‘Sound of History’; CBS Swoons Kamala’s DNC Speech Was ‘Feat of Political Athleticism’ (Pt. 2)

Curtis Houck | August 23, 2024
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Check out the link to the full post soon from NewsBusters!

Despite co-host, Obama family friend, and Kamala Harris donor Gayle King getting an early start on the weekend, Friday’s CBS Mornings still had plenty of partisan lunacy reacting to the final night of the Democratic National Convention and describing Kamala Harris’s speech that “echo[ed] Obama” and “[brought] down the house” with “[t]he sound of history” and “a feat of political athleticism.”

On a more positive note, the fact-check lead off the second hour, including one major talking point of the left that the Trump tax cuts were (only) for the rich. The others concerned the national debt and tariffs (click “expand”):

HARRIS: He doesn’t actually fight for the middle class. Instead, he fights for himself and his billionaire friends, and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt.

(....)

DOKOUPIL: On that first claim that Donald Trump wants to pass tax cuts for the rich, adding $5 trillion to the national debt in the process, that’s misleading, according to our CBS News confirm team, which is a term, of course, that could be applied to a lot of our political speech, but I digress. Here’s how they got to that label. Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts did indeed lower taxes for the rich, aka high income earners. But here’s the thing, it also lower taxes for most households. So, in the short term, most people, not only the rich would benefit from these tax cuts being extended. All of that, by the way, according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation and the nonpartisan, Tax Policy Center. Now, Kamala Harris’s claim about the national debt going up, she was right about that, although it increased by $4.6 trillion, not $5 trillion she rounded up by a couple hundred billion on this, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. All right, let’s take a look at the next one.

HARRIS: All the while, he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax, call it a Trump tax, that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000.00 a year.

DOKOUPIL: So here’s what’s happening here. Donald Trump supports tariffs on foreign goods, and Kamala Harris says that those tariffs would end up costing American families. She calls them a tax. So, is it a tax? Well, that’s a partially true claim, according to our CBS News confirm team, and here’s the context they provide. Economists tell us that consumers would feel this tariff because the cost would be passed on and the prices would definitely spike for normal household goods, but Harris’s numbers are off. That 10 percent tariff combined with a 60 percent tariff on Chinese imports will cost about $1,800.00 per household in 2025. Significant, yes, but not $4,000.00. All of this, according to the nonpartisan, Tax Policy Center.