Thursday's Final Word

We weren’t kidding when we told you that ABC News is by far the most biased of the three broadcast network news divisions. An earlier MRC study found that Vice President Kamala Harris drew 100% positive coverage, while former President Donald Trump’s coverage was 93% negative. And yet ABC found a way to outdo themselves. WATCH as World News Tonight anchor David Muir and Chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce do their best to provide cover for the McDonald’s portion of Harris’s embarrassing interview on MSNBC (click “expand” to view transcript): https://www.mrctv.org/node/589965 DAVID MUIR: There's another moment making news. You know former President Trump has repeatedly questioned whether Vice President Harris actually worked at McDonald's. He did so again today. The vice president was asked about this, and this is how she answered. STEPHANIE RUHLE: Because your opponent almost every day seems to be talking about this, so, I just want to ask you, yes or no: at any point in your life, have you served two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions… RUHLE, HARRIS IN UNISON: On a sesame seed bun. RUHLE: …working at a McDonald’s, yes or no, that's it. HARRIS: I have. RUHLE: Okay. Now the other job. Now the other job. HARRIS: But it was not a small job, like, I did the fries. RUHLE: Okay. HARRIS: I mean, I, you know…. RUHLE: For a small period of time. But then, let me ask about a big job… HARRIS: But…but to your point, if you don't mind… RUHLE: Please. HARRIS: …before you get to the big job. It’s a- there's -- part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald's is because there are people who work at McDonald's in our country who are trying to raise a fam-- I worked there as a student. I was a kid. Who work there trying to raise families and pay rent on that. And I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people. And what our responsibility then is to meet those needs. MUIR: Mary, it would seem the vice president clearly proud of her time at McDonald',s and looking to turn her attention to the workers who actually depend on these jobs to support their families. BRUCE: Exactly. And Harris trying to use this experience to argue that she understands working class Americans in a way she says Trump never will. David? MUIR: Mary Bruce with us again tonight. Mary, thank you. This ridiculous segment was an add-on to an equally sycophantic report on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Washington and joint presser with Harris. It must be said, Bruce has transitioned seamlessly from being the Biden White House’s chief apple polisher to Kamala Harris’s. Seamlessly, I tell you. Muir and Bruce’s explanation of the McDonald’s bit at the end there sounds a lot like two campaign comms professionals trying to browbeat “context” into the heads of reporters. Both made sure to let viewers know what takeaways they should draw from the Harris-Ruhla fiasco. It should be noted that this is the ONLY portion of the interview that was spotlighted on World News Tonight. Granted, the rest of the interview is significantly harder to spin than the McDonald’s question.  Regime Media, doing Regime Media things. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on ABC World News Tonight on Thursday, September 26th, 2024: ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT 9/26/24 6:42 PM DAVID MUIR: This evening, Ukraine's President Zelenskiy at The White House, meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris. Her vow, if she's elected president, that she will stand with Ukraine against Vladimir Putin. And what former President Donald Trump said about the future of Ukraine in the last 24 hours. Here's Mary Bruce. KAMALA HARRIS: Good afternoon, everyone. MARY BRUCE: Tonight, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy at her side, Vice President Kamala Harris declaring that she will remain steadfast behind Ukraine until it defeats Russia. HARRIS: I've been proud to stand with Ukraine. I will continue to stand with Ukraine and I will work to ensure Ukraine prevails in this war. BRUCE: It comes after former President Trump refused to say in the ABC News debate whether he wants Ukraine to win the war. MUIR: Just to clarify on the question, do you believe it's in the U.S.'s best interest for Ukraine to win this war, yes or no? DONALD TRUMP: I think it's in the U.S..'s best interest to get this war finished and, just get it done. Negotiate a deal, because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed. BRUCE: Trump says if he's elected, he could negotiate an end to the war in 24 hours. But Zelenskiy dismissing that claim in a new interview, telling The New Yorker, "Trump doesn't really know how to stop the war, even if he might think he knows how. With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it, the less you understand." Zelenskiy also attacking Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance as "too radical" for floating a plan that would allow Russia to keep the Ukrainian territory it has captured, and block Ukraine from joining NATO. Today, Harris saying that's exactly what Vladimir Putin wants. HARRIS: These proposals are the same of those of Putin. And let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable. BRUCE: And now Trump taking aim at Zelenskiy, saying he's the one who refuses to end the war by not making concessions to Russia. TRUMP: We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelenskiy. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn't have been better than the situation you have right now. BRUCE: And Trump just announcing he will be meeting with Zelenskiy tomorrow morning at Trump Tower. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris will be here in battleground Arizona, focusing on immigration, of course, another top issue for voters, David. MUIR: Visiting the border, Mary. And while we have you, there’s another moment making news. You know former President Trump has repeatedly questioned whether Vice President Harris actually worked at McDonald's. He did so again today. The vice president was asked about this, and this is how she answered. STEPHANIE RUHLE: Because your opponent almost every day seems to be talking about this, so, I just want to ask you, yes or no: at any point in your life, have you served two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions… RUHLE, HARRIS IN UNISON: On a sesame seed bun. RUHLE: …working at a McDonald’s, yes or no, that's it. HARRIS: I have. RUHLE: Okay. Now the other job. Now the other job. HARRIS: But it was not a small job, like, I did the fries. RUHLE: Okay. HARRIS: I mean, I, you know…. RUHLE: For a small period of time. But then, let me ask about a big job… HARRIS: But…but to your point, if you don't mind… RUHLE: Please. HARRIS: …before you get to the big job. It’s a- there's -- part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald's is because there are people who work at McDonald's in our country who are trying to raise a fam-- I worked there as a student. I was a kid. Who work there trying to raise families and pay rent on that. And I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people. And what our responsibility then is to meet those needs. MUIR: Mary, it would seem the vice president clearly proud of her time at McDonald',s and looking to turn her attention to the workers who actually depend on these jobs to support their families. BRUCE: Exactly. And Harris trying to use this experience to argue that she understands working class Americans in a way she says Trump never will. David? MUIR: Mary Bruce with us again tonight. Mary, thank you.  

Earlier this month, executives from some of the most influential Big Tech companies met with the Biden administration to discuss strategies to tackle the looming crisis induced by AI’s energy-intensive training.Government officials, including White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard, National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi, Senior Adviser to the President for International Climate Policy John Podesta, and more, met with numerous tech industry leaders, including Alphabet President Ruth Porat, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.This isn’t the first time the Biden administration has buddied up with big business to address an energy issue while simultaneously enacting policies that nullify its own efforts to strengthen the American industrial and energy base.To the delight of OpenAI, the Biden administration announced that it plans to invest in data center infrastructure projects following the discussion. In response, OpenAI told CNBC that the company “appreciate[s] the White House [for] convening this meeting, as it is a recognition of the priority of infrastructure to create jobs, help guarantee that the benefits of AI are widely distributed, and ensure America will continue to be at the forefront of AI innovation.” Furthermore, the Biden administration announced the launch of a permitting council to provide increased technical assistance to federal, state, and local authorities handling data center permits, an AI data center engagement team to expand loans, grants, and tax credits, a program to “share resources on repurposing closed coal sites with datacenter developers," and other measures to address the data center energy issue.Data centers and fossil fuelsLike much of the rest of the tech industry, AI training heavily relies on data centers, which provide powerful servers and storage capacity for all sorts of ventures. Most of these data centers provide these services by drawing from fossil fuels — the type of energy many globalists and self-styled progressives insist will destroy the world.The demand for these data centers continues to grow. A Goldman Sachs study showed that data center power demand will grow 160% by 2030. And according to the International Energy Agency, “Electricity consumption from data centres, artificial intelligence (AI) and the cryptocurrency sector could double by 2026.” What’s most concerning is that data centers consumed 460 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2022, and that number could rise to over 1,000 TWh in 2026 — close to Japan’s current electricity consumption. That’s because more firms are innovating in AI, and AI is becoming more energy-intensive as it develops in complexity. For example, OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 took 50 times the electricity needed to train GPT-3. Additionally, AI-based programs consume much more energy than basic search engines. A simple ChatGPT prompt response takes nearly 10 times the electricity of a Google search; a ChatGPT prompt response requires 2.9 watt-hours, while a Google search takes 0.3 watt-hours.Relying on green energy to power these data centers does not make sense, but the Biden administration thinks otherwise.CronyismThe Biden administration is currently facing a dire problem. But is the solution to partner with Big Tech to craft AI policy? Big Tech wants to leverage big government to shift public policy in its favor, leading some to call the move a “state buy-in.” What could possibly go wrong?No one would complain if industry and government were simply forming public-private partnerships to address the looming energy crisis. However, the problem lies in the proposals that Big Tech and the Biden administration want to implement. Despite the fact that lawmakers and politicians seemingly understand the urgency of AI's quenchless energy appetite, they continue to push left-wing regulations and non-solutions that thwart the efforts to strengthen America’s energy sector.Big Tech loves these regulations. It supports woke regulations that don’t actually do anything except increase inefficiencies for smaller companies, in addition to other restrictions that crowd out “little tech” from the market while leveraging its own institutional power and capital to expand its market share.In addition to the aforementioned initiatives, the Biden administration also announced commitments to “achieving net zero carbon emissions and to [produce] clean energy.” Even though data centers are reliant on cheap fossil fuels, leftists insist on handouts to the green energy lobby by using expensive and inefficient renewable green energy sources that exacerbate the issue instead of simply finding ways to access cheap and reliable energy.It’s a patternThis isn’t the first time the Biden administration has buddied up with big business to address an energy issue while simultaneously enacting policies that nullify its own efforts to strengthen the American industrial and energy base.In 2022, a bipartisan coalition in Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing. It was also supported and signed by President Joe Biden. The bill was a good start, but with Intel’s recent struggles and shortfalls — and fresh uncertainty surrounding the impact of the highly hyped new TSMC fabrication plant in Arizona — this effort to shore up chip manufacturing is overshadowed by its many flaws. These flaws include woke language, DEI provisions, and, most importantly, climate change and green energy initiatives, even though chip manufacturing is heavily reliant on cheap, reliant, and efficient fossil fuels.What’s more, after announcing billions of taxpayer dollars would go to “strengthen climate resilience,” the Biden-Harris administration put out a press release detailing its expensive progressive climate agenda to reach net-zero carbon emissions.“Net-zero emissions pathways require widespread implementation of currently available and cost-effective options for reducing emissions, including the addition of new wind and solar capacity. Reaching net zero will also require rapid expansion of technologies and methods to remove carbon from the atmosphere to balance remaining emissions, as well as the exploration of additional mitigation and transformative adaptation options,” the administration claimed.As the name of the crisis suggests, the data center energy crisis will only be solved by accessing more reliable energy, not by conspiring with Big Tech to expand its institutional influence and advance the green agenda.

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