Television journalists, especially during moments of big breaking news, often fall into a pit of hyperbole.
When CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell took the air Sunday, she said, “It has been a wild few weeks.” She then said we experienced a “political earthquake” on Sunday.
Other networks used words such as “explosive” and “bombshell” and “historically chaotic.”
None of that was hyperbolic. None of it.
Somehow “wild” doesn’t even begin to cover it. “Political earthquake” is quite apropos. Everything we’ve seen in recent weeks has been explosive and a bombshell and historically chaotic.
It started with the presidential debate on June 27 when President Joe Biden gave such a feeble performance that it begged a seemingly unthinkable question: Should he step away from the presidential race?
Then came the horrific shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania just nine days ago. That was followed by a rollercoaster and newsy Republican National Convention that started well but ended with a meandering, unfocused and historically long speech by Trump. Then Biden tested positive for COVID-19.
Throughout all of this was a growing chorus of calls, and defiant pushback, that Biden should not run for president.
Could the news cycle churn any faster? Yes, it turned out.
On Sunday, Joe Biden announced he would not run for president.
Wild, indeed.
The news, analysis and commentary came fast and furious on Sunday, as soon as Biden made his announcement at 1:46 p.m. Eastern time.
So, on this chaotic day on top of the wild few weeks and what surely sets off an unprecedented next four months, we look back at how the media covered Sunday’s news and we remember this comment from Fox News’ Dana Perino: “The politics in the next four weeks is going to be absolutely insane.”
Four weeks? Try four months. Maybe even four years. And “absolutely insane” sounds just about right.
X marks the spot
For as much as X — the artist formerly known as Twitter — has changed and evolved (some say devolved) over the past couple of years, it still matters. That’s where Biden made his announcement.
In a lengthy letter posted on X, Biden wrote, in part, “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term. I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.”
Then Biden put out another statement on X to throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, writing, “My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Breaking news
Even though the news that Biden would drop out was not totally unexpected, major network and cable news networks had to scramble to cover the story.
As best as I could tell, MSNBC and Fox News were the first networks to break the news on air. What was especially notable was that the news was broken on MSNBC by Jen Psaki, Biden’s former press secretary.
Psaki said, “Obviously, this is a significant breaking news development, with the president announcing he is stepping back from the race. There’s very little indication from people close to him and many people in the campaign that this was about to happen, as much as there were reports of Democrats calling on him to do that.”
About Psaki, The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum wrote, “She read his statement aloud from her iPhone, staring down at the device as the camera held steady. Ms. Psaki kept her cool, although she sounded slightly emotional minutes later, conceding to viewers, ‘I am just digesting this myself.’”
Psaki praised Biden’s presidency on air and then added, “He's a very decently good human being. And the sort of light chip on his shoulder he has that everybody who knows him or has worked with him, as I have, knows he has, also helps them connect deeply with people. So everybody I’ve talked to had this — some felt relief, some felt anger because they loved him, and they didn’t want him to step back. There was a sadness, a shock.”
(Psaki wrote this for MSNBC: “Joe Biden’s incredibly selfless career has led to this historic moment.”)
MSNBC’s coverage was superb, with the network quickly bringing in some of its top voices by phone or video, including “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough, who had been very vocal about Biden stepping away, and Rachel Maddow, as well as commentators such as Claire McCaskill.
On air, Maddow said, “The Republican Party was very, very, very happy to have Donald Trump running against Joe Biden. That’s why they were so quiet about Joe Biden and about this whole fight within the Democratic Party about his fitness and his age and all these other things. They were just crossing their fingers, hoping that President Biden would stay in because they thought they had it in the bag if they were going to run against him in November. And now their plans are completely scrambled. I think we’ll hear a lot of different messaging from the Republican side, but this is a bad day for the Donald Trump campaign. … This is a day of mad scrambling on the Republican side.”
Scrambling
Speaking of scrambling to cover the news, at least initially, the networks were flying by the seat of their pants, even though, as I mentioned, this news could not have been totally unexpected. There were several reports, in fact, that Biden could make a decision to withdraw from the race over the weekend.
The Associated Press’ David Bauder wrote, “News shows on cable, particularly when covering live events or breaking news, rely on video from a scene and its aftermath to provide the all-important connecting thread between talking heads and anchor updates. With no video Sunday other than ‘b-roll,’ or old footage of Biden, news channels had to turn elsewhere. But they even had to scramble to find people who could talk about it at all. CBS’ White House correspondent, Ed Keefe, sounded out of breath when he was reached on the phone.”
Sunday is typically a day when the main anchors are off and, as Bauder pointed out, the breaking news thrust weekend anchors such as Rachel Scott (ABC), Kristine Johnson (CBS) and Hallie Jackson (NBC) into the spotlight. All performed well until other anchors could get into place.
CNN on top of its game
CNN’s strength is breaking news, and the network rose to the challenge Sunday. CNN has the outstanding ability to corral its resources and top commentators to deliver excellent breaking news and commentary.
Kaitlan Collins continued to prove how valuable she is by smoothly anchoring much of CNN’s early coverage until the network’s go-to guy, Wolf Blitzer, could get to the studio and suit up.
That’s when CNN, through rotating and ever-changing panels, did what it does best: offer solid commentary with voices such as Van Jones, Abby Phillip, Karen Finney, Kristen Soltis Anderson and many others.
For example, Finney noted how Trump might be nervous about debating Harris, while Anderson pointed out that Republicans might want to continue keeping Biden’s name in the news with calls for him to resign the presidency. (Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, did just that on Sunday.)
David Axelrod said that he was on a plane when he heard the news, adding, “I was very sad, honestly. I think it was necessary. It’s an incredibly important and difficult decision that he made for the country. But not the final chapter he imagined and not maybe the final chapter he deserved.”
About stepping down so that the Democrats might have a better chance of beating Trump, Axelrod said, “In that regard, the party took a step forward today, and the president recognized it and did the hardest thing you can do and stepped aside.”
CNN, and really all the networks, did a superb job securing interviews from across the spectrum, including the likes of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, among many others. All in all, the networks delivered good coverage.
The major networks
