Tony Dokoupil Kicks Off CBS Coverage of Trump Speech With Heavy Disclaimer: Most Of What He’s Said On This Topic ‘Has Been False’

CBS News covered President Donald Trump’s address to the nation on election integrity Thursday night — but opened with a heavy disclaimer from anchor Tony Dokoupil.

In a special report at the top of the 9 p.m. ET hour, Dokoupil addressed the CBS audience about why the network decided to cover Thursday night speech — as broadcast network rivals NBC and ABC did not. As part of his opening commentary, Dokoupil called out the president’s rhetoric on the 2020 election for being false.

“We are coming on the air tonight because in a few moments, President Trump will be giving a speech,” Dokoupil said. “It’s a speech expected to address safety and security of American elections — a topic of course that the president has talked a lot about for years now, at times almost constantly. And honestly, much of what the president had said on this topic has been false. Most notably, of course, the claim that he won the 2020 election, when of course he did not.”

Still, CBS News decided to air most of the speech. Dokoupil explained why.

“There is an argument that it’s irresponsible to air the president’s speech tonight,” Dokoupil said. “But this speech will be made, it will be news, and it’s our job to cover the news. And so we are. My CBS News colleagues and I are reporting tonight along with you to make sense of it as you will, and we will.”

CBS stayed with the speech for more than 15 minutes, then dumped out of it before its conclusion with fact checks.

Watch above, via CBS.

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