CBS Bosses Get Bashed Over Trump Coverage on ‘Face the Nation’ With Margaret Brennan

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) called out CBS News live on air for the second time in a week after the network aired coverage of President Donald Trump‘s speech on Thursday (July 16).

Speaking with Margaret Brennan on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday (July 19), Warner slammed the network’s “senior management” for choosing to broadcast a speech that many fact checkers said contained several false claims about so-called election fraud.

“There are so many absurdities and falsehoods in Trump’s Thursday night speech,” Warner told Brennan, per Mediaite. “And I’m glad that most media treated it not as serious news — and I know some folks at your network, the journalists I have huge respect for. I was disappointed that your senior management made the decision to cover it as news.”

Other major networks, including ABC, NBC, and CNN, refused to interrupt their scheduled programming to air Trump’s speech. CBS, meanwhile, cut to the president’s address four minutes after it had begun and cut it five minutes before he wrapped up.

Warner did not name any specific senior executive, but his criticism comes amid several changes at CBS News under new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Since being appointed to the role by Paramount CEO David Ellison last October, Weiss has faced accusations of sucking up to the president by making staff changes and even killing stories.

Before airing Trump’s speech on Thursday, CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil gave a disclaimer, telling viewers, “Much of what the president has said on this topic [of election fraud] has been false. Most notably, of course, the claim that he won the 2020 election when, of course, he did not.”

He continued, “Because of this, there is an argument that it’s irresponsible to air the president’s speech tonight. But this speech will be made. It will be news, and it’s our job to cover the news.”

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Warner joined Dokoupil during the special coverage and blasted the network for airing Trump’s speech. “I was embarrassed that the President of the United States went before our whole country, and networks like yours carried this as news, as opposed to a rehash of falsehoods,” he told Dokoupil. “And it is incumbent upon you and any responsible journalist to push back on these falsehoods.”

“And unless responsible journalists and the American people step up and say, our system, which has stood the test of time, is not going to be undermined by this kind of falsehood, then, you know, we all have to live with those responsibilities,” Warner added.

Dokoupil defended himself, saying, “You are calling for context and analysis and pushback. You are on the show right now giving it, and acting as though it’s not happening. I just want to underscore that the reason you’re on is because we agree, you and I, that this is a vitally, vitally important topic.”

Face the Nation, Sundays, 10:30am/9:30 c, CBS News