CBS News’ new, controversial editor-in-chief is at odds with the MAGA world she was reportedly hired to placate.
The Trump administration lashed out at the network and its MAGA-friendly boss, Bari Weiss, branding CBS reporting “fake news” after Weiss publicly questioned the administration’s hostile immigration crackdown.
Weiss, 41, promoted a CBS News report on X on Monday revealing that just 14 percent of those arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Donald Trump’s first year back in office had violent criminal records.
“Is Trump really deporting the worst of the worst?” Weiss wrote. “Scoop here from Camilo Montoya-Galvez who got DHS internal docs.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s spokesperson then pounced on her statement.
“Drug trafficking, Distribution of child pornography, burglary, fraud, DUI, embezzlement, solicitation of a minor, human smuggling are all categorized as “non violent crimes,” Tricia McLaughlin wrote.
“Like we said, ~70% of those illegal aliens arrested under [President] Trump and [Secretary] Noem have pending criminal charges or prior convictions.
Meanwhile, the White House Communications team took aim at CBS correspondent Ed O’Keefe after he also shared the report.
“The Fake News seems to think that illegal alien drug traffickers, drunk drivers, burglars, and those with weapons charges—whom they classify as ‘nonviolent’ offenders—should be left alone, allowed to roam freely within the United States,” the official White House account replied.
“Not under this administration.”
Trump, 79, campaigned on a pledge to deport the “worst of the worst” and expel violent criminals from the United States in a sweeping deportation drive. While his administration claims it is delivering on that promise, a growing body of reporting has contradicted those assertions.
A June report from the right-leaning Cato Institute found that 65 percent of people detained by ICE had no criminal convictions whatsoever, while 93 percent had no violent convictions. At the same time, many of the criminals touted by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on a department website launched in December were merely convicted of “traffic offenses,” the Daily Beast exclusively reported—despite Noem herself being a serial traffic offender.
Other detainees, like Florida father Roberto Mosquera, were even falsely labeled killers by the administration. Public records show Mosquera was never convicted—or even charged—with homicide, the Daily Beast reported in October.
This is not the first time Weiss has broken ranks with MAGA. Her anti-woke Substack publication, The Free Press, slammed the Trump administration in a blistering editorial criticizing Noem’s defense of a Border Patrol agent who fatally shot VA nurse Alex Pretti, 37.
Titled “Kristi Noem’s Reckless Lies,” the editorial—penned by “The Editors”—slams the president and his administration for treating their own supporters as “easy to fool.”
“How else to explain the messaging this weekend from his administration that asks loyal Republicans to disbelieve their lying eyes?” the piece concludes.
Weiss continues to helm The Free Press while also overseeing CBS News. She was tapped to lead the network by nepo-billionaire media baron and Trump ally David Ellison, a move that fueled speculation that her appointment was aimed at currying favor with the former president as Ellison pursues a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Last year, Weiss greeted Trump with a kiss.
The Columbia graduate sparked outrage at the beginning of her CBS tenure after making an eleventh-hour decision to pull a 60 Minutes segment detailing conditions at a notorious El Salvador megaprison housing Venezuelan men deported under Trump-era policies.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and CBS for comment.
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