Posted below: the April 4 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC’s bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This issue: Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba inspires journalists to sing communism’s praises and worry about capitalism ruining that country’s “charm.”
Meanwhile, anchors at PBS and CBS slam Ted Cruz for his “ugly” anti-terrorism policies and a former New York Times editor decries sexist persecution of “fundamentally honest” Hillary Clinton. The complete issue, with 20 quotes is posted below.
Muir to Obama: Does Castro “Have a Point” on Health Care?
“[Cuban] President [Raul] Castro seemed to be defending himself, his record on human rights today, and he went further, saying, ‘I find it inconceivable that the government does not find a right to secure health care, food provision, and equal pay.’ What did you make of that?...When he says health care, does he have a point?”
— ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir to President Obama, March 21.
Obama “Got It Done” in Cuba But Will Capitalism “Endanger” Its “Charm?”
“There’s maybe a reason that it took 50 years to get this done. But when the Castro brothers die and when Cuba opens and becomes a new iteration of itself, no longer trapped in the politics of the 1950s and before, nobody knows who will get to write the history of this moment in Cuban history. But in American history, we know....know that President Barack Obama will be forever the American leader who got done what every other Democrat since Jack Kennedy tried and failed to do. He got it done.”
— Host Rachel Maddow on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, March 21.
“Cuba remains one of the few countries in the world left virtually untapped by American corporations due to the long running trade embargo. But that is changing, Starwood Hotels will soon be the first U.S. hotel chain to operate in Cuba in nearly 60 years....But visitors like Manuel Leone fear that an influx of big businesses will endanger Cuba’s unique charm.”
— Correspondent Margaret Brennan on CBS This Morning, March 21.
Viva la Revolución!
“Freedom Fighters”
— March 21 tweet from former CNN host Piers Morgan referring to a picture of Obama standing in front of a mural of murderous communist revolutionary Che Guevera.
Co-anchor Alisyn Camerota: “Chris, we can’t help but notice your culturally-appropriate garb that you’re wearing. Tell us the history of your shirt.”
Co-anchor Chris Cuomo: “My guayabera?....I wear this for a reason: this shirt belonged to my father [former New York Governor Mario Cuomo]. It was given to him by Fidel Castro as a gift that — you know, it didn’t mean something to him because it came from Fidel Castro necessarily, but because it marked conversations going on decades ago that were the same as those today. The concern was the freedom of the people. What is the point of this communist regime if it is not to truly make everyone equal — not at the lowest level; not by demoralizing everyone; but lifting everyone up? My father, generations of politicians, have been fighting this. So, I wear this shirt as a reminder of that, and of my pop.”
— Exchange on CNN’s New Day, March 21.
ISIS Nuke Threat Is “Theoretical,” But Trump Danger Is Scary
Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann: “Somebody said the other day and they were quite serious, and you can understand when you hear these two things together, they’re terrifying. ‘What would happen if ISIS got nukes?’...All right. So, I said, ‘What would happen if Donald Trump got nukes?’”
Co-host Joy Behar: “Who would use it first?”
Olbermann: “But also, which is the more realistic concern for us at the moment? I mean, the second one is a distinct, visible possibility and the first one is theoretical, but very unlikely because they are difficult to move. But he gets them the first day in office.”
— Exchange on ABC’s The View, March 25.
“Ease of Getting Guns” to Blame for Bombing?
Huffington Post editor Sam Stein: “I am curious, why is Brussels and Belgium at large being the epicenter for this? What is it about that city that allows something like this to fester?”
Atlantic editor Steve Clemons: “I don’t know if I can answer that. You know, when we were, on Sunday morning, with the — the foreign minister of Belgium. I had wanted to ask him, ‘You know, why is it known that it’s so easy to access guns in Belgium than other of the major states in Europe, it’s something that everybody knows here, that there is a black market, that there is an ease of getting guns here. As compared to many other parts of Europe.’”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, March 22.
Climate Change Scarier Threat to Brussels than Terrorists
“On the same day as the attacks, a paper by James E. Hansen and other climate experts was released arguing that carbon emissions are transforming our world far more quickly than expected, in ways that may inundate coastal cities and cause storms more horrendous than any in modern history. The response? A yawn....The upshot is that Brussels survived this week’s terrorist attacks, but it may not survive climate change.”
— The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof in a March 24 column “Terrorists, Tubs and Snakes.”
Ted Cruz’s “Ugly” Terror Policies Play Into the Hands of ISIS
“There are so many people that say that your comments are decidedly anti-Muslim and that you’re playing right into the hands of ISIS, that you’re giving them ammunition to come after us, to really take action against us, that you’re just teeing it up for people to come after us.”
— Co-anchor Gayle King to GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz about his suggestion Muslim communities be surveiled on CBS This Morning, March 23.
Host Judy Woodruff: “David, it was striking some of the reaction among the Republican candidates for President. David, you had Ted Cruz saying what we need to do is send more security into — patrolling basically neighborhoods where Muslim-Americans live.”
New York Times columnist David Brooks: “Yeah, I’ve spent the last weeks so repulsed by Donald Trump I had forgotten how ugly Ted Cruz could be. But he reminded us this week.”
— Exchange on PBS’s NewsHour, March 25.
GOP Will Pay for Trying to Replace Obama’s “Intelligent Diplomacy” With Bluster
“What people find problematic about President Obama is that he will not carry a big stick. He will not have the bluster of a Donald Trump. It is intelligent diplomacy in the service of American ideals. And, ultimately, at the end of the day, what you didn’t mention was the police brutality issues that are here in America....What you didn’t mention was the ability of Barack Obama to at least speak intelligently to the issues of domestic division that Donald Trump has now exploited to no end. And the Republican Party has to pay the tab for that.”
— Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson on ABC’s This Week, March 26.
Media’s Refusal to Expose Years of Right-Wing “Madness” Caused Trump’s Rise
“You know who in the media really created He, Trump? Anyone who laughed at Ronald Reagan’s casual relationship with the truth and with empirical reality. Anyone who blew off Iran-Contra. Anyone who draped [George W. Bush] in a toga after 9/11....Anyone who watched the conservative movement, the only animating force the Republican party has, drive the party further and deeper into madness....The media bears a great responsibility for the rise of He, Trump, but not because he is sui generis, but, rather, because the media has been buying conservative charlatanism by the bucketful for so long that it’s lost its bearings.”
— Former Boston Globe columnist Charles Pierce in March 28 Esquire article.
“Manifestly Unfit” Cruz and Trump Turning GOP into “Banana Republican Party”
“I think [Ted] Cruz on a second or third ballot could maybe put enough votes together to win the nomination. So it’s either going to be Trump or Cruz, which means that this is now the ‘Banana Republican Party.’ Both of these men are manifestly unfit for high office.”
— Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter on MSNBC’s MTP Daily, March 23.
The Sexist Persecution of “Honest” Hillary
“We, for some reason, expect total purity from a woman candidate. I did not feel, during my regime, that we were giving her way more scrutiny than anyone else....Where I think Hillary Clinton faces, you know, certainly more of a burden is that the controversies she’s been in are immediately labeled, you know, ‘Travelgate or ‘E-Mailgate.’ If you actually asked people what about any of these controversies bothers them, they don’t know anything specific about any of them....The issue, to me, that’s at the crux is that everything that we know that was classified was classified after the fact, after the emails were sent. And so, why is that a big deal?”
— Former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson as quoted by Politico’s Glenn Thrush in March 21 article headlined: “Jill Abramson on Hillary Clinton: ‘She does get more scrutiny’ than men.”
“I would be ‘dead rich,’ to adapt an infamous Clinton phrase, if I could bill for all the hours I’ve spent covering just about every ‘scandal’ that has enveloped the Clintons. As an editor I’ve launched investigations into her business dealings, her fundraising, her foundation and her marriage. As a reporter my stories stretch back to Whitewater. I’m not a favorite in Hillaryland. That makes what I want to say next surprising. Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest and trustworthy.”
— Abramson in March 28 Guardian column: “This may shock you: Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest.”
“You know, what I took out of that story, a big story about the FBI and all of that, was that 147 FBI agents are focused on this [Hillary’s e-mail scandal]? I mean, don’t they have other problems that they should be....There’s no crime in the country they should be worrying about?”
— NPR commentator Cokie Roberts on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, March 30.
Chris Matthews: It’s “Fascistic” to Restrict Abortion
“I think it’s a woman’s choice...I believe we live in a free country, and I don’t want to live in a country so fascistic that it can stop a person from making that decision. That would be so invasive, so determinative of a society, that I wouldn’t be — one we’re familiar with.”
— Hardball host Chris Matthews during MSNBC town hall event with Donald Trump, March 30.
Rooting for Cruz to “Fall” Due to His “Crazy Moral Code”
“He’s [Ted Cruz] such a guy about family values, you know, and he lives by this kind of crazy moral code. So I love to watch people like that fall....The point is that if he did cheat [on his wife], it would be quite satisfying....Someone like Ted Cruz I would like to see him fall.”
— Co-host Michelle Collins on ABC’s The View, March 28.
“It Is Time We Grew Up as a Nation” and Elected “Miraculous” Hillary
“I think it’s miraculous that she [Hillary Clinton] is female, and it’s almost secondary to the fact that she’s way qualified, would be a brilliant President.....I really can’t understand the battle. I hear young women, my granddaughters even, wanting to back Bernie [Sanders], and I want to tear my hair out and jump up and down and go, ‘What?!’ Not that he’s not a lovely man.”
— Actress Sally Field in the March 21 issue of Time.
“It is time we grew up as a nation. We should stop being afraid of women, and meet them on a level playing field without resorting to name calling and sexist condescension. Hillary Clinton isn’t afraid. It’s about time that a woman with strength, experience and compassion leads our already great nation in this time of global insecurity.”
— Actress/singer Barbra Streisand in a March 25 blog for The Huffington Post headlined: “The Sexism in American Politics.”
