Bari Weiss’s excuse for killing a 60 Minutes story about the Trump administration’s deportations proves just how poorly suited she is to be editor-in-chief of CBS News. 

In a call with CBS staff Monday morning, Weiss offered a flimsy explanation for her decision to hold a segment reporting on the experiences of inmates held at CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration previously deported Venezuelan immigrants the government claimed were gang members.  

Weiss initially claimed the segment was “not ready” because the Trump administration hadn’t deigned to comment, according to internal CBS sources. 

But her statement to staff was different: “We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera,” she said on the call, apparently believing that the testimony of inmates at CECOT wasn’t enough for a story. 

“Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That’s my north star and I hope it’s yours, too,” she added, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter. 

Her decision makes clear that she cares more about staying on the Trump administration’s good side than actual journalism. 

Ben Goggin, deputy tech editor at NBC News pointed out that Weiss had made a rookie mistake. “Of course, most journalists know that oftentimes people who are the subject of negative reporting don’t want to speak on camera or on the record,” he wrote on Bluesky. 

In a leaked email Sunday evening, CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who’d worked on the story, explained to her colleagues that she’d reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the White House, but heard nothing back. She argued that the government’s unwillingness to comment shouldn’t have killed the story.

“If the standard for airing a story becomes ‘the government must agree to be interviewed,’ then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast,” she wrote. “We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer of the state.”

We bet you didn’t have this on your 2025 bingo card: Vice President JD Vance just quoted rapper Nicki Minaj defending white people.

Following Minaj’s appearance at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest this weekend, Vance took to X Monday to tout that he’d finally found an actually famous person willing to be publicly associated with MAGA’s hate-fueled brand of conservative politics.

“Nicki Minaj said something at Amfest that was really profound. I’m paraphrasing, but she said, ‘just because I want little black girls to think they’re beautiful doesn’t mean I need to put down little girls with blonde hair and blue eyes,’” Vance wrote in a post on X Monday. “We all got wrapped up over the last few years in zero sum thinking. This was because the people who think they rule the world pit us against one another.”

Minaj’s actual comment was about Black women not replicating the discrimination they’d experienced for their appearances. “We were not being represented and not being admired for our beauty. If we felt like that as Black women, why would we want to do that to other women? Why would we now need to make other people downplay their beauty, so that we can feel—no that’s not how it works. I don’t need someone with blonde hair and blue eyes to downplay their beauty because I know my beauty,” she said.

It’s no surprise that this particular message stuck with Vance. The vice president has repeatedly commented, with no sense of irony whatsoever, on how he doesn’t want to feel sorry for being white anymore.

To be clear, in the United States white households have more than three times the wealth of Black or Hispanic households, and white men have always enjoyed a majority control over the country’s politics. It is the weakest among them—like Vance—who view the empowerment of people who have been systemically disadvantaged as a threat.

Vance readily complains about feeling put down by the attitudes of “people who think they rule the world,” while making racist jokes from his perch as the second most powerful man in the country.

Unfortunately for MAGA, Minaj is far from the perfect spokesperson. While speaking on stage at AmericaFest, the rapper gushed over the vice president, referring to Vance as an “assassin.” This wouldn’t have been notable except that she was speaking to Erika Kirk at the time, whose husband was actually assassinated earlier this year. Yikes.

But other high-profile celebrities haven’t been willing to play ball. Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, and SZA have all slammed the White House for using their music in order to dress-up their ghoulish policies for a younger audience.

Kash Patel made the FBI buy a custom fleet of armored BMW X5 for him to ride around in, according to MS NOW. The standard version of the X5 costs about $70,000. 

“It offers protection not just against attacks with blunt instruments and handguns, but also against the world’s most widely used firearm, the AK-47,” the car’s description reads. 

Patel’s FBI spokesperson claimed—without evidence—that this is actually saving the American taxpayer money. 

“Government agencies, including the FBI, routinely evaluate, replace and update vehicle fleets based on usage, security needs or budgetary decisions,” Ben Williamson told MS NOW. “The specific decisions referenced in this article were evaluated partly as a way to save taxpayers millions by picking cheaper selections or making cost structures more efficient.”

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