During Thursday’s NBC Nightly News, NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kelly O’Donnell heaped praise on far left Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), anointing her “the liberal wing’s newest star” as one of many to speak against the $1 trillion government funding bill being considered by Congress (which passed the House late Thursday night).
When one goes back to look at the program’s coverage of the government funding battle in 2013 that led to a government shutdown, it had far different descriptions for one of the leading figures of that debate in Republican Senator Ted Cruz (Texas). [MP3 audio here [1]; Video below]
Following Cruz’s 21-hour speech on the Senate floor on September 24, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams chose to characterize Cruz as someone whose “critics have called him crazy, irresponsible, even dangerous, but others find him courageous.”
In contrast to her favorable words for Warren, O’Donnell chided Cruz: “42-year-old Ted Cruz, in the Senate just eight months, held up all of Congress's work to make his point.”
When it came to summing up the gripes by Republicans and Democrats regarding the funding bill debated this week (also known as CRomnibus), Williams simply resorted to generalized lecturing about gridlock in Washington:
You might call it tonight's chapter of your Congress at work. Congress has a midnight deadline to pass a giant spending bill to keep the government funded and avert another shutdown. In plain English, it's a massive mess, an attempt to get enough votes to pass something that may now anger too many lawmakers to pass anything.
For O’Donnell, she cited the main point of disagreement as being over changes to “financial reform that would permit big banks to take high risk investments using bank deposits insured by taxpayers” which “surprised many Democrats, who are angry not only at Republicans, but their own President too.”
Returning back to the 2013 debate, O’Donnell had even more unfavorable statements to toss in Cruz’s direction: “Cruz fires up the conservative party base, but also frustrated some Republicans, who worry that his personal aspirations could risk damage to the Republican Party brand.”
So, when it comes to lawmakers having complaints over bills to continue funding the federal government, not all criticisms are viewed as equal on NBC Nightly News.
The complete transcript of the segment that aired on NBC Nightly News on December 11 is transcribed below.
NBC Nightly News
December 11, 2014
7:11 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Showdown]
BRIAN WILLIAMS: We turn now to what's going on in Washington. You might call it tonight's chapter of your Congress at work. Congress has a midnight deadline to pass a giant spending bill to keep the government funded and avert another shutdown. In plain English, it's a massive mess, an attempt to get enough votes to pass something that may now anger too many lawmakers to pass anything. We get the very latest from Capitol Hill tonight from NBC's Kelly O'Donnell.
KELLY O’DONNELL: As a gentle snow fell on the Capitol, House Speaker John Boehner was in no mood for any threat to the $1 trillion government funding deal.
HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OHIO): And I do expect it to pass, but, listen, if we don't get finished today, we're going to be here until Christmas.
O’DONNELL: But a Democratic revolt was on.
HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI (D-CALIF.): This is a ransom. This is blackmail. You won't get a bill unless Wall Street gets its taxpayer coverage.
O’DONNELL: The outrages over proposed changes to financial reforms that would permit big banks to take high risk investments using bank deposits insured by taxpayers. A last-minute addition that surprised many Democrats, who are angry not only at Republicans, but their own President too.
PELOSI: And I'm enormously disappointed that the White House feels that the only way they can get a bill is to go along with this.
O’DONELL: But, privately, President Obama was already calling lawmakers and dispatched his Chief of Staff to Capitol Hill to lobby for the 1600-page bill. Pelosi had fired off an e-mail to colleagues claiming they had the “leverage” to fight to make late changes to this huge package. A deal that would keep the government running for a year, hammered out by both Democrat and Republican negotiators.
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: It does fulfill some of the many of the top line priorities that the President himself has long identified –
O’DONNELL: But the liberal wing’s newest star, Senator Elizabeth Warren, was pushing back too.
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN (Mass.): This is not about partisanship. This is about fairness.
O’DONNELL: Democratic votes are so essential because a block of House Conservatives already said they wouldn't support it either. Now, tonight both parties say they have a backup plan, passing a kind of short-term band-aid that would keep the lights on beyond the midnight deadline. Brian.
WILLIAMS: Kelly O'Donnell on Capitol Hill. Thanks.
— Curtis Houck is News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Curtis Houck on Twitter. [2]