During Friday’s edition of CBS Mornings, White House correspondent Nancy Cordes falsely accused Donald Trump of musing “about executing Liz Cheney” the previous night. Not only did Cordes pervert Trump’s words, she used the misrepresentation to claim that they affirm Kamala Harris’s argument that “he is a wannabe autocrat bent on revenge.”

Before Cordes’s report, there was correspondent Kris Van Cleave, who introduced a clip of Trump’s remarks, “Campaigning in Arizona, former President Donald Trump hurled insults at politicians and directed this violent rhetoric at former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who has endorsed vice president Kamala Harris.”

That “violent rhetoric” was actually Trump’s claim that “she's a radical warhawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay, let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

The great irony in all of this is that Trump is employing the chickenhawk argument that liberals used to make against the Cheneys. Still, Van Cleave added, “Cheney responded this morning in a post on X writing, ‘This is how dictators destroy free nations, they threaten those who speak out against them with death.’”

After Van Cleave’s report, co-host Adriana Diaz tossed things over to Cordes, “As both candidates seek Latino support, Vice President Harris also campaigned in Las Vegas with Jennifer Lopez, who denounced racist remarks by a comedian at Trump's rally in New York on Sunday. Nancy Cordes is in Milwaukee where the vice president will be campaigning today. Nancy, good morning.”

Cordes began, “Trump's musings about executing Liz Cheney came so late last night that we still don't have an official reaction from the Harris campaign, but it is sure to feed into the argument she's been making every day on the campaign trail that he is a wannabe autocrat bent on revenge and it came just as she was going after him for inflammatory comments coming from him and from his campaign.”

Despite Van Cleave’s lamentable editorializing, he did manage to play a clip that made it clear Trump was making a foreign policy argument. However, Cordes inexplicably ignored that to make a wild claim about Trump threatening to execute Cheney that played into Harris’s narrative about him. The question CBS should ask itself is “why?”

Here is a transcript for the November 1 show:

CBS Mornings

11/1/2024

7:03 AM ET

KRIS VAN CLEAVE: Campaigning in Arizona, former President Donald Trump hurled insults at politicians and directed this violent rhetoric at former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who has endorsed vice president Kamala Harris.

DONALD TRUMP: She's a radical warhawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay, let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.

VAN CLEAVE: Cheney responded this morning in a post on X writing, "This is how dictators destroy free nations, they threaten those who speak out against them with death." 

…

ADRIANA DIAZ: As both candidates seek Latino support, Vice President Harris also campaigned in Las Vegas with Jennifer Lopez, who denounced racist remarks by a comedian at Trump's rally in New York on Sunday. Nancy Cordes is in Milwaukee where the vice president will be campaigning today. Nancy, good morning. 

NANCY CORDES: Good morning, Adriana. Trump's musings about executing Liz Cheney came so late last night that we still don't have an official reaction from the Harris campaign, but it is sure to feed into the argument she's been making every day on the campaign trail that he is a wannabe autocrat bent on revenge and it came just as she was going after him for inflammatory comments coming from him and from his campaign.