Some burial traditions include mourners shoveling dirt into the open grave of the deceased, both as a benediction and a sign of emotional closure. When media historians document the demise of 60 Minutes, Norah O’Donnell’s interview with Donald Trump on November 2, 2025, will be identified as the moment when mourners shoveled earth laden with equal parts sorrow, disgrace, and surrender into the grave of a once proud institution.
CBS News has been taken over by Trump acolyte Bari Weiss, who used Substack to create a media empire that vaulted her into the position of chief propagandist for Trump oligarchs Larry and David Ellison. Ellison’s Skydance simultaneously purchased Bari Weiss’s The Free Press and Paramount, the parent of CBS.
Ellison quickly installed Bari Weiss as the censor and “news-minder” for the (allegedly) overly liberal CBS News—and tasked her with making the network more “Trump-friendly.” See MSNBC, Bari Weiss brings her Trump-friendly sensibilities to CBS News | “Paramount Skydance hired the anti-woke opinion journalist to run the venerable news organization — giving Trump an ally with a big legacy media platform.”
In short order, Weiss has hollowed out the news operation at CBS and implemented a series of programming moves that betray Weiss’s lack of experience in news reporting, as opposed to opinion and commentary. See The Wrap, CBS News Layoffs Underway as the David Ellison-Bari Weiss Era Takes Shape.
Two months into her takeover of CBS News, Weiss arranged a friendly interview with Donald Trump, a president who attempted a coup, pardoned the insurrectionists who stormed Congress in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and is an adjudicated sexual abuser who recently destroyed one-third of the White House complex without pulling a building permit.
More importantly, Trump is assaulting the Constitution every day of his second term by, among other things,
Withholding congressionally appropriated funds in violation of Article I, Sec. 9 of the Constitution and Impoundment Control Act;
Ordering the US military to kill civilians in international waters without due process or trial for criminal violations that do not carry the death penalty;
Deploying the National Guard to patrol US cities in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act;
Imposing tariffs in violation of Congress’s authority under Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution;
Directing the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute his political opponents; and
Ordering the Speaker of the House to suspend the operation of Congress by holding the House in indefinite recess to prevent the disclosure of materials that might implicate Trump in the sex trafficking operation run by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
There is more, of course, but each of the above topics is cause for impeachment, conviction, and removal. And any self-respecting journalist with the opportunity to interview the president would surely confront him about the fact that his actions violate the Constitution daily.
But not Norah O’Donnell in the new “60 Minutes as People Magazine for Trump” format.
I don’t mean to pick on O’Donnell in particular—except for her decision to conduct the interview knowing that she would not be allowed to ask hard questions. She should have refused the assignment and / or quit CBS News rather than allow the defining moment of her career to be platforming Trump’s assault on the Constitution.
To be fair to O’Donnell, she did touch on some of the topics above, asking, for example:
What happens to your economic plan if the Supreme Court invalidates your tariffs?
Are we going to war against Venezuela?
You said, “If we need more than the National Guard [in US cities], we’ll send more than the National Guard.” What does that mean, send more than the National Guard?
The full transcript of the interview is here: Read the full transcript of Norah O’Donnell’s interview with President Trump here. - CBS News.
While O’Donnell touched on the topics, she did not confront Trump about his violations of the Constitution in each of those areas—tariffs, withholding funds, killing civilians, violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, persecution of his political enemies, and shuttering Congress.
The interview was like sitting down with a person accused of a crime who agreed to answer your questions, and then failing to ask if the person committed the crime that was the subject of the interview.
Why does this matter? Does critiquing the media make a difference? Yes, and no.
It is worth noting that the “time of death” for 60 Minutes was Norah O’Donnell’s interview of Trump. CBS can no longer be viewed as a reliable source of news. It is part of the Trump Propaganda Complex.
It is also worth criticizing those who allow themselves to be manipulated and exploited by Trump rather than standing on principle. Perhaps the next 60 Minutes interviewer will see how Norah O’Donnell allowed herself to be used for Trump’s aims and refuse to cooperate.
Finally, the inexplicable complacency and complicity of leaders in the media, business, and politics in normalizing Trump make our task of defending democracy more difficult. Many of society’s “elites” have abandoned us. If not explicitly, then tacitly—by speaking “off the record,” by their silence, or by their accommodation and normalization of Trump.
The abandonment of the grassroots movement by the elites is a strong undercurrent that is slowing the resistance. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo addresses this dynamic in his essay, Fear, Greed, Civic Virtue and the Fall of the Elites.
Marshall writes, in part,
Every leader in society — whether it’s business or government or the arts or anything in between — has this obligation [to publicly oppose Trump]. In a perverse and ironic way, Trump’s very argument about the corruption of the American elite is most vividly and visibly confirmed in the way he has so easily plowed through [the elites in society].
To the extent the American Republic is still in the game, taking punches but still in the ring, it’s large numbers of fairly ordinary people, without any great amount of power on their own who are doing it. You see that in ground level organizing, in turnout at town halls or No Kings demonstrations.
So, the critique of 60 Minutes’ interview with Trump isn’t about the interview per se, but about CBS abandoning the defense of democracy by normalizing and platforming Trump’s lies. 60 Minutes has become part of the problem, an ignominious end for an institution that once led the way in holding the powerful to account.
Even in the heavily edited interview, Trump’s ignorance and ambition could not be concealed. See Aaron Parnas on Substack, The Parnas Perspective, Important Sunday Night News Update. Parnas highlights two exchanges (among others):
O’Donnell: Why did you pardon Changpeng Zhao?
Trump: Are you ready? I don’t know who he is.
O’Donnell: His crypto exchange, Binance, helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin. And then you pardoned him.
Trump Here’s the thing. I know nothing about it.
And then Trump declined to say that he would not run for a third term:
O’Donnell: Can you set the record straight? You’re not planning to run for a third term?Trump: I don’t even think about it. I’ll tell you this — a lot of people want me to run.
Per Parnas,
Each of these moments deserved serious follow-up. Instead, viewers were left with silence. No correction. No fact-check. No accountability.
Rest in peace, 60 Minutes. You had a good run, while it lasted. But it ended “Not with a bang, but a whimper.”1
Treasury Secretary Bessent says SNAP Benefits could resume on Wednesday
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a Sunday talk show that the federal government would resume SNAP benefits by Wednesday. See CNBC, Bessent SNAP food benefits could restart by Wednesday.
Per CNBC,
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Bessent said that the administration would not appeal the court ruling, while adding that finding the funds to pay SNAP benefits by Wednesday “could be” done.
“There’s a process that has to be followed. So, we’ve got to figure out what the process is,” the Treasury secretary said.
This is good news for SNAP recipients and for those resisting Trump. The unified opposition of congressional Democrats called the administration’s bluff on withholding food from tens of millions of Americans. Well done!
Trump threatens to start a ground war in Nigeria
Nigeria has a population of approximately 230 million, with nearly an even split between Muslims and Christians. The nation is afflicted by various types of violence–insurgency, armed banditry, militancy, and mass atrocities. In 2023, more than 11,000 Nigerians were killed by armed violence. See Nigeria Watch, Thirteenth Report On Violence In Nigeria 2023.
The nature of the violence changes by region, as do the targets of the violence. In northern Nigeria, bandits, extremist militants, and battling farmers and herdsmen are engaging in “rural violence” that affects the general population. [Note: My description is an oversimplification of a very complex situation. Please read the report above for details.]
Some portion of the violence in Nigeria is caused by Islamic extremist groups such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Ansaru. Per the report cited above, about 20% of deaths in Nigeria in 2023 due to violence were caused by extremist Islamic groups.
On Sunday, Trump threatened to invade Nigeria “with guns a blazin” to stop the killing of Christians in Nigeria. See ABC News, Trump doesn’t rule out US troops on the ground in Nigeria over claims of ‘killing of Christians’.
Per ABC, Trump,
Trump was asked if he could envisage boots on the ground or air strikes, to which he said, “Could be.”
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers, we’re not going to allow that to happen,” he said.
Later, Trump posted the following statement on social media:
If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, “guns-a-blazing,” to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action.”
Nigeria’s president disputed Trump’s description of the situation in Nigeria and stated that the Nigerian government was actively attempting to resolve the conflicts:
After Trump’s first post, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu pushed back, writing “The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.”
Tinubu said his administration has taken steps to maintain “an open and active engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to address security challenges which affect citizens across faiths and regions.”
The US is now on the verge of ground wars in Venezuela and Nigeria. Trump has not notified Congress of the imminent involvement of US troops in hostilities. Add these conflicts to the list of daily violations of the Constitution by the president—for which he should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office.
Concluding Thoughts
I am feeling under the weather, so I will cut the newsletter short tonight. We canceled a planned trip to our mountain cabin this week, so I am following the advice of many readers (and my wife) to mind my health. Thanks for your concern!
Trump said (again) during his 60 Minutes interview that he wants to abolish the filibuster. Some readers pushed back against my endorsement of the idea, saying that Republicans would take the opportunity to pass legislation that would further advance their extreme agenda.
That is certainly a risk, but we should never refrain from doing the right thing for fear that Republicans will do something bad in reaction. If that becomes the test for deciding if we push forward with bold ideas to restore democracy, we will never do anything. We should do the right thing because it is right, and trust in our ability to win back control of Congress and the presidency.
Refraining from action in the hope that Republicans will restrain themselves is foolish. Republicans will do whatever they want without regard to what Democrats do. They will merely bide their time until taking action maximizes the benefit to them and the pain inflicted on Democrats.
If Republicans abolish the filibuster, it will be a historic moment with tremendous upside for Democrats. We don’t have control over the GOP’s decision to abolish the filibuster (or not), so let’s not spend our time fearing a result that we can quickly turn to our advantage.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Pro-democracy Protest Photos
Franconia, NH
New Haven, CT: Last night, hundreds of us turned out in a section of New Haven with many immigrant families for an amazing and joyous 3-mile celebration parade in honor of Dia de los Muertos. We wove through the streets seeing as many as we could! The community came out strongly in support and celebration of our diversity. Costumes were amazing, police were so supportive and protective, and so many families with elderly and small children came out on their porches to dance along and wave to the music! it’s hard to describe the utter joy for all of us. A strong reminder to all that we are in this together and we support those with sensitive immigration status. We were honored to be included and proud to stand with our immigrant friends and neighbors in this strong show of support.
Baltimore, MD:
Allentown, PA: Yesterday at our protest here in Allentown, PA, we had a Frog! And most of our signs were about voting yes to retain three state Supreme Court justices this Tuesday. Fingers crossed!
Daily Dose of Perspective
T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men (1925).
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