CBS Evening News host Tony Dokoupil agrees that President Donald Trump’s plot to seize Greenland is not absurd.
The anchor, 45, met with Pennsylvania Senators John Fetterman and Dave McCormick on the Pittsburgh leg of his tour on Friday, just one day before Trump’s announcement of fresh tariffs against allies to force the Greenland matter.
Dokoupil asked Republican McCormick, 60, “how we get” Denmark’s territory, before the anchor quickly added, “do we even need it?”
“You agree that it is a strategically important potential asset for the U.S., but Denmark, though, says it’s not for sale,” Dokoupil said.
Addressing Fetterman—who has referred to himself as an “independent voice in the Democratic Party”—Dokoupil asked: “Do you think military force is really an option from the Trump administration?”
Fetterman, 56, rallied against military intervention before arguing, “And now I also remind people it’s actually closer to us geographically, North America, to Denmark and Europe, so technically that, too, so it’s not an absurd idea at all.”
Dokoupil agreed, “Not at all.”
The senator, who suffered a massive stroke in 2022, continued: “But obviously not showing up with the military and take over. It’s the size, in terms of the population, of Harrisburg. I mean, you’re not going to invade.”
Dokoupil then turned to McCormick, asking: “Because it is of strategic importance for defense purposes and others. How do we get it? Do we even need it?”
“You know, I was, just a couple months ago met with the prime minister of Denmark, and they are welcoming the United States playing a more active role. There’s an open door, I think, for diplomatic negotiations, for commercial negotiations,” McCormick said.
McCormick added: “I agree with the senator that we don’t, we shouldn’t use military force, but I think we need to have a strategic foothold, and I think there is a path to it, and I think the Trump administration will get there.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS News for comment.
Some X users accused Dokoupil of “sanewashing” and “capitulating” to Trump’s grand plan in response to CBS News sharing the interview with the Pennsylvania senators on the platform.
The anchor has faced extensive criticism from the public and media figures in his first two weeks on CBS Evening News, while also struggling with ratings.
Dokoupil’s audience quickly declined over the course of his first shows, with Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel figures showing that Dokoupil had more than 4.4 million total viewers for his first show, which decreased day by day until hitting 3.9 million on Thursday for an overall 11.4% loss over the week.
Dokoupil was installed in his role by new CBS News boss Bari Weiss, who made a lot of changes to the storied network since her arrival last year. Weiss has overseen a “pro-America” change in editorial direction that has been criticized as too friendly to the Trump administration.
Alongside greeting Trump by exchanging kisses on the cheek, Weiss has stalled two 60 Minutes segments from being aired—reportedly with the assumption that Trump wouldn’t like them—and has changed editorial practices to ensure that all “sensitive” content gets her nod of approval before being broadcast.
