In CBS Mornings’s newest instance of formally partnering with a liberal partisan to promote books, Tuesday’s present embarrassingly fangirled over liberal historian Jon Meacham’s newest tome and voicing settlement to say America is going through a “ethical disaster” requiring the best degree of citizenship for the reason that 1850s as a result of there’s an “authoritarian” in Donald Trump “galloping on the highest degree.”
“Developing on this 8:00 hour. Some perspective on these very divided occasions. Historian Jon Meacham says we’re in an ethical disaster as a nation, however it’s not the primary time, he says. So, we’ll ask how, in his view, it does get higher,” teased co-host and Democrat donor Gayle King.
Featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers gave a glowing lead-in:
It could really feel like our nation is extra divided than ever, however in response to our subsequent visitor, battle is nothing new in our democracy. Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize profitable historian and best-selling creator. His newest ebook is known as American Battle: Democracy, Dissent and the Pursuit of a Extra Excellent Union. You should buy it proper now by scanning that QR code that you simply see in your display. Meacham chronicles the divisions and the debates which have outlined our nation from 1619 to the current. Jon Meacham is right here. Good morning. I’m such a fan.
After briefly having Meacham weigh in on the passing of the Reverend Jesse Jackson Jr., Duthiers mentioned his ebook American Battle and its tales from 1619 to as we speak exhibit a “theme in kind of what Reverend Jackson talked about all through his life and occasions, which is he didn’t need a society that didn’t embrace everyone.”
Hysteria, NOT historical past: Tuesday’s ‘CBS Mornings’ — once more, supposedly a MAGA community underneath Bari Weiss — was fawning over liberal historian (and Joe Biden speechwriter) Jon Meacham saying America’s in “ethical disaster” b/c Donald Trump is an “authoritarian galloping on the highest… pic.twitter.com/VNJCNN2I8Y
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 17, 2026
“You say we’re in a second of ethical disaster. What do you imply by that,” he questioned.
Meacham’s reply sounded good in that “if we don’t acknowledge one another of equal dignity, if we don’t see one another as those that stand equally earlier than God and the legislation” and our founding paperwork (which he dubbed “American scripture”), “then the covenant that’s America falls aside.”
However sounding good is all one may say given the truth that Meacham has spent many years within the political area hurling coarse rhetoric at his adversaries and even advising speechwriting for President Joe Biden.
We compiled 16 totally different examples again in September, similar to Meacham referring to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) as canine feces, and viewing Republican voters as “lizard mind[ed]” “white guys” led by a person in Donald Trump who’s dumber than springer spaniels.
Somebody ask Duthiers about that double commonplace.
However Meacham is handled as non-partisan, so the lovefest went on.
King requested him to expound upon a James Madison quote fearing a time when “enlightened statesmen” gained’t be on the helm of the nation.
This went proper into Meacham’s declare about Donald Trump being “an authoritarian galloping on the highest degree” (click on “increase”):
KING: [T]right here’s a line within the ebook the place you discuss James Madison, who says “… it’s useless to say that enlightened statesmen will have the ability to modify these traditional pursuits to the general public good” — it makes me take into consideration Congress — “however these enlightened statesmen won’t at all times be on the helm.” What can we — ain’t that good, Vlad?
DUTHIERS: Sure.
KING: What can we be taught from that? As a result of it appears similar to what’s happening as we speak.
MEACHAM: Completely. The founders would have been stunned, I believe that it took this lengthy.
DUTHIERS: Actually?
MEACHAM: I actually —
KING: For what? For what?
MEACHAM: — for there to be an authoritarian galloping on the highest degree.
KING: Actually? That it took this lengthy? Wow!
MEACHAM: As a result of actually — as a result of, give it some thought, the Structure is extremely unwieldy. It’s unwieldy as a result of they assume that almost all of what we might need to do can be mistaken. It’s a theological doc in some ways. It’s primarily based on the concept that we’re pushed by urge for food and ambition extra usually than we’re pushed by grace and generosity. And guess what? I do know you all are higher folks than I’m, however I do know that’s true in my life.
King adopted up: “However, Jon, many individuals imagine that — many in energy don’t imagine that the Structure issues lately.”
Meacham replied with partisanship wrapped in flowery language that “[t]his is an hour of — that is arguably a very powerful hour for citizenship for the reason that 1850s” and “the founders anticipated this” and that “the Structure was constructed for moments…of stress and pressure the place folks” — as in Republicans — “would put energy above precept.”
Utilizing emotional blackmail, he added that “our” — as in “we, the Individuals” — “activity is to place the ideas above energy.”
Since King is a Democrat, she twice blurted out “precisely.”
Co-host Nate Burleson lastly had a go, questioning if there’s “historic context for that youthful era that doesn’t dive into historical past books that may give them some parallels to what’s happening as we speak.”
Like he did with Duthiers, Meacham began with an undisputable incontrovertible fact that older Individuals “all grew up extra adjoining to nice moments in American historical past” wherein, for instance, older generations had mother and father or grandparents who fought in World Struggle II and even World Struggle I.
Bari Weiss’s ‘CBS Mornings’ co-host sit in awe as Jon Meacham suggests American authorities within the twenty first century has failed due to crises that each one conveniently occurred on the watches of Republican presidents: 9/11, Iraq, Nice Recession, Covid, Donald Trump being elected,… pic.twitter.com/rDoMe5C6TN
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 17, 2026
However as soon as once more, he veered into the partisan by asserting these born “within the twenty first Century” have seen a authorities that’s “not coated itself in glory” and, certain sufficient, his examples solely occurred underneath Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump (and the opposite in lack of mass gun confiscation, failed due to GOP pushback):
September 11, weapons of mass destruction, Iraq, nice recession, COVID, President Trump, January 6 and college shootings and college capturing drills, proper? If you’re that age, why would you belief grown-ups to guard you once we self-evidently say we are able to’t defend you in colleges. We have now to drill for this.
Meacham’s resolution? Train youthful Individuals in regards to the braveness of these from yesteryear similar to these maimed on Blood Sunday (March 7, 1965) in Selma, Alabama.
Somebody at CBS Information wants to clarify to us, on or off the document (my DMs on X are open!) how the ideological tilt to the arduous left goes to be altering within the close to future underneath new possession.
As a result of, with segments like this one with Meacham and others final week like this on the CBS Night Information and CBS Mornings cheering Supreme Court docket Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, it certain doesn’t look like something has modified exterior the opening few weeks.
To see the related CBS transcript from February 17, click on right here.
