his family to be killed. It's chilling stuff. But how dangerous is the president's rhetoric on this?”     Continetti condemned everyone involved, “I think a lot of the rhetoric has been very dangerous. I think both sides here have been not covering themselves in glory. On the one hand you're calling the president a fascist, a dictator in training, someone who's going to issue unlawful orders, even though they can't name a single unlawful order that the president has given. And then, of course, you have the president himself calling this sedition, treason, punishable by death.” He further added, “If we want to lower the temperature, it will take responsibility on every party. But what has struck me about this is how it's a partisan split screen. Both parties are playing to their bases here. The Democrats are rallying behind these congressmen, and the Republicans almost uniformly are rallying behind President Trump. So, I don't think that this is going to have a long-term effect politically on the president.” Nawaz then turned to Capehart but refused to ask him about the idea that Democrats are urging the military to disobey illegal orders while not providing any examples of those illegal orders, “Jonathan, you want to respond?” Capehart began by huffing, “I sort of bristle at the idea that this is a both sides thing. What we have here in terms of the threats, particularly against these members of Congress, it's that you have the president of the United States retweeting, or whatever you want to call it, threats against members of Congress. He is the one who in language and in — if you want to go back to January 6, in deeds who is fanning, fomenting the nastiness that is out there.” For Capehart, the avoidance of inflammatory political rhetoric isn’t a matter of personal responsibility, but rather, something that starts with Trump, “If we want to lower the temperature, if we want to change the way we do politics in the country, it has to start with the chief executive. It has to start with the president. And he has shown an unwillingness to do that.” Viewing that as an excuse, Continetti rebutted, “And it also has to be followed through by all of us, including people who are betraying him — portraying him as an authoritarian who poses an existential threat to this country.” A displeased Capehart replied, “There's lots of evidence that it's not unwarranted.” The last time Continetti subbed for New York Times columnist David Brooks, he did a good job getting Capehart to show that his concern about presidential abuse of power revolves not around the means, but the ends. Now, Capehart has shown his concern about political rhetoric operates in the same way. Here is a transcript for the November 21 show: PBS News Hour 11/21/2025 7:39 PM ET AMNA NAWAZ: I want to ask for your response to the video, but also to put to you that Senator Slotkin, who's in that video, said she and other members of the video have gotten close to 1,000 threats since it was posted. Congressman Crow posted some of the threats he's been receiving calling for his family to be killed. It's chilling stuff. But how dangerous is the president's rhetoric on this? MATTHEW CONTINETTI: I think a lot of the rhetoric has been very dangerous. I think both sides here have been not covering themselves in glory. On the one hand you're calling the president a fascist, a dictator in training, someone who's going to issue unlawful orders, even though they can't name a single unlawful order that the president has given. And then, of course, you have the president himself calling this sedition, treason, punishable by death. If we want to lower the temperature, it will take responsibility on every party. But what has struck me about this is how it's a partisan split screen. Both parties are playing to their bases here. The Democrats are rallying behind these congressmen, and the Republicans almost uniformly are rallying behind President Trump. So, I don't think that this is going to have a long-term effect politically on the president. NAWAZ: Jonathan, you want to respond? JONATHAN CAPEHART: I sort of bristle at the idea that this is a both sides thing. What we have here in terms of the threats, particularly against these members of Congress, it's that you have the president of the United States retweeting, or whatever you want to call it, threats against members of Congress. He is the one who in language and in — if you want to go back to January 6, in deeds who is fanning, fomenting the nastiness that is out there. If we want to lower the temperature, if we want to change the way we do politics in the country, it has to start with the chief executive. It has to start with the president. And he has shown an unwillingness to do that. CONTINETTI: And it also has to be followed through by all of us, including people who are betraying him — portraying him as an authoritarian who poses an existential threat to this country. CAPEHART: There's lots of evidence that it's not unwarranted.

Thursday’s Katy Tur Reports featured author and television producer Jennifer Weiner reflecting on her New York Times opinion piece in which she whined about Jeffrey Epstein not naming his victims in the recently released e-mails. Weiner took the spotlight to insinuate Trump was a “sex offender” due to his past relationship with Epstein and previous regrettable activity. MS NOW host Katy Tur set the stage for Weiner by wondering why Trump wouldn’t associate himself with Epstein’s most vocal victims: “I mean, he would think that he would need to legitimize these women and that if it really wasn't — if he really was not worried about being named or being shamed in these documents, that he would open the door and let them in and be that champion.” Weiner then took the observation to the extreme — implying that Trump must have something to hide: And I think for a lot of this, it's like, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck and it's acting like a […] sex offender who might — maybe has something to hide or knows people who have things to hide. I mean, what I can say is that, you know, everything I've read in these emails, this is consistent — we know how Donald Trump talks about women, how he talks to women.     She then brought up Trump’s past ownership of a teenage beauty pageant and comments he made on The Howard Stern Show as evidence of his alleged creepiness: “I mean, this is, you know, he's been hiding in plain sight. And now I think it's going to be — it's gonna be very, very hard for him to sort of walk all of this back.” Despite the fact that nothing in the Epstein files has incriminated him thus far and that the left-wing media has been very careful to avoid defamation suits by acknowledging such (except perhaps ABC), then yeah, there’s so much for him to walk back. Saving the best for last, Weiner repeated the dumbest accusation liberal pundits have made over the past year regarding the Epstein saga: And I just don't know if Trump's going to try to brazen his way through it, if he's gonna start a, you know, start a war to distract us. I don't know what he'll do, but […] he can't be seen to legitimize these women. He can’t acknowledge their pain as real. A war? Really? The President who ended a two-year conflict in the Middle East, who was responsible for the Abraham Accords, who has attempted to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, and who is pressuring Central and South American drug cartels to cease their operations that have resulted in the deaths of many Americans — would start a war to detract from potentially embarrassing material that couldn’t possibly be worse than what he’s been accused of already? No one’s denied the tragedy and trauma Epstein’s many victims had to suffer. And those who wished to reveal themselves have done so. The transcript is below. Click "expand" read: MS NOW’s Katy Tur Reports November 20, 2025 3:27:40 p.m. EST KATY TUR: I'm surprised by that, though, because you'd think — you know, if he really did want to lead the charge and take up the responsibility and be the one that does get this legislation passed, as he's claimed, the one that, you know, always wanted this these files released, even though Democratic administrations never did it. I mean, he would think that he would need to legitimize these women and that if it really wasn't — if he really was not worried about being named or being shamed in these documents, that he would open the door and let them in and be that champion. JENNIFER WEINER: Yeah. And I think for a lot of this, it's like, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck and it's acting like a — TUR: Yeah. WEINER: — sex offender who might — maybe has something to hide or knows people who have things to hide. I mean, what I can say is that, you know, everything I've read in these emails, this is consistent — we know how Donald Trump talks about women, how he talks to women. This is a man who bought a teenage beauty pageant and bragged to Howard Stern about, like, wandering around backstage and they couldn't tell him no, cause he was the owner and he had a right to be there. TUR: Yeah, that’s a story that gets forgotten. WEINER: I mean we know, like, this — oh yeah. I mean, this is, you know, he's been hiding in plain sight. And now I think it's going to be — it's gonna be very, very hard for him to sort of walk all of this back. All of the women who've accused him, all of the young women who've accused him, you know, and the videos of him and Epstein and the photographs of the two of them, the complimentary things Trump said about him over the years. It said, “He likes beautiful women as much as I do, some of them on the very young side.” I mean, you know, this is not surprising if you've been paying — TUR: Yeah. WEINER: — attention. And I just don't know if Trump's going to try to brazen his way through it, if he's gonna start a, you know, start a war to distract us. I don't know what he'll do, but I — TUR: Yeah. WEINER: — he can't be seen to legitimize these women. He can’t acknowledge their pain as real.

When reporters want to uncork righteous editorializing, they label it a "news analysis." That's what happened when NPR media reporter David Folkenflik unleashed his outrage on Thursday morning at Trump demeaning several members of the elitist liberal media.  Morning Edition anchor A Martinez introduced it: "This week brought fresh reminders of what President Trump does when he wants to deflect unwelcome questions from reporters - he insults and attempts to intimidate. In this analysis, NPR's David Folkenflik says the intimidation is meant for media bosses, too." Folkenflik began: When President Trump is confronted by a question he doesn't like, he rarely holds back. On Friday, asked aboard Air Force One whether there was something incriminating about him in the Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump told Bloomberg News' Catherine Lucey, "quiet - quiet, piggy." Trump became, if anything, even more contentious toward another reporter Tuesday at the White House." He called ABC's Mary Bruce a "terrible reporter" from a "fake news" network. FOLKENFLIK: This isn't Trump in his Don Rickles Friars roast insult comic mode. This is Trump trying to silence reporters, just as he's done since he started his first run for office in 2015. Here's what Trump said after Megyn Kelly moderated the first Republican debate for Fox News. TRUMP clip: And she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. And, you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. FOLKENFLIK: Trump mocked a New York Times reporter's congenital condition. He called a black reporter racist, told a Chinese American reporter she should go ask China about his handling of COVID. In his second term, Trump has gone even harder on the mainstream media, surrounding himself with reporters from sympathetic and even sycophantic outlets. So let's return to that exchange at the White House on Tuesday. Just listen to the way Trump takes issues with Bruce's questions to the two world leaders. TRUMP to Mary Bruce: You start off with a man who is highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question. FOLKENFLIK: Mary Bruce is not a subordinate. She doesn't work for the president or the prince. She works for ABC News, yet Trump wants deference from her and not just her. Mary Bruce acted like a subordinate for Joe Biden. But that's another issue.  Someone might want to ask Folkenflik a question: where was his outraged "Analysis" in 2022 when President Biden called Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch"? Try searching NPR.org. There's nothing from the media man. There is, however, pro-Biden/anti-Doocy comedy on their quiz show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, from Muslim comedian guest host Negin Farsad:  NEGIN FARSAD: President Biden said what a stupid son of a bitch about Fox News reporter Peter Doocy. And, yes, it was a breach of decorum. But in Biden's defense, Doocy is a [expletive]… ALZO SLADE: I feel like Joe Biden is that old dude that just can say whatever he feels like saying, and because...Of his age, nobody is going to care. It's like, yeah, just - you know, that's Uncle Joe. Just let him be. Trump's loose talk about how ABC should "lose its license" -- networks don't lose licenses, although their stations could -- cause Folkenflik to fuss about Jimmy Kimmel and the FCC chairman, and how Trump is also intimidating media bosses: "So even as reporters pose tough questions to the president, Trump is asking their bosses a question of his own - with so much at stake, is it worth it?" Nowhere in Folkenflik's foam-flecked "analysis" is their any admission that Trump grants far more access to reporters than Biden. New York Times media reporter Michael Grynbaum worked that into his hostile news story: "Although Mr. Trump routinely denigrates the press, he also fields dozens of questions from White House correspondents over the course of a week, sometimes meeting with journalists several times in one day." Neither man acknowledges how reporters run around using insults like "fascist" and "authoritarian" and so on to describe Trump. It's worse than "piggy." But that's always fair game.