'I'm glad' Mark Warner praises the media for tempering Trump's election fraud claims

Looking at the coverage of President Donald's Trump's national address on the vulnerabilities of America's election system, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner praised the media on Sunday, expressing that he was glad to see most outlets not treat it as serious news. However, the lawmaker did criticize CBS for airing Trump’s speech and presenting his claims as what he described as "serious news". 

Last week, Trump gave an address to the country in which he attempted to frame the state of U.S. election security as unjustifiable, claiming that the system was vulnerable and voter rolls included hundreds of thousands of non-citizen voters. He used his speech to pressure Congress into passing his voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act, which critics claim will suppress voter rights. “There are so many absurdities and falsehoods in Trump’s Thursday night speech," Warner told host Margaret Brennan on CBS News's "Face the Nation". While Trump said his claims were based on the declassified documents of multiple investigations into the 2020 elections, the media was quick to fact-check his claims.  "I’m glad that most media treated it not as serious news. And I know some folks at your network, the journalists, I have huge respect for,” Warner added. 

Before the address, the White House took the rare step of formally asking the broadcast networks to take the speech live, and while NBC and ABC chose not to do so, Fox News and CBS broadcast the address live. This led to Trump targeting the two networks that left out his speech, calling them "fake news" and calling for their licenses to be cancelled during his speech. Thus, Warner further criticized CBS for making the decision to cover the news. 

In a separate interview with CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil, Warner further criticized the network for giving in to the president's terms. “It’s incumbent on you and any responsible journalist to push back on these falsehoods,” he told the anchor. He further added that unless responsible journalists and the American people step up and "say our system,  which has stood the test of time, is not going to be undermined by this kind of falsehoods, then, you know, we all have to live with those responsibilities."

However, Dokupil pointed out that it was the exact thing that the journalists were trying to do by bringing in speakers who would stand up and say the truth. “We agree, you and I, that this is a vitally, vitally important topic, and the president has a terrible track record on it," the anchor said, adding that Warner was invited to share the analysis and pushback for the people. On Fox News's part, despite being the president’s favorite network, the outlet faced challenges to carry the address at least without a clear disclaimer that the claims of the president were unverified.