(Daily Mail) CBS staffers are reportedly turning on anchor Norah O’Donnell over her tweet insisting the FBI didn’t take Donald Trump‘s passport as her ratings slump.
On Monday, O’Donnell tweeted that a ‘DOJ official’ told her that the FBI was ‘not in possession’ of Trump’s three passports, contradicting the former president’s claims that three of his passports were taken during the raid at Mar-a-Lago.
Angry CBS sources told the New York Post that the anchor allegedly broke the outlet’s strict ‘two-source’ protocol when she tweeted the claim.
‘She’s desperate,’ one staffer said of O’Donnell, whose show is falling further behind ABC’s David Muir and NBC’s Lester Holt.
‘It doesn’t look good. If you’re going to attack the POTUS and call him a liar you shouldn’t tweet the thing.’
Several CBS staffer said they were upset with anchor Norah O’Donnell’s tweet insisting the FBI had not taken Donald Trump’s passports, as it was revealed they had
Staffers claim O’Donnell broke the outlet’s strict ‘two-source’ policy and that she was getting desperate when she made the tweet amid further decline in ratings against ABC and NBC
The former president blasted the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, which he watched from New York, and announced that they had taken three of his passports
On Tuesday, Trump said the DOJ and FBI had returned his travel documents to him
Earlier on Tuesday, it was reported that Trump’s passports were returned to him following the former president’s criticism of the raid.
‘The DOJ and FBI just returned my passports. Thank you!’ Trump posted to Truth Social. ‘Unfortunately, when they Raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, 8 days ago, they just opened their arms and grabbed everything in sight, much as a common criminal would do. This shouldn’t happen in America!’
Despite the sloppy reporting from O’Donnell, CBS defended the star anchor, claiming that the passports were not in possession of the FBI when she made her inquiry.
In a statement, a CBS rep said: ‘Donald Trump publicly alleged that his passports were ‘stolen’ and in the hands of the FBI.
‘As part of the normal reporting process, our reporters inquired with the DOJ about whether they had Donald Trump’s passports. They replied that they did not.
‘Our reporting reflected that; it was true then and it is true now that the FBI was not in possession of his passports at the time. And as the tweet thread makes clear, any items that were not contained in the warrant would be returned.’
Some staffers, however, slammed the whole incident as ‘bad journalism’ and said it makes the outlet unprofessional.
‘This is an embarrassment for CBS that the face of your network can’t even make a second call to a Justice Department rep,’ one source said. ‘It’s journalism 101.’
The incident comes as O’Donnell saw her rating drop even further in recent weeks On June 20, O’Donnell ranked third in the ratings behind Holt and Muir.
O’Donnell racked up 4.7 million total viewers, trailing Holt’s 6.5 million and Muir’s 7.9 million, according to Nielsen ratings data.
According to the latest Neilsen ratings, O’Donnell fell to 4.4 million, unable to close the gap against Holt who is on vacation and had Tom Llamas filling in for him.
In all, FBI agents took 27 boxes of documents when it raided Mar-a-Lago last week, according to the federal warrant, but among them included Trump’s passports
The president complained about the seizure on Monday on Truth Social
Taylor Budowich shared the message from the National Security Division’s Jay Bratt apparently saying two expired passports and an active diplomatic one were taken
Trump returned 15 boxes of material to the National Archives in January, but then the Justice Department issued a subpoena for additional materials in May – with officials going to Mar-a-Lago in June to pick it up.
At least one Trump lawyer signed a document saying that all the material with classified markings had been returned.
The FBI’s affidavit to obtain the search warrant to raid Mar-a-Lago could provide additional details about what investigators believed remained.
A federal judge who approved the warrant has now scheduled a hearing on whether to unseal the affidavit for Thursday.
It comes after Trump furiously called for the immediate release of the ‘completely unredacted’ document on Monday.
The DOJ is expected to argue against making the affidavit public, having formally opposed its release on Monday in a court filing.
It warned the affidavit’s release will ‘likely chill future cooperation’ from witnesses as its investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents continues.
