Biden Decision Surprised Most TV News Networks: How CBS, MSNBC and More Scrambled to Cover Bom

Publish date: 2024-07-31

Many of them knew it was coming, but not exactly when.

The nation’s big TV-news outlets appear to have been caught flat-footed by President Joe Biden‘s Sunday announcement that he would end his 2024 campaign for the White House, with many top anchors not visible on screen in the minutes after the president dropped his bombshell.

Broadcast networks fielded faces that were not as familiar. CBS News broke into programming at 2:02 p.m. with coverage lead by Kristine Johnson, an anchor at WCBS, the company’s New York station, suggesting Norah O’Donnell, Margaret Brennan or Major Garrett were not immediately available (O’Donnell and Brennan joined about 45 minutes later). NBC News put up a special report 30 seconds later anchored by Hallie Jackson, who was recently named to lead weekend broadcasts of “NBC Nightly News.” ABC News broke in at 2:04 p.m. with coverage led by Rachel Scott, its senior congressional correspondent.

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Biden’s initial announcement, via social media, posted at approximately 1:46 p.m.

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On CNN, viewers watched as Alex Marquardt, the network’s chief national security correspondent, anchored coverage, but Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper — three anchors who often handle duties in moments of national import — were not on screen (Blitzer took cover anchor duties at about 3 p.m.). At Fox News, Bret Baier, who typically co-anchors coverage of top political news with Martha MacCallum, called in to the newsroom, where Mike Emanuel was anchoring. Baier and MacCallum would get on camera later in the afternoon. MSNBC moved quickly from Jen Psaki leading one of the network’s opinion hours to Katy Tur, who was scheduled to anchor starting at 2 p.m. She regularly leads an hour of news coverage on weekdays. Rachel Maddow joined Tur on camera approximately 50 minutes later.

To be sure, news producers had reporters in place in case of news from President Biden. CNN, CBS and others had reporters stationed in Rehoboth, Delaware, where Biden, isolated with Covid, has been stationed this weekend. But it was clear that the president’s move was not telegraphed to news outlets ahead of time, because none of them were able to be in studio within minutes after the revelation.

Many of the outlets were expected to launch special reports Sunday afternoon or in primetime. Lester Holt was expected to anchor Sunday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” with Jackson set to lead an early-evening broadcast on NBC News Now. Fox News Channel tapped many of its weekday hosts to lead Sunday coverage through the afternoon and into evening. MSNBC planned to convene Maddow, Psaki, Joy Reid and Nicolle Wallace at 7 p.m,. followed by Stephanie Ruhle at 10 p.m. and Jonathan Capehart and Ayman Mohyeldin at midnight.

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