He has a lot of competition in the media, but few have as big a stage as 60 Minutes elder Scott Pelley. As he continues to step up his attacks on President Donald Trump and the new administration, Pelley is elbowing aside all others to emerge as Trump’s loudest TV critic.

Never a fan of Trump, Pelley has taken his 60 Minutes perch at CBS to offer critical monologues of the president. People took notice even before Trump returned to the White House when Pelley ripped Trump’s Cabinet picks, saying, “Some nominees appear to have no compelling qualifications other than loyalty to Trump.”

However, other than gnawing down his reading glasses, Pelley had no impact. All of Trump’s picks to get a Senate floor vote won.

Then, on Sunday’s show, he opened with another hit on Trump, saying the president was in “defiance of the Constitution” with his agenda. Again, there was no impact since a day later, a federal judge expressed skepticism about any harm the president’s Department of Government Efficiency threatened.

Each week, Secrets teams with the Media Research Center to choose the loudest liberal media scream, and Pelley won again this week. What’s more, Media Research Center Vice President Brent Baker gave Pelley’s rant a score of five out of five screams. That is a rare top score, but one we expect to see more of as the liberal media turns up the heat on Trump as it loses its influence on him and his White House.

From the lead story on Sunday’s 60 Minutes:

SCOTT PELLEY: It’s too soon to tell how serious President Trump is in defiance of the Constitution. In his first 28 days, he signed an order to nullify birthright citizenship for some — a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. And he has closed agencies and frozen spending that Congress mandated by law. Lower courts are holding up many of the president’s priorities, but nothing has risen to the Supreme Court, where these battles over presidential power could rewrite history. Presidents often push limits — FDR’s New Deal, for example — and voters in this last election wanted change. But the scope and speed of Trump’s reach for power may be unprecedented. One example is a 63-year-old agency created by Congress, codified in law and eviscerated by Trump in a matter of days.

KRISTINA DRYE: People are really scared. I think that you know, 12 days ago, people knew where their next paycheck was coming from. They knew how they were going to pay for their kids’ daycare, their medical bills. And then, all gone overnight.

PELLEY: “All gone, overnight,” for Kristina Drye and Adam Dubard — fired this month in the chaotic shutdown of foreign aid distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID. More than 8,000 USAID employees were sent home by the administration.

ADAM DUBARD: They’re not looking for competency. They’re not looking for — if you’re good at your job. They’re looking for pure loyalty tests, and if you don’t give it, you will be punished…

PELLEY: The world’s richest man had cut off assistance to the world’s poorest families. Musk spent nearly $250 million to get Trump and other Republicans elected. He collects billions in taxpayer dollars for his SpaceX rockets.

ANDREW NATSIOS, FORMER USAID ADMINISTRATOR: I think we’re creating a system that violates the separation of powers and the checks and balances that are intended in the Constitution.

PELLEY: Republican Andrew Natsios, former head of USAID, spoke to us in Washington, in part because he is not hearing public appeals to reason from fellow Republicans.

PELLEY TO NATSIOS: How do you view this moment in history?

NATSIOS: I don’t want to be too pessimistic. But it does appear we may be headed towards some sort of a constitutional crisis. I don’t, I hope that doesn’t happen. I pray it doesn’t happen. But it’s certainly concerning to me what’s going on in this city right now.

PELLEY: Is the constitutional order breaking down?

NATSIOS: We’ll see if they refuse to enforce a court order by the Supreme Court. If it gets to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court rules against the administration on something and they refuse to enforce it, then we will have a constitutional crisis.

PELLEY: What happens then?

NATSIOS: Well, I don’t know.

PELLEY: No one knows.

NATSIOS: No one knows.

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Baker, the Steven P.J. Wood senior fellow, explained our pick: “Another hit to whatever remnants are left of 60 Minutes as some sort of dispassionate news magazine which offers a fair and balanced look at complicated issues. Pelley not only matched the Trump Derangement Syndrome of the left, he doubled down on it, presuming the absolute worst motives behind President Trump while taking cheap ideological shots at Elon Musk. This is Exhibit A in why federal spending has never been cut since the end of World War II: The media go to war to discredit anyone who takes on the spending behemoth.”

Rating: Five out of five screams.



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