CBS Mornings sent a reporter to prop up President Donald Trump’s ailing state fair with a Ferris wheel ride in 100-degree heat.
Ed O’Keefe, who has been at CBS since 2018 after over a decade at The Washington Post, is the network’s senior White House and political correspondent, but on Friday morning he was doing loops on the otherwise seemingly deserted Ferris wheel on the National Mall.
As CBS Mornings cut to the Mall, no one was visible milling about or waiting to ride the wheel, but O’Keefe was locked in, a small white handheld fan in one hand.
Although the extreme heat warning for D.C. didn’t kick in until 9 am, the temperature in the city was above 90 degrees, and the real feel was over 100.
In one shot, O’Keefe appeared to forget the name of the host behind the desk, saying he’d done a lot of revolutions on the wheel.
“We’ve been doing so many spins on this thing, we’re getting dizzy,” he apologized after calling Kelly O’Grady “Taylor,” his guest’s name.
The stunt, executed on a day with an extreme heat warning and even morning temperatures in the high 90s, was designed to promote the poorly attended, majorly maligned, Great American State Fair.
As the camera panned to highlight the view from the wheel, the lack of any attendees on the Mall below was glaring.
But there was no mention of that from O’Keefe, whose boss, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, has been supportive of the Trump administration.
Trump’s MAGA friend and donor David Ellison took control of CBS as part of the Paramount Skydance merger, and appointed Weiss to steer CBS News in a more Trump-friendly direction, following clashes with the administration under previous leadership.
Most recently, Weiss has gutted CBS News flagship 60 Minutes, firing veteran reporters and the executive producer, and installing Nick Bilton, an executive with no television or management experience, to run the program.
60 Minutes was sued by Trump, and a multi-million-dollar settlement in Trump’s favor was approved just before Ellison took over the network.
On the National Mall, almost completely alone on the Ferris wheel, O’Keefe provided a fan for his co-rider, Taylor Talley, a representative of Talley Amusements, the family-owned business that operated the Ferris wheel.
Talley described the wheel as the centerpiece of the state fair, and pleaded directly with the president to let them keep it up, “at least til the end of the year, or maybe two years.”
The wheel is scheduled to come down after the fair closes on July 10.
As of 1 pm, the temperature was 100, with a real feel of 118. The heat wave is set to continue through July 4.
