Outraged critics blasted longtime "60 Minutes" anchorScott Pelleyas "angry" and "unhinged" after he delivered a fear-laced tirade against President Trump during a commencement speech in North Carolina. The CBS newscaster warned Wake Forest University's graduating class on May 19 that "insidious fear" has infiltrated schools, businesses, and homes across the nation — leaving America in a state of "peril." "Your country needs you — the country that has given you so much is calling you, the class of 2025, your country needs you and it needs you today," Pelleysaid during his grandiose sermon-like speech. "This morning our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack, universities are under attack, freedom of speech is under attack and insidious fear is reaching throughout schools, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts," he continued. "The fear to speak in America. If our government is, in Lincoln's phrase 'of the people, by the people, for the people,' then why are we afraid to speak? Ignorance works for power. Power can change the definition of the words we used to describe reality. This is an old playbook, my friends. There is nothing new in this." The speech, met with scattered applause during the graduation ceremony, was ridiculed on social media by those baffled by Palley's dramatic gestures anddread-filled rhetoricduring the celebratory event. "Scott Pelley raged at Trump in angry, unhinged commencement address at Wake Forest…as he speaks openly and freely in America,"one user wrote on X. "This self-important, sermonizing propagandist is what passes for a legacy media 'journalist'." Another called the liberal-leaning correspondents' speech a "national disgrace." Juanita Broaddrick, who alleged former President Bill Clinton raped her in 1978 when he was Arkansas attorney general,also chimed in, calling Pelley "a pompous POS." Others ripped Pelley as a hypocrite, pointing out thathis networkis currently facing a $20 billion lawsuit filed by Trump over how "60 Minutes"edited a sit-down with then-Vice President and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris last fall. Mediationefforts to resolvethe suit began earlier this month. "Did Scott Pelley mention that 60 Minutes edited Kamala's campaign interview, and they helped her answer questions ???" one user mused on X. "Unit he does that, his credibility is ZERO."
