July 17, 2026
We Covered The 2020 Election For ABC News: There Was No “Plot” Mr. President
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RSS Feed After both ABC and NBC refused to broadcast President Trump’s primetime speech that spread known falsehoods on the 2020 election, the President accused them of being a part of a plot to protect election corruption and defraud the American people. Trump went even further, saying both of their broadcast licenses should be revoked. Trump accused the networks of contributing to the “great damage” that has been done to our country through election fraud. We go over how each network chose to cover or carry Trump’s address, filled with falsehoods, that even Fox News had to tiptoe around in their coverage.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, there're folks. It is Friday, July seventeenth, and last night a couple of networks really pissed off the president, not because of what they did, but because of what they refuse to do give him their airwaves to spew the same old ish And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. We talked about this ahead of time. I didn't know if they'd do it ropes. I give them credit ABCNBC and several other networks for taking somewhat of a stand and not putting the president's address live in prime time.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: And I think it's important to point out that this wasn't because they don't like President Trump, or because of any political beliefs or any sort of pushback against giving the president airwaves.
00:00:52
Speaker 3: No, it was because.
00:00:54
Speaker 2: They knew the topic, and they knew that that topic would be spreading fall hoods about the twenty twenty election, which is dangerous to this country, which is dangerous to democracy. And what do you do as a news network when you know someone is about to go on the air and lie. What do you do if that's the President of the United States.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: Well, in the past we have seen them being willing to go with it, to just roll with it, put him on, let them say whatever. A lot of you know what you remember as well. Robes during a couple of campaigns, which at the first one, I think probably the second one, networks, even cable networks started to refuse to put his rallies and his speeches on because he was spewing a lot of this stuff. This is rogues. When you hear a presidential address, it's supposedly a pretty high bar, supposedly a pretty sacred thing. Tragedies, wars. I still think back to President Reagan and the spatialtal challenger, like I remember these moments freaking called Osama.
00:02:01
Speaker 3: Bin Laden, the Berlin Wall coming down.
00:02:04
Speaker 1: There's times when you gotta get on and say, yeah, our elections suck. They're stealing it from.
00:02:11
Speaker 3: It, right, Yeah, we have third world country elections.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: He said, we're worse than a third world country. And by the way, with all of this, no evidence was presented, So it looks like Robes and networks make the right call. A lot of people knew what was coming, but it was interesting to see how each network kind of carefully did this thing. And Robes, even Fox News had a bit of a different tone last night and we sat down. You mean, I mean we almost should have pop popcorn. We knew it was gonna be a goobe last night.
00:02:44
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I know I say this way too often, but my jaw dropped multiple times, multiple times because I couldn't believe what I was hearing, even knowing ahead of time what he was likely going to say, he went a step further, and to me, the biggest moment, and we can get into it a bit, was when he accused ABC and NBC of being a part of a plot to withhold information, to be colluding basically with folks who were undermining, deliberately undermining the twenty twenty elections.
00:03:20
Speaker 1: I didn't know were we both a part of those conspiracies.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: I was just about to say that you and I covered the twenty twenty election, and so we.
00:03:29
Speaker 1: Worked at both of these places. We were part of it.
00:03:31
Speaker 2: Yes, and we've both worked at NBC, and we can say with the utmost level of confidence that that did not occur in the least bit.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: In fact, I was in meetings.
00:03:44
Speaker 2: You were in meetings where there were different voices about how we should cover it, what we should cover.
00:03:49
Speaker 3: There was never and we were at the highest level in these meetings. There has never been. I just I think the fear is that people believe this.
00:03:56
Speaker 2: We already have a trust issue with politicians, we have trust issue with journalists. I understand that, and I'm I do believe that we as a as a people, as individuals, we should all have healthy skepticism about certain levels of power. But this is dangerous and unfounded and frankly simply put untrue, and.
00:04:22
Speaker 1: We have to and I am we don't have to talk about this. We haven't talked about this because it's not necessary. But you and I have long careers in newsrooms, and I can tell you, from the smallest local to the highest network, there has never been a single time I have ever been approached by any manager, any producer, any senior, anybody telling me or even asking me to change to alter any coverage for political reasons. Not a single time.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: Not once.
00:04:56
Speaker 2: And I also want to say that, yes, I know, especially at the network level, folks who live in New York City are often thought of as liberal minded, liberal leaning, left leaning, and while generally speaking guests, that might be where it tips slightly just if you were personally to ask some journalists. But I have worked with plenty of people side by side at ABC at NBC who have said to me, people might be surprised how I vote. I have worked with conservatives, I have worked with mostly moderates at these news organizations. They are not as they are depicted by this president.
00:05:32
Speaker 1: We get out some journalists right now.
00:05:34
Speaker 2: Absolutely I have names the hell you would be surprised at people who we know, who we have worked with, who consistently and almost exclusively vote Republicans.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: So it's not true, but vote Republican, but are on TV being accused of being some correcting mainstream nut. So, but just wanted to make sure we said that, okay, ABC, NBC, Roads, We said they didn't carry it live, okay, fine, but they did break into coverage when he was done and do some analysis, so they still brother. I think that's a good way to put it, right. It is news. When the president speaks, you can cover. They didn't refuse to cover his speech. They just refuse to let him speak live, and that's okay. It's different from not carrying the speech versus covering the speech. Correct they look covered it without carrying.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: It, Because I do think there is I don't think I know that there is. This is what the irony is of what President Trump was saying. There is a responsibility when you own a network to make sure that what you're putting out is truthful. And if there's a question to that truth then you obviously have to provide a counter response or some perspective or fact check. The fact checking that would have had to have gone on in real time would have been insurmountable. And what do you do when you already know ahead of time that it is not going to be truthful. You have a responsibility to the people you serve to not be a part of creating a platform where lies can be spread.
00:07:13
Speaker 1: Hopes he's put journalists in an impossible position.
00:07:15
Speaker 3: Absolutely, how are you to.
00:07:16
Speaker 1: Put this is the federal government when they it's used to be robes. If your source was the White House, you don't need a second source exactly.
00:07:25
Speaker 2: I mean, that is where we used to be. And it didn't matter if it was a Republican administration or democratic administration. If it came from the White House, if it came from the Department of Justice, if it came from the FBI, you were good. And now you cannot say any of those things are true.
00:07:43
Speaker 1: All right, let's get through here and get your thoughts robed on how everybody handled it. CBS, of course, they have an interesting relationship with the White House right now, but they made a decision. Robes. They did go on live when he started, but they didn't carry the whole thing live and did some analysis. That was one way they tried to thread a needle a little bit perhaps there, but they didn't get called out part the President's CNN and MSNBC, ms Now, I'm never gonna get there.
00:08:09
Speaker 3: I know because we both were MSNBC, we both worked there. It just rolls right off the dong.
00:08:13
Speaker 1: Ms n OLW almost is better for me to say so, Msnow and CNN they both dipped in and out and di some analysis around it. Now. Fox News Robes is interesting, yes, now they started they were teasing the coverage well with Sean Hannity, who was very close to the president we all know, started their coverage. Now he used this line. Fox News has not seen that evidence directly yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president's statements at this time. How lawyered is that thing? How pr is that state? They said it on the air A couple times.
00:08:50
Speaker 2: I actually, look, we watched Fox News a lot, we watched CNN a lot, we watched them all. But I understand that's lawyered, but it also felt a bit cowardly.
00:09:00
Speaker 1: It also felt a little cover your ass because this is the same network that paid out seven hundred and eighty seven million dollars in a defamation case having to do with election fraud. They were sued for their coverage they lost and paid eight hundred million dollars.
00:09:16
Speaker 3: Because they disseminated falsehoods.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: Even they were careful Robes. That says a lot.
00:09:22
Speaker 2: That makes what the speech was, that makes a lot of sense. You know, I hadn't thought I had not thought about that lawsuit. Obviously that matters, and they tiptoed.
00:09:31
Speaker 1: They'll repeat anything the president says, and they were careful last night, Wow ABC statement. They did put this out ahead of the speech. They gave us a heads up. Rose, We knew it wasn't going to be on the network. But just because it wasn't on the broadcast airwaves doesn't mean it wasn't available to people from these networks.
00:09:47
Speaker 3: And I think that's a really fair point.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: They didn't obviously break into Yes, they're regularly scheduled programming at nine pm, but they did offer a way for folks through their news organization to wa watch the president's speech live, and I think that's an important distinguishedment, so they put out in their statement, ABC News will run President Trump's speech on ABC News Live and ABC News Radio with comprehensive anchored coverage. We will also cover this speech in our regular network newscast, and as always, our special report team is fully prepared to break into network programming to deliver live updates and reporting should significant developments occur.
00:10:25
Speaker 1: C and N put out something similar, saying they were going to cover the President's speech as a news event and monitor it for news developments, providing analysis and commentary from seeing and experts who cover elections, intelligence, and the FBI. You just said that you thought the Fox News that line was what was the word cowardly? Okay, I didn't want to go back to that, but okay, what did you think about how Tony Decopo handled.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: It at CBS carefully?
00:10:50
Speaker 2: He looked nervous, I will We watched him a little bit afterwards, and he was you could tell he was I don't want to say scared, but kind of.
00:11:00
Speaker 3: I want to say scared. I could see the fear in his eyes.
00:11:03
Speaker 1: You don't want to say the wrong thing.
00:11:04
Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: Got everybody scared that they're about to get sued or the license revoked.
00:11:11
Speaker 2: Correct. I actually was thinking, it's a balance between are we going to get sued for perpetuating lies or disseminating falsehoods, or are we going to piss off the president so much that now we're going to get sued by him. I'm going to get fired because CBS has obviously, as you put it, an interesting relationship with President Trump. I felt like he was almost in an impossible situation. I actually felt a little bad for him, because you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't, and if you don't walk the line just so, and I just you know what I worry about as a journalist, as someone who we both believe and love this profession and believe in the importance of it and how much it contributes to having a free society and a democracy. To have journalists scared is a problem.
00:12:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're scared in Russia. We're not supposed to have that problem here. You can't be scared. I mean, he might think that's successful. He's done what he wanted to do. But look, we should always be held accountable. And if sanity needs to be raised and attention needs to be paid to how we do our work, and if we are being more accurate, now that is not a bad thing. However, this wasn't the way to go about doing it. The scariest part last night Robes and his comments, well scariest for us, given where we make our living, was when he spoke Robes about this conspiracy. We're gonna let you hear the line here or read it to you, but this is when he spoke about the conspiracy that apparently you and I this plot is what he said that you and I didn't know we were a part of. Over at ABC.
00:12:42
Speaker 2: Yes, this was the jaw dropping moment for both of us. Trump said in a rare move. NBC and ABC fake News have both said that they would not cover this speech they knew what it was about because of the fact that they don't like the topic because they know how corrupt our system is and they don't want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason they want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. They can't have a great country, and that's true. You can't have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public, multi billion dollar value airwaves for absolutely no money.
00:13:34
Speaker 3: They pay nothing.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting. They pay nothing for multi billion dollar assets. Great damage has been done to our country. Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost. This cannot be allowed to continue. I think it's so interesting when he said you can't have a great country without free and fair elections, I wanted to say, you can't have a great country without a free and fair press.
00:14:06
Speaker 1: Nope, that's not no, he changed that line up. Hey, what was your quote this morning? Good morning run? What was it again?
00:14:14
Speaker 2: I can pull it up right now, Yeah, I can get I can get you a very quick now.
00:14:17
Speaker 1: Now reading this reminded me of it. What was it again?
00:14:20
Speaker 2: The most dangerous form of blindness is believing that your perspective is the only reality.
00:14:27
Speaker 1: Boom, yes on our morning Run podcast. Our newscast this morning, we always do a quote of the day, and you had that in the bottom and I say, yeah, that made me think of Trump. But now you're reading this line again. There it is. He has an idea, the perspective about the country, and his is the only one that's the only reality is the way he sees.
00:14:48
Speaker 3: It, bottom line, babe. And I think that most people get this.
00:14:53
Speaker 2: We are actually witnessing a man who's so angry that he lost, that he got an l that he is trying to malign and threaten to revoke the broadcast licenses of people who do not disseminate what he wants them to say, who will not agree that some travesty happened in our election system. Because he lost, he cannot admit that he lost. He cannot admit failure. That is called hubris, and that is concerning.
00:15:29
Speaker 1: I mean, dude, you made it to you got the nomination three times. It's kind of impressive.
00:15:37
Speaker 3: I mean, you won twice. That's impressive.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: That ain't bad. He hates that he lost to Joe Biden. I think there's something about Joe Biden that he thinks he's so much younger than and so much more vibrant than and so sweet.
00:15:51
Speaker 3: Smarter and successful that this god beat him. I believe that he believes he won.
00:15:59
Speaker 1: That I might be a fair statement, and that is crazy, that it's scary, and that is delusional. But with all of the networks did last night, how in the world can they do this? How can a network just decide they're not going to cover the president. Yeah, they can do it, and they've done it plenty of times before.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: Stay here, Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:16:29
Speaker 3: We are talking about Trump's.
00:16:34
Speaker 2: Jaw dropping reaction to ABC and NBC making the editorial decision not to cover Trump's addressed to the Nation live to the point where he has threatened to revoke their licenses.
00:16:48
Speaker 3: He has accused them of being.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: A part of a conspiracy, a plot against free and fair elections. And the crazy thing is he's acting as if this is the first time this has ever happened, and it's being done to him because yes, the media is protecting the radical left.
00:17:08
Speaker 1: What did he say and the way he put it was in a rare move. The networks have both said they would not cover this speech again cover versus Carrie, But he said it's a rare move. It happens. It happened to Biden, it happened to Obama. But ropes this happens because you have to make a decision. How does it rise to the right level for the American people? That is a judgment that networks get to make, and they have the right to say yes. Yes. The presidents make a request, Hey, networks, may I be on your air tonight at nine o'clock. You want to say yes to the president. But they have the right to say no. And the reason they usually say no roads is because if they deem the speech is about something partisan or about a policy that's political, he's saying, eh, I'll step out. So they did that with Obama on immigration in twenty fourteen, and then they did it with Biden on in twenty twenty two on what democracy, Yeah, threats to democracy. They didn't cover a speech, they didn't carry it last And I think that's really important for people to hear that networks have made the same decision based on different circumstances, to not air.
00:18:19
Speaker 2: Presidential addresses. It happens for democratic presidents. So this is not a left versus right thing. This is not a Republican versus a Democrat thing. This is a judgment based on relevance and frankly truth at this point. I never thought that that would be a standard that we would have to hold a president to. But that is what networks are dealing with now.
00:18:43
Speaker 1: Like you said, he believes what he's saying, and man, nobody is ever going to convince him otherwise. But last night, I will wrap on this. I just thought this was funny.
00:18:54
Speaker 3: I'm actually shocked by this. Right, I didn't know and we.
00:18:57
Speaker 1: Know this robes these networks works. They I mean, there's a lot of advertising and planning and money that goes into If you do not air an episode of whatever and cut in for the President, you losing money. You're losing that money because advertisers paying for that specific show a specific time. You lose money. Bro, So last night I get this. Now, if you give most of America a choice, do you want to see Law and Order SVU or hear the president speak about elections? It might be overwhelming in one direction.
00:19:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe it's gonna be pressure. Sorry, Law and Order SVU. I'm looking at what ABC had on, which is why I say that for last time Press your luck. Honestly, I didn't even know that that show or that game show was on. That was a staple of my childhood. If I ever called and called in sick, that's hilarious. If I ever got sick and I didn't go to school, I would be so excited because Pressure Luck was coming on in the morning. No wammys, no whammys. But I didn't even know that that was either. It's a new version of it, apparently in time.
00:19:56
Speaker 1: And the actress, yeah, listen to the banks, didn't she doing?
00:19:59
Speaker 2: Oh?
00:19:59
Speaker 3: I love Elizabeth.
00:20:00
Speaker 1: I think she's never a show I am.
00:20:02
Speaker 2: I too in Now, that's the best thing that came out of last night is I just learned that ABC has a redox, a new version of Pressure Luck, which literally was my favorite game show growing up.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: And now a woman, an actor and director that you love, elizabethans absolutely hosting that show. But it's they would prefer to have a game show on than to put on a presidential address that tells you everything you need to.
00:20:27
Speaker 3: Know, because it's a it's a game show of another kind.
00:20:30
Speaker 1: Everything you need to know. All Right, folks, this won't be the last of this. We'll see what they do if they actually do. He sends Brendan Carr after these two networks and after their licenses. But folks always appreciate you spending a little time with us on behalf of my dear Amy Roboch. I'm TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you real soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, there're folks. It is Friday, July seventeenth, and last night a couple of networks really pissed off the president, not because of what they did, but because of what they refuse to do give him their airwaves to spew the same old ish And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. We talked about this ahead of time. I didn't know if they'd do it ropes. I give them credit ABCNBC and several other networks for taking somewhat of a stand and not putting the president's address live in prime time.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: And I think it's important to point out that this wasn't because they don't like President Trump, or because of any political beliefs or any sort of pushback against giving the president airwaves.
00:00:52
Speaker 3: No, it was because.
00:00:54
Speaker 2: They knew the topic, and they knew that that topic would be spreading fall hoods about the twenty twenty election, which is dangerous to this country, which is dangerous to democracy. And what do you do as a news network when you know someone is about to go on the air and lie. What do you do if that's the President of the United States.
00:01:22
Speaker 1: Well, in the past we have seen them being willing to go with it, to just roll with it, put him on, let them say whatever. A lot of you know what you remember as well. Robes during a couple of campaigns, which at the first one, I think probably the second one, networks, even cable networks started to refuse to put his rallies and his speeches on because he was spewing a lot of this stuff. This is rogues. When you hear a presidential address, it's supposedly a pretty high bar, supposedly a pretty sacred thing. Tragedies, wars. I still think back to President Reagan and the spatialtal challenger, like I remember these moments freaking called Osama.
00:02:01
Speaker 3: Bin Laden, the Berlin Wall coming down.
00:02:04
Speaker 1: There's times when you gotta get on and say, yeah, our elections suck. They're stealing it from.
00:02:11
Speaker 3: It, right, Yeah, we have third world country elections.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: He said, we're worse than a third world country. And by the way, with all of this, no evidence was presented, So it looks like Robes and networks make the right call. A lot of people knew what was coming, but it was interesting to see how each network kind of carefully did this thing. And Robes, even Fox News had a bit of a different tone last night and we sat down. You mean, I mean we almost should have pop popcorn. We knew it was gonna be a goobe last night.
00:02:44
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I know I say this way too often, but my jaw dropped multiple times, multiple times because I couldn't believe what I was hearing, even knowing ahead of time what he was likely going to say, he went a step further, and to me, the biggest moment, and we can get into it a bit, was when he accused ABC and NBC of being a part of a plot to withhold information, to be colluding basically with folks who were undermining, deliberately undermining the twenty twenty elections.
00:03:20
Speaker 1: I didn't know were we both a part of those conspiracies.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: I was just about to say that you and I covered the twenty twenty election, and so we.
00:03:29
Speaker 1: Worked at both of these places. We were part of it.
00:03:31
Speaker 2: Yes, and we've both worked at NBC, and we can say with the utmost level of confidence that that did not occur in the least bit.
00:03:42
Speaker 3: In fact, I was in meetings.
00:03:44
Speaker 2: You were in meetings where there were different voices about how we should cover it, what we should cover.
00:03:49
Speaker 3: There was never and we were at the highest level in these meetings. There has never been. I just I think the fear is that people believe this.
00:03:56
Speaker 2: We already have a trust issue with politicians, we have trust issue with journalists. I understand that, and I'm I do believe that we as a as a people, as individuals, we should all have healthy skepticism about certain levels of power. But this is dangerous and unfounded and frankly simply put untrue, and.
00:04:22
Speaker 1: We have to and I am we don't have to talk about this. We haven't talked about this because it's not necessary. But you and I have long careers in newsrooms, and I can tell you, from the smallest local to the highest network, there has never been a single time I have ever been approached by any manager, any producer, any senior, anybody telling me or even asking me to change to alter any coverage for political reasons. Not a single time.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: Not once.
00:04:56
Speaker 2: And I also want to say that, yes, I know, especially at the network level, folks who live in New York City are often thought of as liberal minded, liberal leaning, left leaning, and while generally speaking guests, that might be where it tips slightly just if you were personally to ask some journalists. But I have worked with plenty of people side by side at ABC at NBC who have said to me, people might be surprised how I vote. I have worked with conservatives, I have worked with mostly moderates at these news organizations. They are not as they are depicted by this president.
00:05:32
Speaker 1: We get out some journalists right now.
00:05:34
Speaker 2: Absolutely I have names the hell you would be surprised at people who we know, who we have worked with, who consistently and almost exclusively vote Republicans.
00:05:45
Speaker 1: So it's not true, but vote Republican, but are on TV being accused of being some correcting mainstream nut. So, but just wanted to make sure we said that, okay, ABC, NBC, Roads, We said they didn't carry it live, okay, fine, but they did break into coverage when he was done and do some analysis, so they still brother. I think that's a good way to put it, right. It is news. When the president speaks, you can cover. They didn't refuse to cover his speech. They just refuse to let him speak live, and that's okay. It's different from not carrying the speech versus covering the speech. Correct they look covered it without carrying.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: It, Because I do think there is I don't think I know that there is. This is what the irony is of what President Trump was saying. There is a responsibility when you own a network to make sure that what you're putting out is truthful. And if there's a question to that truth then you obviously have to provide a counter response or some perspective or fact check. The fact checking that would have had to have gone on in real time would have been insurmountable. And what do you do when you already know ahead of time that it is not going to be truthful. You have a responsibility to the people you serve to not be a part of creating a platform where lies can be spread.
00:07:13
Speaker 1: Hopes he's put journalists in an impossible position.
00:07:15
Speaker 3: Absolutely, how are you to.
00:07:16
Speaker 1: Put this is the federal government when they it's used to be robes. If your source was the White House, you don't need a second source exactly.
00:07:25
Speaker 2: I mean, that is where we used to be. And it didn't matter if it was a Republican administration or democratic administration. If it came from the White House, if it came from the Department of Justice, if it came from the FBI, you were good. And now you cannot say any of those things are true.
00:07:43
Speaker 1: All right, let's get through here and get your thoughts robed on how everybody handled it. CBS, of course, they have an interesting relationship with the White House right now, but they made a decision. Robes. They did go on live when he started, but they didn't carry the whole thing live and did some analysis. That was one way they tried to thread a needle a little bit perhaps there, but they didn't get called out part the President's CNN and MSNBC, ms Now, I'm never gonna get there.
00:08:09
Speaker 3: I know because we both were MSNBC, we both worked there. It just rolls right off the dong.
00:08:13
Speaker 1: Ms n OLW almost is better for me to say so, Msnow and CNN they both dipped in and out and di some analysis around it. Now. Fox News Robes is interesting, yes, now they started they were teasing the coverage well with Sean Hannity, who was very close to the president we all know, started their coverage. Now he used this line. Fox News has not seen that evidence directly yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president's statements at this time. How lawyered is that thing? How pr is that state? They said it on the air A couple times.
00:08:50
Speaker 2: I actually, look, we watched Fox News a lot, we watched CNN a lot, we watched them all. But I understand that's lawyered, but it also felt a bit cowardly.
00:09:00
Speaker 1: It also felt a little cover your ass because this is the same network that paid out seven hundred and eighty seven million dollars in a defamation case having to do with election fraud. They were sued for their coverage they lost and paid eight hundred million dollars.
00:09:16
Speaker 3: Because they disseminated falsehoods.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: Even they were careful Robes. That says a lot.
00:09:22
Speaker 2: That makes what the speech was, that makes a lot of sense. You know, I hadn't thought I had not thought about that lawsuit. Obviously that matters, and they tiptoed.
00:09:31
Speaker 1: They'll repeat anything the president says, and they were careful last night, Wow ABC statement. They did put this out ahead of the speech. They gave us a heads up. Rose, We knew it wasn't going to be on the network. But just because it wasn't on the broadcast airwaves doesn't mean it wasn't available to people from these networks.
00:09:47
Speaker 3: And I think that's a really fair point.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: They didn't obviously break into Yes, they're regularly scheduled programming at nine pm, but they did offer a way for folks through their news organization to wa watch the president's speech live, and I think that's an important distinguishedment, so they put out in their statement, ABC News will run President Trump's speech on ABC News Live and ABC News Radio with comprehensive anchored coverage. We will also cover this speech in our regular network newscast, and as always, our special report team is fully prepared to break into network programming to deliver live updates and reporting should significant developments occur.
00:10:25
Speaker 1: C and N put out something similar, saying they were going to cover the President's speech as a news event and monitor it for news developments, providing analysis and commentary from seeing and experts who cover elections, intelligence, and the FBI. You just said that you thought the Fox News that line was what was the word cowardly? Okay, I didn't want to go back to that, but okay, what did you think about how Tony Decopo handled.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: It at CBS carefully?
00:10:50
Speaker 2: He looked nervous, I will We watched him a little bit afterwards, and he was you could tell he was I don't want to say scared, but kind of.
00:11:00
Speaker 3: I want to say scared. I could see the fear in his eyes.
00:11:03
Speaker 1: You don't want to say the wrong thing.
00:11:04
Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
00:11:05
Speaker 1: Got everybody scared that they're about to get sued or the license revoked.
00:11:11
Speaker 2: Correct. I actually was thinking, it's a balance between are we going to get sued for perpetuating lies or disseminating falsehoods, or are we going to piss off the president so much that now we're going to get sued by him. I'm going to get fired because CBS has obviously, as you put it, an interesting relationship with President Trump. I felt like he was almost in an impossible situation. I actually felt a little bad for him, because you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't, and if you don't walk the line just so, and I just you know what I worry about as a journalist, as someone who we both believe and love this profession and believe in the importance of it and how much it contributes to having a free society and a democracy. To have journalists scared is a problem.
00:12:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're scared in Russia. We're not supposed to have that problem here. You can't be scared. I mean, he might think that's successful. He's done what he wanted to do. But look, we should always be held accountable. And if sanity needs to be raised and attention needs to be paid to how we do our work, and if we are being more accurate, now that is not a bad thing. However, this wasn't the way to go about doing it. The scariest part last night Robes and his comments, well scariest for us, given where we make our living, was when he spoke Robes about this conspiracy. We're gonna let you hear the line here or read it to you, but this is when he spoke about the conspiracy that apparently you and I this plot is what he said that you and I didn't know we were a part of. Over at ABC.
00:12:42
Speaker 2: Yes, this was the jaw dropping moment for both of us. Trump said in a rare move. NBC and ABC fake News have both said that they would not cover this speech they knew what it was about because of the fact that they don't like the topic because they know how corrupt our system is and they don't want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason they want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. They can't have a great country, and that's true. You can't have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public, multi billion dollar value airwaves for absolutely no money.
00:13:34
Speaker 3: They pay nothing.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting. They pay nothing for multi billion dollar assets. Great damage has been done to our country. Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost. This cannot be allowed to continue. I think it's so interesting when he said you can't have a great country without free and fair elections, I wanted to say, you can't have a great country without a free and fair press.
00:14:06
Speaker 1: Nope, that's not no, he changed that line up. Hey, what was your quote this morning? Good morning run? What was it again?
00:14:14
Speaker 2: I can pull it up right now, Yeah, I can get I can get you a very quick now.
00:14:17
Speaker 1: Now reading this reminded me of it. What was it again?
00:14:20
Speaker 2: The most dangerous form of blindness is believing that your perspective is the only reality.
00:14:27
Speaker 1: Boom, yes on our morning Run podcast. Our newscast this morning, we always do a quote of the day, and you had that in the bottom and I say, yeah, that made me think of Trump. But now you're reading this line again. There it is. He has an idea, the perspective about the country, and his is the only one that's the only reality is the way he sees.
00:14:48
Speaker 3: It, bottom line, babe. And I think that most people get this.
00:14:53
Speaker 2: We are actually witnessing a man who's so angry that he lost, that he got an l that he is trying to malign and threaten to revoke the broadcast licenses of people who do not disseminate what he wants them to say, who will not agree that some travesty happened in our election system. Because he lost, he cannot admit that he lost. He cannot admit failure. That is called hubris, and that is concerning.
00:15:29
Speaker 1: I mean, dude, you made it to you got the nomination three times. It's kind of impressive.
00:15:37
Speaker 3: I mean, you won twice. That's impressive.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: That ain't bad. He hates that he lost to Joe Biden. I think there's something about Joe Biden that he thinks he's so much younger than and so much more vibrant than and so sweet.
00:15:51
Speaker 3: Smarter and successful that this god beat him. I believe that he believes he won.
00:15:59
Speaker 1: That I might be a fair statement, and that is crazy, that it's scary, and that is delusional. But with all of the networks did last night, how in the world can they do this? How can a network just decide they're not going to cover the president. Yeah, they can do it, and they've done it plenty of times before.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: Stay here, Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:16:29
Speaker 3: We are talking about Trump's.
00:16:34
Speaker 2: Jaw dropping reaction to ABC and NBC making the editorial decision not to cover Trump's addressed to the Nation live to the point where he has threatened to revoke their licenses.
00:16:48
Speaker 3: He has accused them of being.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: A part of a conspiracy, a plot against free and fair elections. And the crazy thing is he's acting as if this is the first time this has ever happened, and it's being done to him because yes, the media is protecting the radical left.
00:17:08
Speaker 1: What did he say and the way he put it was in a rare move. The networks have both said they would not cover this speech again cover versus Carrie, But he said it's a rare move. It happens. It happened to Biden, it happened to Obama. But ropes this happens because you have to make a decision. How does it rise to the right level for the American people? That is a judgment that networks get to make, and they have the right to say yes. Yes. The presidents make a request, Hey, networks, may I be on your air tonight at nine o'clock. You want to say yes to the president. But they have the right to say no. And the reason they usually say no roads is because if they deem the speech is about something partisan or about a policy that's political, he's saying, eh, I'll step out. So they did that with Obama on immigration in twenty fourteen, and then they did it with Biden on in twenty twenty two on what democracy, Yeah, threats to democracy. They didn't cover a speech, they didn't carry it last And I think that's really important for people to hear that networks have made the same decision based on different circumstances, to not air.
00:18:19
Speaker 2: Presidential addresses. It happens for democratic presidents. So this is not a left versus right thing. This is not a Republican versus a Democrat thing. This is a judgment based on relevance and frankly truth at this point. I never thought that that would be a standard that we would have to hold a president to. But that is what networks are dealing with now.
00:18:43
Speaker 1: Like you said, he believes what he's saying, and man, nobody is ever going to convince him otherwise. But last night, I will wrap on this. I just thought this was funny.
00:18:54
Speaker 3: I'm actually shocked by this. Right, I didn't know and we.
00:18:57
Speaker 1: Know this robes these networks works. They I mean, there's a lot of advertising and planning and money that goes into If you do not air an episode of whatever and cut in for the President, you losing money. You're losing that money because advertisers paying for that specific show a specific time. You lose money. Bro, So last night I get this. Now, if you give most of America a choice, do you want to see Law and Order SVU or hear the president speak about elections? It might be overwhelming in one direction.
00:19:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe it's gonna be pressure. Sorry, Law and Order SVU. I'm looking at what ABC had on, which is why I say that for last time Press your luck. Honestly, I didn't even know that that show or that game show was on. That was a staple of my childhood. If I ever called and called in sick, that's hilarious. If I ever got sick and I didn't go to school, I would be so excited because Pressure Luck was coming on in the morning. No wammys, no whammys. But I didn't even know that that was either. It's a new version of it, apparently in time.
00:19:56
Speaker 1: And the actress, yeah, listen to the banks, didn't she doing?
00:19:59
Speaker 2: Oh?
00:19:59
Speaker 3: I love Elizabeth.
00:20:00
Speaker 1: I think she's never a show I am.
00:20:02
Speaker 2: I too in Now, that's the best thing that came out of last night is I just learned that ABC has a redox, a new version of Pressure Luck, which literally was my favorite game show growing up.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: And now a woman, an actor and director that you love, elizabethans absolutely hosting that show. But it's they would prefer to have a game show on than to put on a presidential address that tells you everything you need to.
00:20:27
Speaker 3: Know, because it's a it's a game show of another kind.
00:20:30
Speaker 1: Everything you need to know. All Right, folks, this won't be the last of this. We'll see what they do if they actually do. He sends Brendan Carr after these two networks and after their licenses. But folks always appreciate you spending a little time with us on behalf of my dear Amy Roboch. I'm TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you real soon.