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During the overnight hours of Tuesday into Wednesday, CBS was in the midst of an epic, hours-long meltdown over what was then the impending reelection of Donald Trump to the presidency. 

Over the course of eight hours, CBS journalists heaped scorn on Americans for refusing to accept “the facts” about the Biden-Harris economy, unfairly blamed Biden for “the cost of your rent,” claimed voters lack the wherewithal to believe the president “has nothing to do with” the price of basic necessities smeared voters for refusing to take January 6 as seriously as they do, and support scary mass deportations.

Below is a Notable Quotables-style complication of the worst moments (with a few quotes replaced by tweets) from CBS between the 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Eastern hours, presented in chronological order.

Whining Latinos Still Back Trump Despite His “Rhetoric”

“[The Latino vote projection] sounds counterintuitive — right — given the rhetoric that we have heard from Donald Trump…One of the polls that has been the most illustrative for me from this entire campaign is the one that said that two thirds of Latinos who were surveyed, said that they believe that Donald Trump was not referring to people like them when he spoke about immigrants. And half of foreign-born Latinos said the same thing. Broadly speaking, Latinos are still overwhelmingly Democrat, but Donald Trump successfully started to get into this — this population. Many Latinos seem to find a sense of belonging in Trump’s other-ism because he talks to them the same way he talks to white supporters.”

— 60 Minutes correspondent Cecilia Vega, 10:52 p.m. Eastern.

Melting Down Over Trump Winning Despite His “Vulgarity,” Arnold Palmer Comments

Vega: “I’m thinking about some of the things that we have heard over the course of this campaign and you have to give me on some of these, but, from the former president, the vulgarity that we’ve heard, talking about Arnold Palmer — we all remember that comments and the locker and doing all the Joe Rogan podcasts, and the Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt at MSG and all of this —”

CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell: “The gesticulating with the microphone.”

Vega: “— the gesticulation at the microphone, that — that so much of America went, um — I’m sorry, what is happening? How is that possibly going to appeal to people? And what we’re seeing tonight that it actually is not a turnoff to many people, to many of the male supporters, particularly who sat at MSG and cheered it on and that was particularly a very bro-y feel, a very dark rally that we talked about in the wake of it. And the question, was is this going to help Trump expand his base? And what you just said right now, it actually, very well may be?”

O’Donnell: “Right.”

Dickerson: “He won bros in North Carolina by 21 points.”

— Being hit with their sad reality, 11:52 p.m. Eastern.

Kamala Donor Gayle King Laments What Trump Pick Says About America, Him Being a Babysitter

Seething Over America Going Dangerous, Sexist Route Opposing Kamala

“There is a disorientation. There is, from the commander in chief question, you know, who is going to take office at the time when the world is watching this election tonight…to see who they will be dealing with when they are looking at the largest land war in Europe underway, when they are looking at the expansion of it, they’re looking at a Mid-East on fire. They’re looking at an aggressive China. And it — we are going to be digesting this as a planet when we wake up tomorrow morning to figure out what’s next. A third of the world has had a female leader. This country has not. And tonight, this was also a test of whether a woman could be a commander of chief of this country elected in a very short runway of an election against a — a man who has presented himself, despite what his national security advisers say, is about strength, as about he puts fear in other people, therefore you won’t see that realignment or that threat around the world come to these shores. That’s the package that he’s selling in the national security argument. And it’s — it’s just something to chew on tonight as we would wait to see who will get to 270. There are some major test that go, I think, beyond this moment when we talk about gender, when we talk about projections of power, and America’s role in the world.”

— Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan, 12:05 a.m. Eastern.

Bonkers Discussion Dismissing Economic Pain as….Fake? A Mirage? Misplaced?

King: “But it didn’t seem to matter how often you heard the economy is doing well, the job report is doing well. None of that seemed to matter. People would still say I’m paying too much for milk. I’m still paying too much for bread.”

Brennan:“Well, I mean —”

King: “If you can’t feel it at home, it doesn’t matter what you say.”

Brennan: “— you look at this: Since Biden took office, rents in the battleground states are up 20 percent.”

White House and election correspondent Ed O’Keefe: “Mmhmm.”

Brennan: “That’s not because Joe Biden was elected. The cost of your rent is affected by a number of different factors, but people blame the boss. I mean, the grocery inflation, 22 percent. We were on the back end of the pandemic that completely upended the supply chains and global economy.”

Dickerson: “And what the political science — what the political scientists will tell you is also voters don’t give you credit for the good things that are happening.”

Brennan: “Right.”

King: “Yes.”

Dickerson: “The unemployment rate was lower in six of the seven battleground states under Joe Biden than under Donald Trump, leaving aside Covid. Pre-Covid, Trump unemployment was — was higher in every battleground state but Nevada. But voters don’t give you credit for things that happen. They are concerned about the plenty of things that they legitimate feel about their own economic position.”

Vega: “Much to great frustration from the Biden White House. Almost from day one, they would complain to you behind the scenes that they never felt like they were never getting credit for the advancements in the economy that were happening. Even underneath him, they would scream from the rooftop. I mean, he would do press conferences or go to the battleground states, and talk about housing and they felt he never got the credit for it. There was nothing they could do to vocally challenge the microphone that Trump had on that platform.”

— Conversation divorced from reality, 12:41 a.m. Eastern.

Huffing About Trump’s Plan to Secure the Border

“You know, this mass deportation plan was perhaps Donald Trump’s biggest policy proposal throughout this campaign and I think a lot of folks were surprised over the course of the last few months to see how much support got among the American public and the overwhelming majority, according to a lot of polls, more than 50 percent supported this idea of mass deportation. For 60 Minutes, we sat down with the man who could end up being tasked with the carrying out of this plan, Tom Homan, who ran ICE under Donald Trump for the first year and a half. Look, there are very serious questions as we found out about whether they can actually pull this off. By some estimates, we are talking about $88 billion a year the American taxpayer would have to fund to deport him as Donald Trump has wanted to do, a million plus people a year. They say they want to start with criminals but, Norah, make no mistake, what we found in this investigation is this will end up involving people who have lived in this country for a very long time, people in the interior of the country, not just at the border.”

— Vega, 1:23 a.m. Eastern.

What in the World? CBS Implies Elon Musk Is a Tool for China, Russia

Tiresome Trope: Did Kamala Lose Because of Racism and Sexism?

“I even hate to ask this question and I am asking this as I’m clutching my pearls, could it be a women — woman issue? When, Barack Obama suggested it, people thought — some people were offended that he even raised that issue. But do we have to realistically think about that? We’ve Hillary Clinton now and maybe even Kamala Harris. Is it — do you feel this country isn’t ready for a woman president?”

— King to CBS News political contributor/former Obama official Joel Payne, 2:03 a.m. Eastern.

Projection, Much? Vega Frets Trump Being Tough on Border Has Left Many “Very Scared”

— Vega, 2:24 a.m. Eastern.

This Is How It Is: Robert Costa Doing Teaching on the Working Class

Chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa: “What’s so notable about this election is that former President Trump believes he has not taken a election but he affirmed a movement in this country that I think back — and the Democrats are going to have a moment for the next four years when they think about their future — I — I remember sitting over breakfast with Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator 10 years ago and he told me that the future in this country would come down to the issue of class. Class more than anything — how people feel economic pain and he said it’s either going to be the Democrats or Republicans who speak to the economic pain people feel in this country and he still believes, based on my reporting, that he would have been victorious against Trump in 2016, Biden believes he would have beat Trump in 2016 because they believe they speak to that economic pain. Biden wins in 2020 with a similar coalition, trying to speak to working people but the question now is can the Democrats get back some of these people. And as — it may not be appealing to the Liz Cheney Republicans, but appealing to those like Senator Bernie Sanders, who are — who are search — we encounter in our reporting, people in this country who are not seeing themselves as political but feel pain about the future of their well-being, their families, opportunity.”

King: “But Kamala Harris always talked about the working class and middle class and what she wanted to do with them.”

Costa: “But it was a compressed campaign.”

King: “Okay.”

Costa: “Just a few weeks.”

King: “Did they not believe her?”

Costa: “It’s not that they didn’t believe. So many voters I met feel like they did not fully know her in terms of speaking to her — their grievances. They respected her as a Vice President of the United States, but she was a relatively low vice president — low-profile with — working with President Biden[.]”

— Costa explaining American politics to King, 3:19 a.m. Eastern.

Hilarious: Dickerson Lampoons “Republicans for Harris,” Costa Explains PA Politics

Dickerson: “Can I just say one other thing — one other dog that didn’t bark? Republicans for Harris. Kamala Harris spent a lot of time — campaigned a lot with Liz Cheney, only five percent of Republicans in exit polls voted for Harris. It was six percent in 2020 for Biden. All of those Republicans that were going to come over to — to the Harris campaign.”

O’Donnell: “Well, she brought — she brought them all to Pennsylvania and Bucks County, weren’t they?”

King: “Yes.”

O’Keefe: “Yeah.”

O’Donnell: “They were all on stage with her.”

Costa: “I was there. I was there.”

O’Donnell: “Yeah, yeah, I remember that.”

Costa: “I grew up in Buck County. Look, you got to understand about the traditional Republican and Bucks County. I grew watching these people — is that they vote with their wallet. They are economically driven. They have business jobs at suburban office parks in Princeton, New Jersey, they go to New York City on New Jersey Transit everyday or down to Philadelphia on SEPTA.”

O’Donnell: “Bring bagels back on the weekend.”

Costa: “Everything bagel, toasted with cheese, maybe a pork roll and cheese. These are people that care about the Eagles and care about their financial interests and they care about their communities, but they are Republicans and they are Republicans because they want to pay lower taxes and they moved to Bucks County, not to Philadelphia — the city, or to New York because they want to have a good standard of living and they want to pay lower taxes. They want to not have to spend a lot of money. And so —”

King: “But, Bob, where was the secret women Republican vote we kept hearing about? That they’re going to say one thing to their friends and spouses, but they’re going to get in the booth and they’re going to make another decision.”

Vega: “The Post-Its on the bathroom.”

Costa: “I never saw it.”

Vega: “Yeah.”

Costa: “I never saw it.”

— Intriguing back-and-forth, 3:36 a.m. Eastern.

One Guess of What Was Kamala’s Version of Hillary’s Wisconsin? North Carolina HBCUs

— O’Keefe prognosticating, 3:38 a.m. Eastern. 

Attempt to Admit Emphasizing January 6 Had Blow Back Goes Haywire

Costa: “The democracy point, I’ll show some self-awareness here. I spent a year of my life digging into January 6. I believe based on my reporting it was a serious moment in American history. You had a president of the United States work to pressure his party and his Vice President to overturn the election. Working with Bob Woodward, we reported that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff believed President Trump was in serious mental decline and was in threat of misusing the military in the final days in a way that was somewhat comparable to Nixon in concerns of August ‘74 but worse in the eyes of Milley and others. January 6, for Congresswoman Cheney, for others who have studied, the January 6 committee was a explosion in American democracy but, as a reporter, I must acknowledge even if I found it to be serious, based on my reporting, when I was on the campaign trail in 2024 and in 2022 when I was talking to Republican voters, centrist, Democratic voters even though Democrats took a bit of a different view, many voters did not process January 6, 2021 as a grave moment in American democracy. And because of that, a lot of Republican voters are not turning on the character and conduct question.”

King: “Yeah.”

Dickerson: “But, of course, both can be true.”

King: “How is that possible, Bob, when you look at those pictures? I think that’s what many people are grappling with. You look at January 6. He characterized it as a protest of love, he characterized it as patriots yet you’re — you’re right when you say that is not how people saw it. How is it possible?”

Costa: “It is possible because there are many people who amplify Trump’s point of view.”

King: “Yeah.

Brennan: “They thread the needle between separating him —”

King: “Him.”

Brennan: “— Donald Trump, from the people that carried out the violence.”

— Liberal media showing more disconnect from ordinary Americans, 3:39 a.m. Eastern.

Smearing Americans Concerned About Groceries, Insist Presidents Can’t Fix Them

Brennan: “[A]ny country I have ever covered, anywhere in the world, people vote on the three feet in front of them and the kitchen table they sit down at every day and the economic issues are just so fundamental, and the experience of that, and, you know, Norah, you said earlier, maybe we overly focused on grocery prices, it’s — I think you know, Donald Trump campaigned saying he’s going to lower the price of bacon, United States. The president of the United States has nothing to do with the price of bacon, but —”

Dickerson: “Or eggs for that matter.”

Brennan: “— or eggs or any of it, but it — it — it’s promising —”

Dickerson: “Or gas.”

Brennan: “— I get that you are comfortable —”

Dickerson: “Yeah.”

Brennan: “— even though the head of the Federal Reserve and those guys quite know what they are doing in Washington but they’re making your house more expensive, because they are hiking up mortgage — you know, you don’t get that, you don’t get the national number, where Joe Biden is telling you, look, inflation is moderating and coming down, but you understand your grocery cart or the gas tank and that personal experience just seems to be what, at least people are using to justify their vote for Donald Trump when they are citing the economy.”

— Brennan flashing her liberal credentials, 4:05 a.m. Eastern.

Pitching Mini-Fit Over Americans Being Uneasy with Hundreds of Millions for Ukraine

Brennan: “And Ukraine arguably almost became a proxy, I would — I would say, for some Republicans, as a way to argue that they were economically frustrated. Why are you spending money there? I need it here, which is — as if it were —”

O’Keefe: “Which is the inverse of 20 years ago when it was as the left saying why are you spending all this money in Iraq, and holding it against George W. Bush.”

Costa: “What was JD Vance’s famous word or infamous word on Steve Bannon radio show podcast? I don’t care about Ukraine. In terms of a political or foreign-policy project for the United States.”

Brennan: “Whereas, we have Joe Biden and Kamala Harris arguing that this is, in many ways an existential threat to the entire western order, to democracy itself. Vladimir Putin is marching across.”

Costa: “But even that phrase, western order.”

Brennan: “I know.”

Costa: “It’s maybe something maybe people in Washington continue to articulate is important to them, but I never hear it. The — the concept of the west, Europe, these things that galvanized American policies since World War II, you never hear it on the lips of voters.”

— Back-and-forth defending Ukraine, 4:18 a.m. Eastern.

Wild Claims Americans Ignored “The Facts” on Economy to Elect Trump

— Insensitive idiocy, 5:10 a.m. Eastern.

Closing Thoughts: Linking Trump to Reagan, Fearing Fallout Among Young Girls

Dickerson: “He’s a political giant, eclipsing Reagan in the Republican Party in terms of his influence. He has the — he is probably the greatest ego and sense of impulse of any president in the modern era and has fewer checks now on him when he’s in office.”

O’Donnell: “Margaret Brennan?”

Brennan: “The irony of it, we are talking about women’s rights at the center of a campaign and we are now seeing the second woman to lose to Donald Trump in eight years and it’s something that I think will resonate with a lot of young girls and people around the world and we’re waiting to see if a female could be commander-in-chief of the most powerful country in the world.”

— Final closing takes before signing off, 5:52 a.m. Eastern.

To see the relevant CBS transcript from November 5 and 6 (including even more surprising and/or stupid moments), click here.