Tony Dokoupil followed up his rough opening night in the CBS Evening News anchor’s chair by gushing over Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Dokoupil concluded Tuesday night’s broadcast with a segment about the “many lives and many jobs” of Rubio, who is not only Secretary of State, but interim National Security Adviser, acting National Archivist, and head of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“Whatever you think of his politics, you’ve got to admit: it’s an impressive resume,” Dokoupil, 45, said.
“And now, AI memes have added to that portfolio, casting Secretary Rubio as the new governor of Minnesota, the new shah of Iran, the prime minister of Greenland, the new manager of Manchester United, the new head of Hilton hotels, and—highest of high honors of all—the new Michelin Man."
Dokoupil—who was broadcasting from Miami, where he was raised—added that Rubio, the former senator of Florida, has many “hometown fans.”
“Marco Rubio: we salute you,” Dokoupil concluded. “You are the ultimate Florida man.”
CBS News has been contacted for comment.
The Independent reported that CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss is planning lighthearted segments on the nightly broadcast they’re calling “bon bons.”
The White House certainly approved of Tuesday’s entry. “WE LOVE @SecRubio,” the administration’s Rapid Response team wrote on X along with the clip.
Dokoupil, who joined CBS in August 2016 and was most recently co-anchor of the network’s morning news program, introduced the more conservative-friendly evening news show by claiming that “legacy media” had mishandled stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop, Hillary Clinton’s emails, and “the president’s fitness for office.”
“On too many stories, the press has missed the story,” Dokoupil said. “Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.”
Dokoupil, a former Daily Beast reporter, attended Miami’s prestigious $53,000-per-year Gulliver Preparatory School, which he described in his 2014 memoir as “the best private school in South Florida.” He later graduated first in his class at George Washington University, where he studied business, and then enrolled in a PhD program at Columbia University in New York City.
Dokoupil met his current wife, MS NOW anchor Katy Tur, in the mid-2010s while at work at the network once known as MSNBC. They live in one of Brooklyn’s most expensive enclaves with their two children.
Dokoupil has two other children from a previous marriage. They live in Israel.
