With the tax and spending bill known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” passing the Senate, it appears that the legacy media’s evening newscasts mostly chose to offer up a rehash of their coverage ahead of the Senate vote. Critical in spots and argumentative in others, and in stark contrast with coverage garnered by big legislation secured for the Biden administration.

The stark departure from this norm was on NBC Nightly News, which actually labeled the vote outcome as both “a big victory” and “major triumph” for President Donald Trump. WATCH:

TOM LLAMAS: Now to Washington, and that big victory for President Trump. His massive budget bill narrowly passing the Senate, but tonight, there’s still a divide among Republicans. Ryan Nobles is tracking it all for us.

NOBLES: Tonight, the dramatic moment: Vice President Vance breaking a tie vote.

JD VANCE: The vice president votes in the affirmative. The bill as amended is passed.

NOBLES: In a major win for President Trump, the Senate narrowly passing what he calls his big beautiful bill. Which extends the Trump tax cuts, increases border security, and eliminates taxes on tips and overtime.

Effusive language post-legislative wins seems to be the norm during Democratic administrations, which makes NBC’s framing all the more jarring. The rest of the item followed the previous day’s coverage, focusing on Republican opposition to the bill.

CBS also followed the previous day’s coverage, spotlighting a potential victim of the so-called Medicaid cuts (which are actually illegal aliens and able-bodied individuals who can work but won’t). In an interesting twist, the showcase is the grandmother of a West Virginia GOP state senator. That’s pretty granular and not something produced spontaneously.

Over at ABC the rage is the same, the saltiness is the same, and the set piece used in framing OBBB as something from the Apocalypse is the same. “Tax cuts for the wealthy”, and “Medicaid Cuts”.

DAVID MUIR: We turn now to the breaking news from Washington tonight. President Trump’s spending and tax cut bill passing in the Senate. It was very close. Vice president JD Vance with the tie breaking vote. The bill includes major cuts to Medicaid. It includes roughly $4 trillion in tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, and estimated to add $3.3 trillion to the debt over ten years. So, what does it now face in the House? Here’s Mary Bruce.

MARY BRUCE: Tonight, President Trump’s sweeping bill slashing taxes for the wealthy and boosting spending for immigration enforcement squeaking through the Senate with a tie from breaking vote from the vice president.

JD VANCE: On this vote, the yays are 50, the nays are 50. The Senate being evenly divided, the Vice President votes in the affirmative. The bill as amended is passed.

BRUCE: The bill features roughly $4 trillion in tax cuts, mostly for the wealthiest Americans.

JOHN THUNE: That will spur economic growth and more jobs and opportunities for American workers.

BRUCE: It also fulfills the president’s campaign promise to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime. And it includes deep cuts to Medicaid, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says will cause 11.8 million Americans to lose their health insurance over the next decade.

David Muir and Mary Bruce, no surprise, ran the most adversarial item on passage of the OBBB. One can only imagine what that outrage will look like upon final passage.

Click “expand” to view full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective network evening newscasts. 

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT

7/1/25

6:38 PM

DAVID MUIR: We turn now to the breaking news from Washington tonight. President Trump’s spending and tax cut bill passing in the Senate. It was very close. Vice president JD Vance with the tie breaking vote. The bill includes major cuts to Medicaid. It includes roughly $4 trillion in tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, and estimated to add $3.3 trillion to the debt over ten years. So, what does it now face in the House? Here’s Mary Bruce.

MARY BRUCE: Tonight, President Trump’s sweeping bill slashing taxes for the wealthy and boosting spending for immigration enforcement squeaking through the Senate with a tie from breaking vote from the vice president.

JD VANCE: On this vote, the yays are 50, the nays are 50. The Senate being evenly divided, the Vice President votes in the affirmative. The bill as amended is passed.

BRUCE: The bill features roughly $4 trillion in tax cuts, mostly for the wealthiest Americans.

JOHN THUNE: That will spur economic growth and more jobs and opportunities for American workers.

BRUCE: It also fulfills the president’s campaign promise to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime. And it includes deep cuts to Medicaid, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says will cause 11.8 million Americans to lose their health insurance over the next decade.

CHUCK SCHUMER: The American people will not forget the betrayal — the betrayal that took place today.

BRUCE: Three Republican senators voting no, Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska delivering the deciding yes vote, after negotiating an Alaska exception for some cuts to food stamps. She called her decision “agonizing”.

RYAN NOBLES: Senator Paul said your vote was a bailout for Alaska, at the expense of the rest of the country. That’s what Senator Paul said. I didn’t say it, ma’am.

BRUCE: After a long pause —

LISA MURKOWSKI: Do I like this bill? No. I try to take care of Alaska’s interests, but I know — I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don’t like that.

BRUCE: But in Florida, where he was touring a new detention facility for undocumented immigrants, President Trump thrilled.

BENNY JOHNSON: The big, beautiful bill just passed —

DONALD TRUMP: Oh, thank you. Wow. Thank you.

BRUCE: Trump has repeatedly pledged he would not cut Medicaid. He now insists the cuts in the bill only target waste, fraud, and abuse. Are you saying that the estimated 11.8 million people who could lose their health coverage, that is all waste, fraud, and abuse?

TRUMP: I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s going to be a very much smaller number than that, and that number will be waste, fraud, and abuse.

BRUCE: What analysis are you seeing?

TRUMP: I’m not seeing a number, but I know it’s much less than the number you gave.

BRUCE: And David, the president is also lashing out at Elon Musk, who criticized the bill, which would eliminate the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles. The today, the president threatening to go after musk using the very agency musk himself created, saying perhaps it’s time for doge to take a hard look at his government contracts. As for the future of the bill, tonight, it is now in the hands of the House, where it is already facing resistance from some Republicans. David.

MUIR: All right. Mary Bruce, I know you’ll be watching it for us. Thank you.

CBS EVENING NEWS

7/1/25

6:34:00

JOHN DICKERSON:. The Republican-controlled Senate today passed the president’s massive tax cut and spending bill. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the plan would add $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next ten years. Because spending outpaces tax revenue, the government will have to borrow, and future generations will have to repay with interest. $3 trillion is a big number, so here is one way to think about it. There are about 97 million cars in America. If you wanted to buy every single one of those cars, you could do it with $3.3 trillion, and you would have a $400 billion left over for maintenance. In more practical terms, $3.3 trillion divided equally amounts to $25,000 for every Household in America. Some of the biggest cuts and the president’s bill will affect Medicaid. The joint federal state program covers care for about six in ten nursing home residents. Reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns has that story.

CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS: Jason Barrett visits his 94-year-old grandmother, Ruth Raney, at the Martinsburg HealthCare center in West Virginia as often as he can.

What does she mean to you?

JASON BARRETT: She means everything.

HUEY-BURNS: Medicaid will soon be covering the cost of Raney’s care, putting her among the 77% of West Virginia nursing home residents who rely on it. Nationwide, that number is 63%. But that funding could be cut by roughly $1 trillion by the massive spending bill now in Congress. The concern is, those cuts could lead to reduced staffing and tightened eligibility requirements and long-term care facilities nationwide. The House version of the bill would require states to fill the funding gaps and some may come up short.

HUEY-BURNS: If there are changes or cuts to Medicaid, are you concerned about your ability to operate?

NANCY MASON: I would be.

HUEY-BURNS: Nancy Mason runs the nursing home where Ruth Raney lives.

MASON: It helps to meet our operational expenses: everything from pharmaceuticals to food to utilities, to recruitment of staff, you know, all of our wages.

HUEY-BURNS: Essentially everything that helps keep this place running and serving the residents here relies on that funding.

MASON: A large portion of it, yes.

BARRETT: We have to get to a place where we are balancing our budget again. I don’t think we do that on the backs of our nursing home residents.

HUEY-BURNS: Barrett isn’t just a concerned grandson. He is also a Republican West Virginia state senator.

If the federal government changes the way that they contribute to the Medicaid program essentially, do you think West Virginia can pick up the gaps?

BARRETT: Pick up those gaps entirely? No, I don’t believe so. A complete backfill of cuts to Medicaid would be very crippling to our state budget.

HUEY-BURNS: Now, the bill’s passage in the Senate today is really just one hurdle. Now the hard work begins. Before it can even get to the president’s desk, at first has to go through the House, and some key Republicans over there say that they are opposed to it at this point, with a vote expected tomorrow. John.

DICKERSON: Caitlin Huey-Burns on Capitol Hill, Thank you.

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS

7/1/25

6:38 PM

TOM LLAMAS: Now to Washington, and that big victory for President Trump. His massive budget bill narrowly passing the Senate, but tonight, there’s still a divide among Republicans. Ryan Nobles is tracking it all for us.

NOBLES: Tonight, the dramatic moment: Vice President Vance breaking a tie vote.

JD VANCE: The vice president votes in the affirmative. The bill as amended is passed.

NOBLES: In a major win for President Trump, the Senate narrowly passing what he calls his big beautiful bill. Which extends the Trump tax cuts, increases border security, and eliminates taxes on tips and overtime.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: As President Trump would say: promises made, promises kept.

NOBLES: But three Republicans and every Democrat voting no.

CHUCK SCHUMER: Republicans passed the biggest tax breaks for billionaires ever seen.

NOBLES: Ultimately, it came down to Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, who negotiated a special carve-out for Alaska to soften the blow of the changes to Medicaid, drawing the ire of Kentucky’s Rand Paul who voted no.

RAND PAUL: They chose to add more pork and subsidies for Alaska to secure that.

NOBLES: We pressed Murkowski. 

Senator Paul said this was, that your vote was a bail-out for Alaska at the expense of the rest of the country.

LISA MURKOWSKI: Oh, my…

NOBLES: That’s what Senator Paul said. Just asking for your response.

MURKOWSKI: My response is I have an obligation to the people of the state of Alaska. And I live up to that every single day.

NOBLES: Now, the bill goes back to the House. President Trump optimistic.

TRUMP: Actually, I think it will be easier in the House than it was in the Senate.

NOBLES: And responding to new criticism of the bill from Elon Musk, who says it’s full of, quote, “insane spending”. The president posting, “without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.”

TRUMP: DOGE is going to look at Musk, and if DOGE looks at Musk, we’re going to save a fortune.

NOBLES: While Speaker Johnson insisting he can get the bill through the House again, despite a razor thin Republican majority.

JOHNSON: A lot of work ahead, but that’s the job. So we’ll get it done.

LLAMAS: Ryan joins us now live from Capitol Hill. And Ryan, we saw that moment in your piece with Senator Murkowski. And now you have new reporting about a Republican divide in the House?

NOBLES: Yeah, that’s right, Tom. House conservatives have said they are unhappy with the changes that the Senate made to this bill. But GOP leaders are confident that with President Trump’s help, they will get the votes they need to get this bill passed by Friday. Tom.

LLAMAS: Ryan Nobles for us.