Flashback to Last Brian Williams Debate: Peppered Republicans with Questions from the Left
In a confounding decision, the Republican candidates agreed to a second debate, to be held tonight in Tampa, moderated by NBC’s Brian Williams who, along with Politico’s John Harris, back on September 7 repeatedly peppered the then-larger Republican presidential field with liberal talking points and Democratic agenda items. Below, an excerpt from my September 8 post, with illustrative video:
Williams hit Texas Governor Rick Perry from the left on his state’s poor economic indicators (“no other state has more working at or below the minimum wage”) , chastised him for cutting education funding and, citing how “your state has executed 234 death row inmates,” demanded to know whether he’s “struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?” More examples and video below.
Audio: MP3 clip which matches the 2:30 video above.
Williams was taken aback when the audience applauded Perry’s death penalty record, prompting a befuddled Williams to follow up: “What do you make of that dynamic that just happened here, the mention of the execution of 234 people drew applause?”
Williams was also confounded by Ron Paul’s libertarian views, quizzing him about how the nation would survive without FEMA and confusingly ruminated about no federal air traffic control: “All the pilots in the sky, to add to their responsibilities, their own air traffic control, in an organic way.” He also hailed former Democratic President Lyndon Johnson for addressing the need for government to provide meals to school kids, wondering: “Do you think that is any more -- providing nutrition in schools for children -- a role of the federal government?”
Challenging Senator Rick Santorum, Williams lectured him about how Santorum’s “Catholic faith, has as a part of it, caring for the poor.” Williams insisted Santorum explain: “Where do the poor come in, where do they place in this party, on this stage, in a Santorum administration?”
Williams’ liberal advocacy and hostility to conservatives shouldn’t have come as any surprise given his history as documented in the MRC’s Media Reality Check, by Geoffrey Dickens, released on Tuesday, “Brian Williams Vs. Tea Party Conservatives: GOP Debate Moderator Has Long History of Admiring Obama and Badgering Republicans from the Left.”
Harris, Editor-in-Chief of Politico, contrasted the success in liberal Massachusetts with failure in conservative Texas: “Massachusetts has nearly universal health insurance – it’s first in the country. In Texas, about a quarter of the people don't have health insurance. That's 50 out of 50, dead last. Sir, it's pretty hard to defend dead last.”
With Ron Paul, Harris noted General Electric’s huge profits, but “paid no taxes. Perfectly legal, but does it strike you as fair?”
For a Media Reality Check, the MRC’s Geoffrey Dickens determined: "A review of the 54 total questions asked by Williams and Harris to the Republican candidates shows that 25 of them came from the left, with just one from the right. Twenty-eight questions were neutral. So of those questions with an agenda almost all of them (96 percent) were from the left (4 percent from the right). "
My original September 8, 2011 post has the full rundown of questions.
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Comments
I hope all 4 reject the "premise"
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 2:32pm.
....that is sure to be posed from the left side of the aisle.
Not just Newt going postal on stupidity. In fact, I've seen that twice, which is exactly enough from him. I want to see him (and everyone else) point out the leftward tilt, calmly dismiss it, rephrase the question neutrally, and then answer it.
IOW, totally marginalize Brian the Idiot.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Why in the world wouldn't they all tell Brian Williams to
Submitted by nonncom on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 2:40pm.
go get stuffed....what a joke....a setup for the obama campaign from campaign central, NBC....
I dont think any of the field
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 2:53pm.
I dont think any of the field except Newt can effectively "point out the leftward tilt, calmly dismiss it, rephrase the question neutrally, and then answer it.". That is what Newt does very handily, the rest are not deft enough or have a grasp on the essentials.
If they're not deft enough, to do what we do here every day,
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:01pm.
.....then they need to quit. If they're not WILLING to do it, shame on them, they don't deserve our votes. We cannot win this war allowing the opposition to define the rules, while they employ guerilla tactics while insisting we adhere to the Marquess of Queensbury Rules.
I don't want any more "going off" by Newt. He's scored his points on that, it's time to move on.
But the basic "point" remains, and EVERYONE on that stage needs to get with the program.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Not sure I agree.
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:42pm.
When you want your mutt to behave you yell at the appropriate time. Eventually the mutts will get it and not liking getting beaten up, they'll tread a lot lighter.
Soft talk works with gentlemen, not thugs.
How charming.
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:55pm.
"mutt"?
You're as bad as the liberal media with name calling like that. Shame on you.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Re to Dan The Man 2
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 4:00pm.
Don't you mean, "....rephrase the question Newtrally....."?
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
"You Know the Saying"
Submitted by mad53PA on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:04pm.
The definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result!
Brian Williams, NBC, what could go wrong!!
In My Opinion
Submitted by JustAl on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:20pm.
The "moderators" of the debate should be randomly chosen from currently sitting republican governors.
Or how about only by Registered Voters
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:32pm.
....who've been registered in the party since, say, 2008?
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
These republican candidates
Submitted by nobodyspecial on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:25pm.
These republican candidates need to grow a spine and quit trying to make the liberal media like them. Why would they turn down a debate by Trump but keep doing these debates with liberal d-bags
Is it Rancid Prius who's agreeing to this crap?
Submitted by SickofLibs on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:25pm.
How the hell does this little weasel Williams merit TWO shots at the candidates?
This is a problem, folks, and no one seems to care. Having a debate every other night moderated by Oblamo operatives is nothing less than malpractice IMO.
Williams and MSNBC cronies...
Submitted by Redrowan2000 on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:26pm.
Will be chomping at the bit to try to put Gingrich in his place. Watch to see if a couple of hidden bombs are dropped by Williams tonight. He is so over the top for Obama it's disgusting. Hoping that the others will have the sense and courage to do the same as Gingrich. Only for the simple reason that with Gingrich as the frontrunner the DNC er NBC er MSNBC will do whatever they can to try to whittle him down and if he's put in his place they will be also..
"Don't let the bastards grind you down."
Does anyone know Williams's plastic surgeon?
Submitted by KyWriter on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:34pm.
I think I'd like to have my eyebrows made permanently sympathetic, too.
Yeah, I know him. He's not really a makeup artist per se.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:42pm.
But he does have skills.
What I would like to see is just one of the pretenders....
Submitted by Willis_Leon_Johnson on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 3:38pm.
Just mention that outside the beltway and the media he is best known as " Lyin' Brian".
Why is it that the most useless item in the universe has more value than lyin brian?
End 'gun violence in America' - Require training and MANDATORY "Shall Carry" by every Citizen.
If harry reid is the best person to lead the senate, what does that say about the other 99 senators?
Four questions we won't hear from Brian Williams tonight . .
Submitted by Gary Hall on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 5:12pm.
OK, only four - there are hundreds of good questions we will not hear.
Williams: Mr. Republican candidate for President. During the Bush years, congress passed and President Bush signed a federal budget each and every year. Since President Obama became President, congress has not sent him a federal budget to sign. The details of this is that for the two years Pelosi was speaker, she did not allow a vote to be held on the budget and for the three years that Sen. Reid has been majority leader, he has not allowed a vote to take place. Remarkably, we've not heard President Obama say a word about the complete failure of the Democratic leadership here. What will you do as President to entice our Congress to do their job?
Note: The next question is copied (rephrased) from Gov. Christy's comments, yesterday on Meet the Press. Well, done Gov.
Williams: Why has President Obama not led on the recommendations of his own debt commission? He never embraced Simpson-Bowles. He asked for it, he put it on the shelf for purely political reasons, he showed political cowardice by doing it, and an absolute fear of confronting the big issues in our country. If he had - if he would - come out and said, "You know what, I was wrong to put Simpson-Bowles on the shelf. I should take it off the shelf, I'm going to send it to the Congress and I want to have a vigorous debate and discussion about really tackling debt and deficit in our country in an honest and forthright way, the way Senator Simpson and Mr. Bowles suggested." He has never done this. That would surprise the nation if he did it, and I think it would show great leadership if the president was willing to do it. If you are elected President, will you actually lead like a President on the serious issues facing our nation? (I note - David Gregory's response to Christy's damning charge, was to ignore the point, and to ask where he thought Republicans were culpable in the paralysis in Washington - big surprise)
Williams: Numerous staunch Democrats and supporters of President Obama have come out recently - in fact some of them, like Chris Matthews are our own - and taken the President to task of what seems to be the fact, that he is not engaged in the process; that he doesn't like to work with Congress; that he perhaps, doesn't really like being President. Why do you think so few American voters have heard the news here?
Williams: Polls consistently show that most Americans are strongly opposed to President Obama's agenda on illegal immigration reform; that most want a smaller government costing less, not more; that most do not support ObamaCare; that most did not support his Stimulus Bill, and fewer today, believe that it worked. Why is it, do you believe, that Obama is so tone deaf to the populist positions of the American people?
(;~> gary
Basically, the only question we will hear.
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 5:16pm.
Williams: "Candidate A, this question is for you: Candidates B, C, and D, have all called you an A-Hole. Please respond."
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
Kingfish17
Submitted by stratman on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 5:34pm.
+1
Debate overkill...
Submitted by LucidThought on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 11:12am.
Whoever is responsible for driving this Republican campaign into the ground with a seemingly endless series of debates is making a huge mistake that reveals their utter lack of media savvy. All these candidates are being overexposed. Given the ideological slant of the coverage, it's not "good" overexposure. Most of the moderators have relished the opportunity to take shots at the candidates, leaping at the opportunity to expose every scab and pimple they can find. By the time we reach Nov., voters will be fatigued by the very sight of the GOP candidate. A few debates should be sufficient for viewers to ascertain the political positions and philosophical underpinnings of the parties involved. Debating every week-- 2 or 3 times, some weeks-- is just plain stupid. This campaign is ours to lose... and we're losing it.
'debates' is hardly the correct wording....
Submitted by Willis_Leon_Johnson on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 4:13pm.
None of these spectacles have risen above the media playing "GOTCHA POLITICS" level.
One of the few subjects I agree with Newt on is his taking questions, then beating the 'inquisitor' over the head with the sheer stupidity of the questions.
We, the nation as a whole, NEEDS someone that will take on the media and slap them back into "JOURNALISM" with real JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS.
Urinalism has held sway for entirely too long and it needs to be pointed out and ridiculed every time it is put forward.
End 'gun violence in America' - Require training and MANDATORY "Shall Carry" by every Citizen.
If harry reid is the best person to lead the senate, what does that say about the other 99 senators?