On the Sunday editions of ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News, the liberal networks were grossly giddy in touting partisan protests against President Trump and joining them in opposing Trump’s desire to crackdown on crime in Chicago, hoping the city remains quiet.
Trump took the upper hand on Sunday morning upon leaving the White House for the men’s final at the U.S. Open as he ripped “second-rate” and “fake news” peddler Yamiche Alcindor – a far-left NBC pundit who masquerades as a White House correspondent – for whining he wants “to go to war with Chicago.” Of course, portions of that were omitted from Nightly News.
“Are you trying to go to war with Chicago,” Alcindor shouted, seconds after Trump approached the rope line of reporters.
Trump wasn’t having it and hit back: “When you say that, darling, that’s fake news.”
Alcindor countered by wondering “why” he wants to “use the Department of Defense” on the Windy City, but Trump replied in a portion that Alcindor cut out of Nightly News: “I don’t go to war. Listen. Be quiet. Listen. You don’t listen. You never listen. That’s why you’re second-rate.”
Only then did the rest of Trump’s answer pop up on the show: “We’re not going to war. We’re going to cleanup our cities. We’re going to clean them up, so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war. That’s common sense.”
Alcindor had plenty of back-up on Nightly News with similar consternation in the opening from Sunday anchor Hallie Jackson:
We begin tonight with President Trump defending his threat to send the military into Chicago, but insisting he’s not preparing to go to war there, after backlash over his post about that Democratic-led city. It comes as the Trump administration ramps up its immigration crackdown with a new push in Boston[.]
Alcindor started the package with the U.S. Open appearance, emphasizing “both cheers and boos,” but all “[f]ans frustrated by delays getting through security.”
“The President…defending his plan to send the military into Chicago, and after sharing this A.I. image on a Saturday, saying Chicago was about to find out why it is called the Department of War. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker calling him a wannabe dictator, and accusing him of threatening to go to war with the nation’s third-largest city,” she added before showing the butchered exchange.
She also highlighted protesters “criticizing the deployment” of the National Guard, with a Chicago leftist saying it “hurts to see servicemembers I consider brothers and sisters westernized against my community.”
Following more on Friday’s immigration raid at a Honda plant in Georgia and immigration czar Tom Homan promising more raids in blue cities, Jackson touted Trump’s poll numbers slipping on the economy (click “expand”):
JACKSON: President Trump is also facing growing pressure on the economy, as our new NBC News poll shows, it still at the top issue for people across the country…Let’s go to Steve Kornacki now who he is posted up for us at the big board. Steve, it’s good to see you. Get specific with us now about what people say they care about the most when it comes to economic issues.
KORNACKI: Yeah, Hallie, our NBC Decision Desk poll ran a bunch of concerns by people asking which one is the most important. You can see here, there’s unemployment is on the list, there is government debt, student loans, yet overwhelmingly, 45 percent said inflation and the cost of living is the top economic concern to them, and we saw this across age groups, Hallie.
JACKSON: Given how critical that is, Steve and how much the President leaned into this issue on the camp trail, it’s worth noting that some folks say they are not happy with how he is handling the economy now.
KORNACKI: Yeah, you remember the campaign trail, and certainly if you go back to Donald Trump’s first term, when it came to the economy he got high marks, higher than he did on other topics. Not the case now. Our new poll shows 39 percent of Americans say they approve of how Trump is handling inflation. 61 percent say they disapprove. These are numbers we’ve now seen throughout Trump’s second term, dangerous numbers, certainly, in terms of standing on the economy, and then there’s this as well, asking folks, are things getting better? Are they better now compared to a year ago, when it comes to your personal financial situation? Not even a quarter of Americans are saying yes. 34 percent – about a third – of them are saying worse. More troubling here for Trump, I think, Hallie, is when you look at Independence, this number saying worse is at 42 percent. The number saying better, just 16.
Over on ABC, Sunday anchor Linsey Davis was also all negative, all the time, including in a tease:
The Trump administration launches a new immigration process in Boston promising to go after the worst of the worst. In Chicago, thousands protest mass deportations. The governor of Illinois accuses President Trump of threatening to go to war with Chicago and we asked the President why he’s not targeting Republican-led cities.
Later, senior White House correspondent Selina Wang started with the raids in Boston, saying Trump was “escalating his threats to surge federal law enforcement in American cities, immigration raids now underway in Boston” with Homeland Security “telling ABC News that ‘ICE launched Patriot 2.0 to target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens living in the state of Massachusetts.’”
“The President drawing outrage from leaders in Chicago after threatening the city with the prospect of war, a reference to his executive order rebranding the Department of Defense the Department of War,” she continued.
Wang then showed herself giving it a go at the President: “Mr. President, why target Chicago and Boston when there are cities in red states with higher crime rates?”
Trump scoffed, leading Wang to cite Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri. Trump replied: “You know how many people were killed in Chicago last weekend? Eight. [SCREEN WIPE] You think there’s worse than that? I don’t think so.”
This exchange in part gives away the liberal media’s game with Wang came off as condescending: “But FBI statistics show otherwise. The red state cities of Memphis and St. Louis have significantly higher murder rates than both Boston and Chicago.”
Davis later went to correspondent Matt Rivers in Chicago as though he were preparing for a war, saying she was “hop[ing] things stay calm” (click “expand”):
DAVIS: Matt, give us a sense what is the mood like in the city?
RIVERS: Yeah, Linsey, no question things are tense across the city of Chicago as the President spent the weekend zeroing in on the city’s issues with crime and also with illegal immigration. The President saying today that crime is out of control in the city, and it will take federal help to clean it up even though FBI statistics show that crime is down in Chicago, over the weekend posting a manipulated image playing off a famous line from Apocalypse Now, saying “I love the smell of deportations in the morning.” Speaking at the White House today, he once again said murders and crime in general is out of control in the city and here in Chicago protests over the weekend against any sort of federal incursion in the city. So far, it is calm across the city. We’re not seeing a ramp-up of federal authorities of any kind, but in heavily Latino neighborhoods like here in Little Village, the trepidation is palpable. A lot of people just choosing to stay home this weekend, Linsey, rather than go out and risk arrest, Linsey.
DAVIS: We hope things stay calm.
To see the relevant transcripts from September 7, click here (for ABC) and here (for NBC).