Before President Trump had even existed the House chamber following his 2026 State of the Union address on Tuesday night, CBS News was already poohpoohing it by whining about Trump making Democrats look bad by oversimplifying complex issues like protecting criminal illegal immigrants over American citizens. They also continued the debunked lie that Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was “very much a moderate.” CBS chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett cautiously explained that Trump’s verbal battles with Democrats the whole night was indeed intended. He noted that Republicans wanted Americans to see the left as “crazy,” and Garrett had to defend himself using that term: Well look, before the speech many Republicans said one of the priorities for the President was to make sure Americans after the speech had a sense of the opposition party was off the rails, was crazy. Their terminology, not mine. Many of the contrast the President articulated tonight were to drive that message forward. That not only do I disagree with the opposition party sitting before me in Congress but I disagree with them so strongly, and they with me so much, that they can't even applaud basic common sense things. Garrett went on to decry Trump’s moment of getting the Democrats to visibly refuse to support Americans and put illegal immigrants over them. He called it a “dark art” that “oversimplifies the issue dramatically”: And that line that you mentioned that he added to the speck, whether it was ad-libbed or not, the first obligation American citizens versus illegal aliens was meant to create a visual moment of perpetual contrast. It oversimplifies the issued dramatically. But if anyone has learned how to master that art, some call it a dark art, in American presidential politics, it's Donald Trump that was on full display to tonight.   CBS News's Major Garrett says Trump' State of the Union address showed off his use of the "dark art" of oversimplifying issues like illegal immigrant crime and protecting American citizens: "Well look, before the speech many Republicans said one of the priorities for the… pic.twitter.com/XMMRmglBod — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026   Contrast that with CBS New’s praise for President Biden’s address in 2024, when chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes proclaimed: “This seemed to me to be a speech designed first and foremost to show that Joe Biden has the stamina and the fire in the belly to go another four years.” It turned out that that fire in the belly was just bad gas. With moments to spare just before Spanberger began to speak, Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan falsely claimed the Democrat was governing from the middle: Well, Abigail Spanberger as a congresswoman and now as governor has been very much moderate; campaigning strongly on energy prices, affordability in the special election in this period of time, this off-year election where she came to office, very much a focus here. You see her taking the podium. But that was miles away from the truth.   Margaret Brennan insanely claims that Abigail Spanberger has so-far governed Virginia as "very much a moderate." While Virginia Democrats and Spanberger jack up the cost of living in the state , Brennan insists the the latter is still all about "energy prices, affordability." pic.twitter.com/MH3NFfh6j8 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 25, 2026   As Nick Minock of the local ABC affiliate, 7NewsDC had been reporting for weeks, Spanberger and state Democrats were proposing some truly insane bills that were set to drive the cost of living through the roof via taxes. Including things like a “Delivery tax, which would hit Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, and UPS orders in Northern Virginia,” “Vehicle repair tax,” “Home repair tax,” and a “dog walking tax” just to name a few.   Virginia Democratic lawmakers are proposing a tsunami of tax increases, despite telling voters they’d make life more affordable for you. pic.twitter.com/8dgA2AeeAq — Nick Minock (@NickMinock) January 28, 2026   The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: CBS News: State of the Union Address 2026 February 24, 2026 11:02:37 a.m. Eastern (…) TONY DOKOUPIL: Cause we have Major here at the table, I want to bring the conversation back here to our group watching long. Major, you've seen a lot of these I think more than any of us. What stood out to you? MAJOR GARRETT: Well look, before the speech many Republicans said one of the priorities for the President was to make sure Americans after the speech had a sense of the opposition party was off the rails, was crazy. Their terminology, not mine. Many of the contrast the President articulated tonight were to drive that message forward. That not only do I disagree with the opposition party sitting before me in Congress but I disagree with them so strongly, and they with me so much, that they can't even applaud basic common sense things. And that line that you mentioned that he added to the speck, whether it was ad-libbed or not, the first obligation American citizens versus illegal aliens was meant to create a visual moment of perpetual contrast. It over simplifies the issued dramatically. But if anyone has learned how to master that art, some call it a dark art, in American presidential politics, it's Donald Trump that was on full display to tonight. (…) 11:08:28 a.m. Eastern DOKOUPIL: Delivering the Democratic response to President Trump's address is Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, 46 years old, elected this past November, becoming the commonwealth's first female governor. Spanberger served three terms in the House of a Representatives, and is a former CIA officer. With me at the table here is Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan. Margaret, what do we expect. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Abigail Spanberger as a congresswoman and now as governor has been very much moderate; campaigning strongly on energy prices, affordability in the special election in this period of time, this off-year election where she came to office, very much a focus here. You see her taking the podium. DOKOUPIL: Famously difficult job. Let’s listen in.

In October, the new owners of CBS appointed Bari Weiss to the new position of “Editor-in-Chief,” which has made her far more controversial than the actual content of CBS News would suggest. Weiss quickly became a scandalous figure out of all proportion to the actual content of CBS News under her watch. She was tumbling “the dominoes of capitulation,” wrote Margaret Sullivan. It’s a little shocking that Weiss felt it necessary to cancel an upcoming lecture at UCLA, the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture, because of the virulence of the expected student protests. The Daily Bruin school newspaper reported a petition calling for the event's cancellation collected "nearly 11,000 signatures." The petition, sponsored by the radical pro-Hamas leftist group Code Pink, claimed “Weiss has recently aligned herself with the Trump administration by attempting to cover up the fact that ICE agents are sending Venezuelan migrants to a torture center in El Salvador.” Weiss delayed the airing of an anti-Trump story, but since then it aired without any word change in Sharyn Alfonsi’s slanted leftist report. It concluded: “Weiss is unpopular with the American people because of her deeply biased and opportunistic reporting, and our academic institutions must stop platforming someone who is a mouthpiece for the White House.” None of this seems to reflect the recent on-air content of CBS News in any way, shape, or form. It would be easier to conclude that the petitioners don’t want her to speak because she’s Jewish and supports Israel. Add to that one Margaret Peters, the associate director of the Burkle Center for International Relations, which hosts the lecture. She said she planned to resign if UCLA followed through with the Weiss event in any capacity (like a Zoom call). Peters claimed Weiss “used the guise of free speech” to attack people on the Left. “To invite somebody who is working against that mission in highly powerful places just seems like anathema in the university mission,” Peters said. Apparently the “university mission” is wokeness, and anyone seen as skeptical of that mind-numbed state should not be allowed to speak at the university, which formerly vowed to cherish the free expression of ideas. The CBS security team was not convinced Weiss would be safe on this California campus. They may have in mind what happened to “anti-trans” speaker Riley Gaines in 2023 at San Francisco State University, where she was slapped in the hallway afterward, and was trapped for hours by leftist agitators until she could safely exit. This is especially perverse for a lecture in honor of Daniel Pearl, a Jewish journalist whose throat was slit by al-Qaeda jihadis back in 2003. Loads of “mainstream” journalists from Jake Tapper to Bob Woodward have safely spoken at the annual Pearl event, but that flagrant Zionist Weiss was beyond the “pro-Palestinian” pale. Many of the most prestigious campuses are puckered with intolerance for opposing points of view, and after Hamas slaughtered hundreds of Jews in Gaza on October 7, 2023, students and professors who hate Israel have loudly deployed their heckler’s veto against people who denounce that genocide. They not only seek to silence their opponents, but goad the uncommitted into parroting their radical talking points. Join the Cause, or be punished. The Weiss cancellation was not considered an outrage anywhere in “mainstream” media, an elite full of Jim Acostas staring at themselves in the mirror and admiring themselves as the guardians of democracy, when they’re intolerant of opposing views. Only the Left apparently represents Democracy and Free Speech, and you should probably shut up if you disagree.

On Monday’s PBS News Hour, co-anchor Geoff Bennett used a discussion of President Trump’s upcoming State of the Union address to dredge up a hoary piece of liberal media mythology that helped doom the re-election chances of Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1992. The falsehood originated with liberal hack Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times, who got an entire front-page story (“Bush Encounters the Supermarket, Amazed”) out of the false claim that Bush was “amazed” watching a supermarket scanner in action at a grocer’s convention in Orlando, in order to portray Bush as out of touch with the voters. And the anti-Republican myth is still chugging along today, used as a media weapon to portray Republican presidents as out of touch with ordinary shoppers, as shown during a discussion led by Bennett regarding Trump’s tariff struggle. Co-anchor Geoff Bennett: And there's a risk here for President Trump being cast as out of touch when you have the American people by and large saying that they're not -- they don't support these tariffs. I remember, back in the early 90s, I think it was 1992, then-President George H.W. Bush was cast as being out of touch because he went to a grocers convention and there was one of those bar code scanners. And he said something like, oh, that's cool, I have never seen anything like that before. And people were like, how could you not know what a bar code scanner is in the supermarket? That was what passed for scandal and controversy back then. And here you have pluralities, majorities of the American public saying that they don't want these tariffs. And the president is saying, OK, fine, 15 percent tariffs. Neither one of Bennett’s panelists, Tamara Keith of NPR or Jasmine Wright of NOTUS, corrected Bennett’s misinformation -- let's guess because they're too young to remember this old whopper. Even the liberal-leaning myth-busting site Snopes strongly criticized the Times’ partisan mythmaking in “Was President George H.W. Bush 'Amazed' by a Grocery Scanner?”   ….Andrew Rosenthal of The New York Times hadn't even been present at the grocers' convention. He based his article on a two-paragraph report filed by the lone pool newspaperman allowed to cover the event, Gregg McDonald of the Houston Chronicle, who merely wrote that Bush had a "look of wonder" on his face and didn't find the event significant enough to mention in his own story. Moreover, Bush had good reason to express wonder: He wasn't being shown then-standard scanner technology, but a new type of scanner that could weigh groceries and read mangled and torn bar codes. A transcript is available, click “Expand.” PBS News Hour 2/23/26 7:29:44 p.m. (ET) Geoff Bennett: And, Jasmine, another thing that stands out in this poll, 53 percent of respondents say President Trump's policies have had a negative impact on them personally. That is different than abstract disapproval. This is people speaking about their direct experience. Jasmine Wright, NOTUS: And I think that is reflected in a lot of people's discomfort with the tariffs. Obviously, we know that those were just struck down the way that he was using them by the Supreme Court. But we have heard people be really frustrated about the tariffs, frustrated about high prices, frustrated about the economy not being as good as they have heard the president say, and also frustrated with the president's immigration agenda. I think, if you look at some of the more recent polls, you have seen people being broadly accepting of the idea that more people should be deported, but not happy with the tactics. And so the president is facing strong headwinds kind of across the board when it comes to how people are responding to his individual policies, which is not just about his personality. Geoff Bennett: Let's talk more about the tariffs, because, just today, the president said: "As president, I do not have to go back to Congress to get approval of tariffs. It's already been gotten," he says, "in many forms a long time ago." He is really just brushing past the Supreme Court here, Tam. And tariffs were already unpopular. In many ways, this was an off-ramp that he could have taken, but he's not. Tamara Keith: He is not taking the off-ramp. He is doubling down. He is claiming to continue to have massive powers. The reality is that there are a whole bunch of three-digit number options that the president can use, and none of them are as powerful as IEEPA. None of them are that Swiss army knife that he was using IEEPA as. But, obviously, the Supreme Court found that he was using it in a way that wasn't legal. For a lot of voters, the tariffs, as Jasmine said, are a problem. They see things getting more expensive. Now you see major corporations and companies people have heard of are asking for refunds for the tariffs, which is another indication that it wasn't foreign companies that were paying it. But President Trump, this is a core belief for him. This is something that he has been talking about at least since the 1980s and probably before then. He -- it is his favorite word, he likes to say. It is his favorite policy prescription for everything from foreign policy to the economy to trying to get world peace. And so he is not giving this up easily, and he's not creating any separation for Republicans in Congress, who are going to have to explain this in the coming months. Geoff Bennett: Jasmine, say more about that, because, to Tam's point, FedEx today, the international shipping company, filed suit in the International Trade Court seeking a refund. This is a story that is really breaking through. Based on your reporting, how are Republicans thinking about this in terms of the messaging and the policy? Jasmine Wright: Yes, and you're going to have more of these companies and perhaps individual small businesses coming out and saying that, based on the ruling, we want a refund. Now, the White House has been clear that is going to be settled later on in litigation. But, still, that is going to be a thing. I think that this is fundamentally important, because, so far, Congress has not necessarily been receptive to the president's tariffs, particularly Republicans. And in votes that they have taken against tariffs, particularly that Canadian tariffs vote to revoke those, six Republicans joined Democrats to remove those tariffs from Canada. That was a symbolic vote, because, even if it did pass in it, which it likely is not, it would still need to be veto-proof for the president. Now, if he does in fact decide to go to Congress, which he says he won't -- but if he wants to continue those Section 122 tariffs, he will have to go to Congress. If he does, that vote becomes not symbolic, but serious. And it means that Republicans are going to have to be on the record in support or against these tariffs. And that, of course, puts them potentially in hot water with their constituents, who may not like tariffs. But then on the other side, if they don't vote for tariffs, it puts them in hot water with the president, who has shown that he will primary just about anybody that goes against him. Geoff Bennett: And there's a risk here for President Trump being cast as out of touch when you have the American people by and large saying that they're not -- they don't support these tariffs. I remember, back in the early 90s, I think it was 1992, then-President George H.W. Bush was cast as being out of touch because he went to a grocers convention and there was one of those bar code scanners. And he said something like, oh, that's cool, I have never seen anything like that before. And people were like, how could you not know what a bar code scanner is in the supermarket? That was what passed for scandal and controversy back then. And here you have pluralities, majorities of the American public saying that they don't want these tariffs. And the president is saying, OK, fine, 15 percent tariffs.

Early Tuesday, America’s new leading family — as in the Hughes klan, including USA Hockey star and gold-medal-winning goal scorer Jack Hughes  — wadded into network morning newscasts and were sadly met on ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today with attempts to sully their reputations and maim both their character and the entire men’s team for taking a phone call Sunday from President Trump and accepting his invite to the State of the Union. Jack and brother Quinn Hughes both woke up early to appear on the two leading newscasts despite having arrived back from Italy less than 24 hours prior and spent the night partying in Miami. They first appeared on the superficial-yet-cartoonishly-partisan GMA and things seemed to be going well. Co-hosts Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos asked each brother if they had seen the replays of Jack’s game-winning goal over Canada. This continued with co-host former NFL player Michael Strahan wondering if they had dreamed of being NHL players seeing as how their dad was a coach and mom having played in college before becoming a USA Hockey executive. But in-between Roberts asking about Jack about a letter he wrote to himself seven years prior about winning a goal medal and Strahan welcoming Hughes as a new kindred spirit with misaligned teeth, Stephanopoulos interjected with the partisan hot take: “Quinn, Quinn, Jack mentioned the celebration with the women’s hockey team. They’ve said they’re not going to be able to go to the State of the Union tonight. Will you guys be going?” WATCH: Quinn Hughes was asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos about attending tonight's State of the Union... "I don't know how much we're allowed to say, but yes. Yeah, we're excited to go. Something you don't get to do -- I don't know what today is - every Tuesday. But yeah --… pic.twitter.com/POH9XIXqyv — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 Quinn conceded he’s unsure “how much we’re allowed to say, but yes” they’d be going and “we’re excited to go” because it’s “[s]omething you don’t get to do — I don’t know what today is — every Tuesday.” He went on to further expound on that as well as his support for the women’s team that dates back to before the Olympics: But yeah — but, it’s going to be special for us, but I’m glad you mentioned the women’s team again. You know, we’re really happy for them. Obviously, a lot going on on social media right now surrounding our team and their team. But, you know, the last couple we’ve done a lot of training with them and got to know a lot of those girls really well. We’re extremely happy to come and, obviously, [inaudible]. Shifting to NBC’s Today, the entire Hughes family (except for younger brother Luke, who also plays in the NHL, but was’ ton the team) appeared at one point or another, starting with mother Ellen from the base of the Matterhorn in Switzerland. It evolved in the same fashion as ABC’s did with basic questions about what her experience was like both on Sunday and in the days leading up to the final. At one point, co-host Carson Daly even asked her to weigh in on how proud she was of Jack “not taking any credit for the goal, giving it to his team, talking about the future of USA hockey, the Brotherhood, talking about his patriotism for this country.” Hoda Kotb dragged out the Trump angle and sought to have her nitpick the men’s team and/or the President for the latter’s comments — which she said gained “a little traction” — joking about needing to also invite the women’s team to the State of the Union or he’d risk being impeached. Ellen similarly didn’t fall into the trap and instead focused on how “at the end of the day, it’s just about the country and the moment that these players, both the men and women, can bring so much unity to a group and to a country.” NBC’s ‘Today’ tried to trap Ellen Hughes — mother of Jack and Quinn — by seeing if she’d bash the men’s team and President Trump for inviting them to the State of the Union and joking he’d have to invite the women or he’d be impeached... Hoda Kotb: “Let me ask you about thing… pic.twitter.com/ApUVVfauO0 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 Ellen said that the games brought together “[p]eople...that don’t watch hockey, people that have politics on one side or on the other side, and that’s all both the men’s team and the men’s team care about.” Also sensing the media’s attempts to drive wedges between the two, Ellen brought up the camaraderie: If you could see what we see from the inside and the men and women sharing, you know, dorms — dorm rooms and halls and flex floors and the camaraderie and the synergy and the way the women cheered on the men and the way the men cheered on the women. That’s what it’s all about. And the other things they cannot control. They care about humanity. They care about unity, and they care about the country I love. Later, she concluded by reemphasizing that “I hope everybody just understands what we did in the moment, both the men and the women, to bring this country together and let everybody cheer in the same direction.” Jack and Quinn Hughes appeared roughly a half hour later on Today and, unlike ABC, there was no direct question about Trump. Having just come off ABC with Stephanopoulos’s gotcha, they seemed prepared and made sure to go out of their way to compliment the women’s team as “a very special team” that were “amazing to spend time with” and also bask in having achieved something for the country: Quinn Hughes on whether USA Hockey staying in the Olympic Village (whereas the Canadians stayed in hotel rooms) was an advantage... “I'm not sure if it played into us winning a gold medal, but I don't think it hurt. You know, I was able to room with Jack for a little over two… pic.twitter.com/yIUvWQUDTa — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 Jack Hughes on supporting the U.S. women’s hockey team... “I wish — if there's a camera on me and Quinn when the women's team won, we’d look like the biggest superfans of all time. We were just jumping up and down. We couldn't believe it. And we locked in, said goodbye because… pic.twitter.com/41Z8PnEjnd — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 Thankfully, the fourth hour of Today (with Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones) brought on Jim Hughes (and Ellen for a second visit) and completely avoided the forced politics and smears. Instead, they asked them to talk about what their sons achieved and advice for parents raising sons hoping they become as hard-working and patriotic as their boys: THIS is how this USA Hockey discourse should go -- NBC's fourth hour of 'Today with Jenna & Sheinelle' brought on Jim Hughes -- father of Jack and Quinn Hughes -- as well as mom Ellen again to talk about what their sons achieved as well as the women's team Ellen is in the front… pic.twitter.com/yP7ycH4Xtx — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil closed Monday’s show with an apologetically pro-America commentary that was a contrast to the purposeful injection of partisanship into what should be a unifying moment seemingly out of yesteryear. Dokoupil told viewers that he observed the team’s victory and postgame interviews “rang some sort of a bell in America” that “gave people chills, goose bumps, made them cry even” and reminded us that, while “America is a complicated place,” it’s our “home and, therefore, easy to love” (click “expand”): WATCH: ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor @TonyDokoupil on how the gold-medal-winning men’s hockey team and their unabashed patriotism “rang some sort of a bell in America” that “gave people chills, goose bumps, made them cry even” and reminded us that, while “America is a complicated… pic.twitter.com/FrfoQMaaU9 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 DOKOUPIL: Only in America, a moment that called to mind a picture of this country that it turns out millions of us were missing. I’m talking of course about Sunday’s USA hockey game. The men’s team won its first Olympic gold and 46 years, beating Canada in overtime and, by now, you’ve seen the images of Jack Hughes, 24, Florida born who left blood on the ice quite literally before scoring the winning goal and telling a reporter through broken teeth, “this is all about our country right now. I love the USA.” 5,000 miles away, those comments, as much as the win itself, rang some sort of a bell in America. It gave people chills, goose bumps, made them cry even. Countless masses took a social media to say exactly that and more. It was everything about this team. A bunch of guys who played Toby Keith in the locker room celebration, drank beers during the postgame press conference, cheers to you guys, even thanked the troops in another interview. Hughes was even patriotic in his commentary on American health care. JACK HUGHES: I’m lucky I’m from the best country in the world and we got great dentists there too, so I’m lucky I’m American. DOKOUPIL: They were gracious in victory and big hearted too, bringing to the ice the children of a teammate who was killed 18 months ago by an alleged drunk driver. They were, in short, American and nothing about that fact seemed complicated for them, even though we’re all grown ups and we know America is a complicated place. What they remind us is that it is also home and, therefore, easy to love. To see the relevant transcripts from January 24, click here (for ABC) and here (for NBC).

On Tuesday, ABC’s Good Morning America (GMA) and CBS Mornings combined to offer widely negative rhetoric in previewing President Trump’s State of the Union, painting it as an almost hapless endeavor amid “his lowest numbers yet” to change the minds of voters poised to trigger a blue tsuanmi in November. Unsurprisingly, GMA was the most negative. In short, they were nothing like they were in 2024 ahead of Joe Biden’s final State of the Union as they heralded his plans to “tout his record” in a “critical moment” against a “rowdy” GOP. This time, co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos framed it as having come at a time when Trump is “facing his lowest numbers yet” plus “challenging midterms and a possible war with Iran.” ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ was entirely negative in its Trump State of the Union preview, emphasizing Trump’s sagging polls, touting the “counter-programming,” and suggesting voters have tuned him out on all major issues. pic.twitter.com/QkDJ2Ypeyl — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 Senior political correspondent Rachel Scott started by suggesting Trump was in turmoil on his own side, stating in part that “even Republicans acknowledge not how President Trump wanted to head into his first State of the Union address of his second term on the heels of that massive decision by the Supreme Court declaring most of his tariffs unconstitutional.” As for Democrats, Scott would only say “we have seen some outbursts during these State of the Union addresses” and, for this year, “we are learning that at least 39 Democrats plan to skip the speech altogether” with many attending “a counter-programming event over the National Mall.” Scott then leaned into negative polls, concluding with Iran (which Stephanopoulos threw in a jab of his own) (click “expand”): SCOTT: [A]ll of this comes at a critical midterm election year and as we learning the President is facing headwinds in the polls. According to our latest ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of the President’s job in office. That’s the lowest since he was reelected. The majority of Americans also disapprove of the President’s handling on key issues, ranging from inflation, tariffs, immigration, and the economy. Tonight’s speech coming in the backdrop of a partial government shutdown with Democrats and Republicans at odds over funding for DHS. And one of the biggest questions tonight: Will the President outline for the American people, for Congress why he’s possibly considering a military strike in Iran, George. STEPHANOPOULOS: It has not been done yet. CBS Mornings had just over 15 minutes of preview coverage, but it too was almost entirely negative.  Chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes’s segment was the only one of the four blocks that had any real balance. She had the courtesy to bring up lowering gas prices, Trump Accounts, and Trump RX alongside the negative polls before parroting the wholly manufactured leftist narrative smearing USA Hockey: Tuesday’s ‘CBS Mornings’ also joined in on the left’s smear campaign against the men’s U.S. hockey team. Here was chief WH correspondent Nancy Cordes claiming there’s “a bit of controversy” surrounding them... “Some new American sports heroes could be in attendance tonight. The… pic.twitter.com/6gWQzj3dgY — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 The other two segments — respective interviews with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) illustrated the double standards with the former facing hardballs and pressures whereas Slotkin was merely invited to explain her positions. Contrast: Tuesday’s ‘CBS Mornings’ interviewed @SteveScalise and here were the questions he was faced with... Gayle King: “You just heard the poll that said 74 percent of Americans say that the President has not been focused enough on lowering the prices. So, what do you think… pic.twitter.com/a6Bd3nRrk4 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 While Scalise was challenged from start to finish to defend the President/Republican positions, here were the tee ball questions Democrat Elissa Slotkin faced: Norah O’Donnell: “Tonight’s State of the Union address will be President Trump’s first since he returned to the White… pic.twitter.com/6J8yx4abgg — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 In the second hour, congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns went to bright-red Gastonia County, North Carolina to ask voters about Trump’s first year in office. That too was negative: The power of liberal smears -- Notice how this ‘CBS Mornings’ man-on-the-street segment in NC only found one person supportive of President Trump’s first year and the rest bought media narratives that ICE went into MN to round and beat at random innocent Americans and illegals. pic.twitter.com/DjGYDQPKN5 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 NBC’s Today offered the most balanced coverage. Senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake emphasized Trump will “focus heavily on the economy” since “[i]t’s the issue most important to voters as we begin this year’s midterm election year.” To his credit, Haake offered the only sentence between the Monday evening and Tuesday morning flagship newscasts of the Monday morning’s angel families event at the White House: “On Monday, speaking to a gathering of families of Americans killed by undocumented immigrants, the President previewing possible applause lines.” Surprisingly, NBC’s ‘Today’ was the most balanced of the broadcast network morning shows previewing the State of the Union.@GarrettHaake emphasized Trump will “focus heavily on the economy” and spent Monday “ speaking to a gathering of families of Americans killed by… pic.twitter.com/AuCmiR548Y — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 24, 2026 Haake balanced the sagging poll ratings with specific policy proposals Trump could unveil, which ABC refused to do (click “expand”): HAAKE: But recent polls show Americans don’t share the President’s positivity, with his approval rating hovering just below 40 percent. The public souring on his handling of the economy and even immigration, long his signature issue, though the President has shrugged off negative polls. The President is expected to unveil new domestic policies aimed at tackling affordability, among them a new commitment from tech companies to pay increased electricity costs in communities where new AI data centers are being built. President Trump also expected to devote a portion of his speech to foreign policy, against the backdrop of a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East as the President weighs a strike on Iran. Dozens of Democrats plan to skip the speech tonight in protest. CONGRESSMAN ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): It’s important to show the American public that someone that has led the single most corrupt government in U.S. history. There has to be action against that. HAAKE: Others will use their guests to send a message, including several lawmakers inviting survivors of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and newly elected Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, delivering the Democrats’ response. The President has spent the last several days slamming Supreme Court justices for overturning much of his tariff program, saying he was ashamed of them and that they perhaps shouldn’t even be invited to the speech tonight. Well, tonight, any justices that choose to attend will be seated just feet away from the President, which could create some awkward moments if he decides he has more to say about their work[.] Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker also played it to the middle in her analysis. Along with stating the obvious that “this is a critical speech for the President” and wondering “how exactly will he address the economy,” Welker questioned whether Trump will “stay on message” while “facing headwinds” such as being “underwater with his handling of the economy, 41 percent approve, 57 percent disapprove.” After alluding to foreign policy, Welker said Trump will reportedly “focus on the fact that this year marks America’s 250th birthday, so expect a hopeful tone as well.” She did the same with Democrats by pointing out past hijinks from Democrats have blown back in their faces and that one recent poll found the President is still more trusted than Democrats to handle major issues. To see the relevant transcripts from February 24, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).