White House Posts Unusual Tony Dokoupil ‘CBS Evening News’ Segment Saluting Marco Rubio For His Many Jobs In Trump Administration

The fears that CBS Evening News will go softer on Donald Trump were fueled even further with a segment that ended the Tony Dokoupil broadcast on Tuesday in which the anchor saluted Marco Rubio, who wears multiple hats in the administration.

The White House picked up the segment and posted it to its social media media account, with the line, “WE LOVE @SecRubio!”

The segment finished the broadcast, which Dokoupil anchored from Doral, in Rubio’s home state of Florida. The new CBS Evening News anchor has been dubbing the final minute of the broadcast with an “Only in America” feature that attempts to take a lighthearted look at the news.

In Tuesday’s segment, Dokoupil noted that Rubio was serving as the administration’s “point man” on Venezuela, in addition to national security adviser and secretary of state, as well as acting national archivist and USAID chief. Dokoupil then showed AI memes of Rubio in other roles, such as the new governor of Minnesota, shah of Iran, prime minister of Greenland, new manager of Manchester United, the head of Hilton Hotels and the new Michelin Man.

“For Rubio’s hometown fans, which are many around here in Miami, it is a sign of how Florida, once an American punchline, has become a leader on the world stage,” Dokoupil said. “Marco Rubio, we salute you, you are the ultimate Florida man.”

A CBS News spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The scrutiny of Dokoupil is due to the way that the merger of Skydance with CBS-parent Paramount went down last year. As they sought administration approval for the transaction, the previous owners of Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris, even though CBS attorneys had deemed the litigation baseless. Then, Skydance committed to hiring an ombudsman to take complaints about the news division, days before the FCC gave the merger the greenlight. The person chosen as ombudsman, Kenneth Weinstein, formerly led a right-leaning think tank.

Paramount CEO David Ellison then hired Bari Weiss, who founded the center right opinion site The Free Press, to run CBS News as editor in chief, even though she has a lack of broadcast TV experience.

Dokoupil is in the midst of a “Live from America” cross country tour following his official debut in the anchor chair on Monday, in which he broadcast from the network’s studios in New York.

Other aspects of Tuesday’s broadcast drew harsh criticism. Dokoupil mentioned the fifth anniversary of the January 6th attack on the Capitol, showing images of pardoned defendants marching through Washington. “President Trump today accused Democrats of failing to prevent the attack on the Capitol, while House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the president of quote, whitewashing it.”

The segment, though, did not attempt to point out that the White House has been trying to revise the history of that date with a false narrative of what happened. The administration debuted a new website that features a timeline of January 6th events, blaming Capitol Police, Democrats and former Vice President Mike Pence for the riot and making no mention of the police officers who were injured.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, wrote on X that Dokoupil’s report amounted to a “both-sides-are-equal” summary of the events of January 6th. Sabato wrote, “SHAMEFUL! My family watched CBS & Cronkite from 1963 on. No more. Sadly, ‘That’s the way it is, January 6th, 2026.'”