Posted below: the May 16 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC’s bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This issue: Journalists laugh about the supposed death of the Republican Party, now that Donald Trump will be the presidential nominee, while the New York Times wishes Jon Stewart were still on TV to bash the GOP during this year’s campaign.
Plus, the media insist Hillary Clinton is honest, and her scandals are nothing more than “garbage” and “crud,” while Newsweek tweets: “Has there been any President cooler than Obama?” The complete issue, with 21 quotes is posted below (or view the printer-friendly PDF version).
Liberal Media Glee Over Demise of the GOP
Co-host Charlie Rose: “I’m looking at the Daily News, a tabloid here, it says, ‘Republican Party 1854-2016; Dearly beloved, we’re gathered here today to mourn the GOP. A once great political party killed by epidemic of Trump.’” [laughter]
Co-host Gayle King: “No, and there’s an elephant, Reince, in a coffin, just to make the picture really clear for you.”
— Setting up an interview with RNC Chairman Reince Preibus on CBS This Morning, May 4, the morning after Trump’s Indiana primary victory.
It’s “Bogus” to Say Hillary’s Not Honest
“When Gallup asks Americans to say the first word that comes to mind when they hear ‘Hillary Clinton,’ the most common response can be summed up as ‘dishonest/liar/don’t trust her/poor character.’ Another common category is ‘criminal/crooked/thief/belongs in jail.’ All this is, I think, a mistaken narrative....She’s not a saint but a politician, and to me this notion that she’s fundamentally dishonest is a bogus narrative.”
— New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof in his April 24 column, “Debunking the ‘Crooked Hillary’ Myth.”
Scoffing at Clinton Scandals: Just “Garbage” and “Crud”
Host Chris Matthews: “How about people, 18 years old now, who haven’t heard this garbage? Right? There are people that are born free of knowing about Whitewater, and Vince Foster, and all this crud. He [Donald Trump] just brings it all back and says, ‘this is all new stuff to think about.’”
Wall Street Journal’s Colleen McCain Nelson: “But is Whitewater more interesting the second time around?...”
Matthews: “It didn’t work. Well, e-mails. Say it louder! Say ‘e-mails,’ say ‘Benghazi’ a million times.”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Hardball, May 4.
Let Hillary Be Hillary
“My gut is Hillary Clinton needs to be Hillary Clinton — the one that you meet one-on-one.... She was going to get asked these questions about what Donald Trump said about Bill Clinton, and what — where Donald Trump is going on this. And she’s going to have to just be herself — because herself has always been the best thing for her....If she gets everybody out of her own way and just, kind of, speaks from the heart, I bet you it would be incredibly moving.”
— Co-host Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, May 10.
Hillary: The Grandmother Running for Commander-in-Chief
— Moderator John Dickerson wrapping up a tribute to mothers in politics on CBS’s Face the Nation, May 8.
But Loopy Lesley Claims Hillary Gets “Pretty Tough Press”
CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl: “Yeah, I’ve heard that, but I don’t think — I’ve never bought that, you know? Having covered the White House through Democrat Jimmy Carter and Reagan following — I mean, Reagan got a much softer, easier press than Jimmy Carter did....I think Hillary is getting a pretty tough press, and I think she will continue to get a pretty tough press because she is powerful now.”
— Exchange on FNC’s MediaBuzz, May 8.
Celebrating Barack Obama, the Coolest President Ever
“I think you’re the first President in my life who is fully a man of his times. You’ve been the parents at Newtown, the boy who might have been Trayvon. You’ve been the Dreamers and their anxious parents. Has it been hard for you personally to represent such grief and hope?”
— New York Times writer Philip Galanes in his “Table for Three” interview with President Obama (and actor Bryan Cranston) posted May 8.
“Really, has there been any President cooler than Obama?”
— May 10 tweet from Newsweek’s official Twitter account, plugging an online piece on whether Barack Obama is “the first pop culture President.”
Boehner’s Right: Ted Cruz Really Is the Devil
“This comes after all these years of hellish behavior from the Tea Party...its taunting, tormenting, and terrifying of the GOP establishment. And the man leading that torture is the man John Boehner just branded Beelzebub, because it was Ted Cruz who raced over to the House to undermine the leadership there to make governing the House impossible....John Boehner is the angel with wings and sword. He’s Michael the Archangel in this picture. Cruz is the one in the tail and cloven hooves. Boehner, let’s agree, never looked this good.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, April 28.
New York Times vs. “Hard Right,” “Paranoid” Texas
“This new ultra-Texas started in 2009, shortly after President Obama took office — replacing a Texan, George W. Bush. Since then, the lines between being pro-Texas, anti-Obama and anti-American blurred, and there has been no going back....It is this fear, anger and sometimes paranoia that lurks beneath the surface of Texas politics and that underlies the expansion of gun rights, the reflexive antagonism toward Washington, and the opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage....The hard-right domination of Texas politics frustrates the state’s Democrats and plenty of others in Austin, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.”
— New York Times correspondent Manny Fernandez in a May 8 article, “A Look at What Makes Texas Texas.”
CNN Confesses: We Were Liberal Before, But Not Anymore
“‘I think it was a legitimate criticism of CNN that it was a little too liberal,’ Mr. Zucker said. ‘We have added many more middle-of-the-road conservative voices to an already strong stable of liberal voices. And I think that we are a much more-balanced network and, as a result, a much more inviting network to a segment of the audience that might not have otherwise been willing to come here.’”
— CNN President Jeff Zucker quoted by the Wall Street Journal’s Keach Hagey and Nick Niedzwiadek, May 2.
They’re Not Violent Thugs, Just “Dissatisfied Citizens”
“As we all know, a lot of those people in the street were just dissatisfied citizens who were taking out their dissatisfaction the wrong way, in anger and destroying a lot of property there.”
— Anchor Chris Cuomo to CNN Politics editor Juana Summers on New Day, April 29, talking about anti-Trump demonstrators in California.
“Media America” Yearns for More GOP-Bashing from Jon Stewart
“There has been a ‘Where is Superman?’ aspect to this year’s presidential campaign, especially in Left America, Centrist-Left America and, yes, Media America. If ever there was an election cycle that called for the sharp satirical analysis that Mr. [Jon] Stewart and Mr. [Stephen] Colbert once provided on a nightly basis, it is this one.”
— New York Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg writing about the former Comedy Central hosts, May 2.
“He [Donald Trump] makes sense if you view it through the prism of talk radio. I like to drive and, so, I listen to talk radio and it is 24/7 of, ‘Your country is being taken away from you.’ As far as I can tell, the conservative side, or the right side, they feel an ownership over America. They are the stewards of America. They are its forebears — exactly. Republicans, conservatives love America. They just hate, like, 50 percent of the people living in it.”
— Ex-Daily Show host Jon Stewart appearing on former Obama campaign manager David Axelrod’s University of Chicago podcast, “The Axe Files,” May 9.
As If MSNBC Wasn’t Filled with Left-Wing Socialist Shills
Democratic/socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders: “I think we have got to think about ways that the Democratic Party, for a start, starts funding the equivalent of Fox television.”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, May 6.
Let’s Thank Racist Republicans for Donald Trump
NBC’s Willie Geist: “How do you explain the millions and millions of people who do not watch this show who actually like what they hear from Donald Trump — and aren’t taking messages and orders from us in the media — but they listen to what he says for themselves and vote for him. How do you explain that?”
Actor/activist Rob Reiner: “Well, there are a lot of people who are racist in this country.”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, May 5.
“The Republican establishment is not necessarily going along supporting Donald Trump. He’s racist, he’s sexist, he’s belligerent. There are also some things about him they don’t like.”
— Host Bill Maher on HBO’s Real Time, May 6.
Excited Over Prospect of “Amazing” Hillary Tackling the ERA
Host Ellen DeGeneres: “I mean, we could have a woman president! That would be amazing.”
Fonda: “Oh, my Lord!...She will deal with things that other people are not dealing with, like domestic violence, like equal pay. Like this ERA.”
— Exchange on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, May 3, presumably talking about the 1970s Equal Rights Amendment.
Trump = Hatred, But Bernie Sanders Has “Great Ideas”
“Look at anything that Trump’s done. It plays into hatred, it plays into what’s the worst possible thing we can create, and then, fan that flame. That’s why you’ve got racism and bigotry. The hat should say, ‘Make America White Again.’ That’s what it should say....
“I love Bernie. I love the ideas that he’s got. To me, it’s like somebody who went to Woodstock who now is running for President. And it’s all those ideals, let’s just make the world a great place, and legalize this, and free health care, and free college, and going for all of that. Great ideas. But that thing called ‘Congress,’ you know, is a problem.”
— Actor Jeff Daniels on Bloomberg TV’s With All Due Respect, May 9.
Delighting in Vicious Personal Attacks on Ted Cruz
“We were all blindsided by Ted Cruz suspending his campaign, no one more than me. I think you know what that man meant to Full Frontal [starts clips from past shows]: Ted Cruz, Princeton’s unwanted fetus. Fish-faced horseshit salesman. The world’s only unlikeable Canadian....Self-described human....Half-melted Reagan dummy. Unflushable toilet clog.”
— Host Samantha Bee presenting a series of clips on the May 9 episode of TBS’s Full Frontal.
America’s Totally Objective Election Helper
“So you might not know it, but you need me. Without my insight, how will the American electorate ever be able to decide between a highly-qualified woman with impeccable credentials, and a bankrupt, misogynistic, racist, orange asshole?”
— Chelsea Handler in the May 11 debut of her new Netflix show, Chelsea.
