On the day or two before the midterm elections, CNSNews.com was in full pro-Trump spin mode — so much so, in fact, that it tried to pre-spin election results it was basically admitting were not going to go well for President Trump and the Republicans.
CNS editor in chief Terry Jeffrey used a Nov. 5 article to discount any House seats that Republicans would lose because Democratic presidents lost more:
In the post-World War II era, Presidents Barack Obama, Harry Truman and Bill Clinton saw the three biggest midterm election losses for their party in the House of Representatives, according to historical data published by the Clerk of the House.
In 2010, when Obama was in his first term and had signed the Obamacare law, the Democrats lost a net of 63 House seats. In 1946, after Truman had succeeded the late Franklin Roosevelt (who died in April 1945) and real GDP was declining by 11.6 percent, the Democrats lost 55 seats. In 1994, when Clinton was in his first term in which his signature proposal was Hillarycare (a “universal healthcare plan”), the Democrats lost 54 seats.
On Nov. 6, highly biased CNS reporter Susan Jones gushed over one of Trump’s final pre-election rallies by giddily (and, of course, uncritically) reciting Rush Limbaugh’s introductory speech:
Massive crowds and surging energy greeted President Donald Trump at his final midterm campaign rally Monday night in Cape Girardeau, Missouri — home town of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who introduced the president.
In his warm-up-the-crowd remarks, Limbaugh reminded everyone that Democrats call all of them “divisive.”
“Divisive?” he asked. “The Democrats haven’t even accepted they lost the election in 2016. That’s what this is all about! It’s serious stuff! All of this,” he said.
[…]He also addressed the size and the enthusiasm of the crowds that have attended Trump’s rallies around the nation:
“These rallies, I have to tell you, they are the envy of official Washington. You realize there isn’t a single elected official in either party who could do what this is tonight. Other than Donald Trump, there’s no one. No one! And they’re jealous. They are envious. This isn’t supposed to happen. You people are supposed to love them, not Trump.
“And so guess what? They want to get in on it. Bill and Hillary Clinton and their national stadium tour. Have you seen Obama? He’s been stumping down in Florida where I live. He’s drawing crowds of a thousand people, two thousand people. Joe Biden can’t fill a phone booth because he’s looking for someone to punch out,” Limbaugh joked.
Yes, Jones thought Limbaugh’s partisan rant warranted a “news” article.
Jones gushed further in a second article as she tried to portray the crowd at the rally, and Trump himself, as compassionate over an attendee with a health emergency:
The enormous, enthusiastic crowd fell suddenly silent Monday night at Trump’s final campaign rally in Cape Girardeau, Mo., when one of the attendees collapsed.
Trump, looking out from the podium, asked, “Is there a doctor in the house, please? Doctor?”
“Doctor, take your time,” he urged, as medics and security made their way through the full house.
Three-and-a-half minutes later, Trump urged his supporters, “Say a little prayer.” And he stepped away from the podium, as heads bowed and eyes closed.
The somber president again urged doctors to “take your time.”
Almost seven minutes elapsed, when voices swelled into a stanza of “Amazing Grace.” Everyone joined in.
The woman who collapsed was conscious as she was wheeled out of the arena moments later, the crowd cheering for her.
Trump returned to the podium:
“That was really something,” he said. “I want to just thank everybody for the way you behaved. That was beautiful. And at the end — was beautiful. ‘Amazing Grace,’ thank you very much. That was beautiful. Hopefully, she’ll be okay. Hopefully — she’ll be okay.”
This was also a “news” article. Given that CNS is basically pro-Trump state media these days, that’s not a surprise.