"The Waste Is Heartbreaking"

The destruction of '60 Minutes' and the elevation of a Trump henchman at National Intelligence underscore the regime's expanding treachery

‘60 Minutes’ correspondent Scott Pelley’s time is up. (Screenshot via YouTube)

The last days have shown signs that Donald Trump’s power is declining. The cracks in the bulwark are real: A federal judge is demanding the removal of his name from the Kennedy Center. Four House Republicans joined Democrats to demand him to withdraw U.S. troops from Iran or seek the formal approval of Congress to go to war. His $1.8 billion slush fund to pay off J6 insurrectionists and other “wrongfully treated” thugs is nearly dead.

But on Tuesday this week two events coincided that offered a harsh reminder of the continuing war for America’s future that will not soon wane. Together, they illustrate how broken our system is—how profoundly it’s lost touch with core values of a functioning democracy—and how the person accelerating the breakage is not some far-away adversary, but rather occupies our White House. His corrupt interest: fealty and personal profit at the expense of the public good.

One is Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte to serve as the acting Director of National Intelligence. This despite the fact that he has absolutely zero experience in intelligence and has abused his current role as Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to pursue fake mortgage fraud cases against Trump’s perceived political enemies.

It’s no wonder he’s been nicknamed “Little Trump.” This the kind of unprincipled henchman that Trump wants to do whatever he asks, the truth be damned. It’s hard to overstate the danger of having someone like this in a position responsible for keeping the country safe by providing unvarnished truth. Take note of Trump’s remark upon the appointment: In his new part-time position—yes, Trump didn’t even think he needs someone in the job full-time—Pulte “may find out some things about the rigged elections.”

The other is the firing of correspondent Scott Pelley from 60 Minutes, the nation’s top-rated news program, after 22 years of service there and 37 years overall with CBS News. This because he dared to question in a meeting the firing of several veteran colleagues and to criticize the intentions of his new Trump-appeasing bosses who have pushed him to—as he put it—“inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” and “include assertions that are unverified.”

“The waste is heartbreaking,” Pelley said in a statement after his firing. He wasn’t referring to himself. He was talking about the madness of tearing apart a successful, money-making journalistic institution that has topped the ratings every Sunday night for most of the last half century.

We’re talking about a program that painstakingly gathers facts, asks hard questions of the elite, demands answers and speaks truth to power. It has depended on journalists and leadership who believe in the duty of a free press to challenge authority and expose corruption and wrongdoing without fear or favor.

I urge you to read Pelley’s full statement after his firing if you haven’t already. He dismisses the claim that the show had become antiquated or otherwise lost sway, as opposed to the likely truth that it failed to serve the political agenda of its new owners, the right-wing Ellison family.

“For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world,” he wrote. “This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.”

Pelley also noted that the takeover by Bari Weiss, the founder of The Free Press who has no broadcast television experience, has included allowing politicians to choose their interviewers—and that “incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc.”

And why, oh why, is this fabled institution—this “number-one program in America for decades” that has sought to deliver stories with “integrity, quality and humanity”—being torn apart? The answer is both stupidly simple and sinister:

When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.

He concludes like this: “The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well…I pray for a day when…sanity, competence, and courage return.”

He’s not the only one.

It is, as Pelley states, such a waste. But our response cannot be forlorn or passive. America’s future depends on rejecting these attacks on a strong free press and advancing leaders in the public and private sectors that are committed to democracy over autocracy and the needs of people over the billionaire class. In a sane world, this would not even need to be asserted nor be a tall order.

Kentucky’s retiring senior senator, Mitch McConnell, a man who had the opportunity to use his power to help ensure Trump’s conviction after January 6, now says the right thing about someone like Pulte. Here’s his statement:

Very few Senate-confirmable positions come with statutory eligibility requirements. There are good reasons why the Director of National Intelligence is one of them. Anyone performing this role of such immense public trust must have the extensive national security experience required by statute, and no nominee who falls short of this requirement will earn my vote.

In another era, these words would be an uplifting example of elected Republicans credibly voicing their duty to uphold the Constitution and serve the country. But these words from the former Republican majority leader mean little now. He abandoned his duty. He helped make possible Trump’s reckless and corrupt second term, the rise of sycophantic operatives like Bill Pulte and the demise of serious professionals like Scott Pelley.

The task of breaking this hostile regime’s power rests with all of us. There are 150 days until the November midterms.

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