CBS News 'reversed plans to pass over Trump's election fraud speech at last minute,' catching staffers off-guard

CBS News ditched plans to not air Donald Trump's controversial primetime election fraud address to the nation last week at the last minute, according to a new report.     

The network initially told multiple 'Democratic aides' that it did not intend to air Trump's speech live on national TV, sources told Status.

Anchor Tony Dokoupil also directed viewers toward the network's streaming platform and not the linear channel during his Evening News signoff around 7pm.

An abrupt about-face paved the way for the 8pm CBS announcement stating otherwise just an hour before the speech began, sources said. 

The network knew the Thursday address would contain falsehoods about the 2020 election after an off-the-record White House briefing on the address, the Daily Mail understands.

Dokoupil warned at its outset, 'much of what the President had said on this topic has been false.

'Most notably, of course, the claim that he won the 2020 election, when of course he did not.'

Some rigorous fact-checking followed, after CBS aired the 17-minute speech for 15 minutes.

Both NBC and ABC announced earlier in the week their intent to air the speech online only, after which Trump threatened to revoke their broadcast licenses.   

CBS News has been plagued by accusations of pandering to the President since Paramount CEO David Ellison appointed Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief late last year. 

The Status piece pointed out how CNN media reporter Brian Stelter received word earlier in the day that the network was weighing coverage options.

Sources told the outlet those talks did not include airing Trump's remarks live on linear TV. 

Sources told Stelter that the plan was to have Dokoupil on standby to track the speech and then air a special surrounding anything newsworthy later in the hour.

Unnamed staffers who spoke to Status said the final approach to coverage caught 'a lot of people' off-guard. They were also under the impression the network was set to only stream the special.

CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, however, said on Wednesday that the network might carry the address.

The Daily Mail understands a meeting was also held that day in the interest of coming to a decision.

The decision eventually made was criticized by Democratic Sen. Mark Warner on-air. He told Dokoupil that any 'responsible journalist' would 'push back on these falsehoods.' 

'We agree, you and I, that this is a vitally, vitally important topic, and the President has a terrible track record on it,' a diplomatic Dokoupil responded. 

The rest of the CBS hour sought to provide context from experts, several of whom pushed back on Trump's claims. 

Trump reiterated his belief that voting machines in 2020 had been rigged against him, leading Fox News's correspondent Aishah Hasnie to warn as the network aired the speech in full: 'Fox News has not seen that evidence yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the President’s statement and claims at this time.'

Anchor Bret Baier similarly said: 'Fox News has not seen that documentation yet and is not in a position to assess the accuracy of the President’s statements tonight.'

MS NOW also aired the speech, before cutting away at the 15-minute mark as CBS did.

Weiss was hired to be CBS News's editor-in-chief in October, at the behest of then-new Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Ellison, at the time, articulated a vision of the prime Paramount asset reaching more people across the country and moving into the digital age.

CBS has since been subject to an extreme overhaul.

Sources told Status last month that they believed Weiss had damaged the CBS brand over the past nine months with her changes.

One CBS News staffer told the publication: 'The problem is clearly Bari. We are all trying to clean this up, but we need Ellison’s help.' 

The Daily Mail has approached CBS News for comment.