The new Trump-leaning CBS News received a lot of backlash on Tuesday after it broadcast what some analysts described as a "disgraceful and disgusting" report about the January 6 riot.
On Tuesday night, Tony Dokoupil, the new host of "CBS Evening News," had a brief report saved for the end of the show about the January 6 riot. The report focused on the march held by a group of what he called "pardoned defendants." Others know them as people who were convicted of crimes during the January 6 riot, including conspiracy and assault on law enforcement officers.
He then briefly passed over Trump's false accusation that Democrats didn't do enough to prevent the riot, and equivocated it to House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), saying Trump was trying to "whitewash" the riot.
Dokoupil offered no pushback to Trump's assertion, even though former Special Counsel Jack Smith testified before Congress that he found evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Trump orchestrated the riot.
Analysts reacted to the brief CBS News segment on social media.
"Was it just 'elites and academics' who saw the violence Trump incited unfold on TV?" journalist John Harwood posted on X. "Just elites and academics who asked Trump in vain to stop it? (actually it was WH aides & Fox anchors) Did elites and academics force Trump to endanger Pence's life with a tweet? What garbage."
"Disgraceful and disgusting," Norman Ornstein, contributing editor at The Atlantic, posted on X.
"In the Trump era, ambition beats integrity more times than not," Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at UVA, posted on X.
"Adios CBS," political analyst Jeffrey Storobinsky posted on X.
"Trump is getting exactly what his rich buddy paid for," GOP political analyst Szrah Longwell posted on X.