'Meet the Press' Replays Kerry's 'Tea Party Downgrade' Comment at End of Show
It wasn't enough for "Meet the Press" host David Gregory to nicely set up Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) to blame Standard and Poor's downgrade of America's credit rating on the Tea Party Sunday.
The producers actually felt Kerry's "Tea Party Downgrade" comment was important enough to replay again at the end of the show (video follows with transcript and commentary):
DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Senator, as you know, this is part of a debate about America's influence in the rest of the world. And our economy and this debt fight has raised similar questions. And now the other big news that markets are going to be reacting to tomorrow and that is the downgrade of America's credit rating. Standard & Poor's issued a release on Friday, and this was part of its justification: "The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, less predictable than we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year's wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge." ...
Is this a wakeup call to Washington?
SENATOR JOHN KERRY (D-MASSACHUSETTS): Well, it's a partial wakeup call. I believe this is, without question, the "tea party downgrade." This is the tea party downgrade because a minority of people in the House of Representatives countered even the will of many Republicans in the United States Senate who were prepared to do a bigger deal, to do $4.7 trillion, $4 trillion, have a mix of reductions and, and reforms in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid; but also recognize that we needed to do some revenue. I think this is one of the most telling, important moments in our country's history right now.
Notice how Gregory nicely set his liberal guest up to attack his foes without actually asking him fiscal specifics about S&Ps statement?
As NewsBusters reported moments ago, although S&P did discuss Washington politics in its explanation of why it cut America's credit rating, the bulk of its eight page analysis dealt with our spiraling debt and unrestrained spending.
I guess Gregory didn't feel such inconvenient truths were important to address with the Senator.
Making matters worse, it appears Gregory and his producers got what they wanted from Kerry, for in the final "Trends and Takeaways" segment of the program, with less than a minute left, they aired his remarks again:
GREGORY: We talked a lot about the credit rating downgrade. Senator John Kerry on the program, at the beginning of the program, reacted to it this way.
(Videotape)
KERRY: This is the tea party downgrade because a minority of people in the House of Representatives countered even the will of many Republicans in the United States Senate who were prepared to do a bigger deal, to do $4.7 trillion, $4 trillion, have a mix of reductions and, and reforms in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, but also recognize that we needed to do some revenue.
(End videotape)
GREGORY: Alan Greenspan, about 15 seconds...
Could they have been any more obvious without banging each and every viewer over the head with a crowbar?
By playing this again, the good folks at the supposedly impartial NBC News were making it crystal clear they agreed with Kerry.
This means more and more the differences between MSNBC and NBC News are becoming less and less apparent.
Makes you wonder how Comcast and General Electric feel about that.
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Comments
As long as baboon-face and
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 6:46pm.
As long as baboon-face and long-face keep talking like this, we'll keep getting more and more believers............these guys live in a delusional world.
Did you Know?
Submitted by desert3030 on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 6:53pm.
He served in Viet Nam. Yes, and his comments this week put him in a position for a television show on MSNBC. The No Truth Hour! Some what Like Al Sharpton, convicted con. They can dish it out and 90% of the time are drop dead wrong. Did you know he served in Viet Nam, and when campaigning for president lost his har brush, misplaced it and almost had a break down.
Still don't know who's medals, if not his , he threw over the WH fence.
Kerry's faithful supporter
Submitted by jkwtrading on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 6:56pm.
Kerry's faithful supporter and buddy from Viet Nam has already lost his medals and is now doing time in the slammer.
I wanna laugh when I think
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 7:02pm.
I wanna laugh when I think that this creep actually RAN for President on the Democrat ticket............but then, I look at what we've got now, and I wanna CRY!!!!! (Cry for my country, of course.............Boy Blah-Blah isn't man enough to make me actually cry.)
It's the left-wing media's
Submitted by rbosque on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 6:49pm.
It's the left-wing media's chance to repeat ad nauseum another mindless WH talking point.
No doubt, I just saw Axelrod
Submitted by Reaver on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 7:30pm.
No doubt, I just saw Axelrod on the NBC evening news using the same phrase “tea-party downgrade”. Sadly the dems are telling us they have no interest in addressing the nation’s debt as long as they and their media sycophants can blame it all on their political enemies. Notice when asked “Is this a wakeup call for Washington?” he says “Well, it’s a partial wakeup call.” Clearly he doesn’t think his side needs to wake up.
blabbed
Submitted by grammajane on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 7:13pm.
The first part of the interview all john-boy talked about was how he and McCain agree on most everything and McCain never said a word about what was said. Kerry, who hated this country and bashed it's every policy has got to be the poorest excuse for a politician who represents the people who were so ill-informed to ever vote for him
You could plug in Boy Barry,
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 7:13pm.
You could plug in Boy Barry, Ms. Botox, the Weasel............and a whole lot of other posers into that last sentence!!!
Dems had total control for two years.
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 7:21pm.
If the Dems wanted to raise taxes, they could have raised them anything they wanted from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2010.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
They had the House and the
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 8:36pm.
They had the House and the Senate from Jan. 1, 2007...........that's two more years...............and they've done a lot of damage in that time.
" . . . the differences
Submitted by jdhawk on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 7:28pm.
" . . . the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge."
The hell they are. They are in perfect harmony. The recent so-called "debt ceiling" legislation couldn't have become law without the Republicons voting for it in the House. The facts are that we gave O'bozo another 2.4 trillion dollars to play with while restraining spending(notet I didn't say cut as nothing was cut spending was only slowed down) by a ridiculously infintismally small 22 billion dollars for fiscal year 2012 whcih begins in less than two months. Next year, fiscal year 2013, spending will be restrained by less than 50 billion dollars. By that time, we will have burned through the 2.4 trillion dollars and need still another debt ceiling raise even bigger than this one.
Our "side" has talked a good game and we, the ones that worked so hard to put them in office last November, are the chumps.
As Christine Romer said, "We are pretty darned f*cked."
John Kerry is a disgrace.
Submitted by MrLuigi on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 7:29pm.
Kerry betrayed his fellow vietnam compatriots by comparing their service to ghengis kahn while finagling 3 purple hearts for wounds suffered while shaving. Enough said!
Kerry on Meet the Press
Submitted by Comrade Jim on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 7:58pm.
To talk about the budget crisis says more about Gregory than Kerry. Kerry must be pretty close to the bottom of the barrel when it comes to expertise on matters of budgets and economics. And in Washington the barrel is awfully deep.
Brokaw
Submitted by grammajane on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 8:00pm.
Brokaw is busy tonight interviewing people in Iraq and how pissed they were that the US invaded their country. Most of the show is bashing Bush and his policies on this same night The Military just lost some 31 warriors in Afganistan. The biggest loss, at one time. God Bless The Military. It would be nice if some of the elite politicians in DC would fly to VA and CA and comfort and support the families of these great American's who died for this country.........just a thought
I started to watch MTP this AM, but when I saw Kerry...
Submitted by Red Jeep on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 8:35pm.
...off went the TV. Why watch a jerk lie?
The media parrots, quotes Liberals like Kerry..........
Submitted by cbeyer on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 9:18pm.
Trashing the Tea Party.
No wonder the polls show declining popularity of the Tea Party. With the MSM carrying the water by frequently quoting liberals (and interviewing them on news programs) where the Tea Party members are referred to as terrorists, nutcases and worse, its obvious that some of this is catching on with Americans who turn to ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC and other biased outlets that jump at every chance to denigrate the Tea Party.
Yes, we have talk radio and to some extent, Fox News but the combined audiences of the major MSM news outlets and wire services dwarf the audiences of conservative voices. The constant, unrelenting attacks on the Tea Party ARE effective.
I don't know if that's
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 9:33pm.
I don't know if that's true...................these guys are very adept at making their polls come out the way that they want them to. I think there are a helluva lot more people who agree with, or back, the TEA party than these MSM guys and the out-of-touch politicians can, or want to, imagine. These attacks MAY be effective with the people that they are going to influence anyway, but those people probably aren't going to change their little mindsets, regardless of the situation.
Same thing they did to
Submitted by NC Cop on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 9:38pm.
Same thing they did to Palin.......and it worked.
You're losing sight of one very simple thing.
Submitted by lsudolemite on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 10:23pm.
In November of next year, people will not be voting based on their perception of the Tea Party, it will be a referendum on Obama's presidency. At the end of the day, Obama's name will be the emblem of economic misery in this country, not the Tea Party. His own DNC chair has admitted he owns the economy. And as the Republicans are so fond of telling us, they only control 1/2 of 1/3 of the government.
Obama can and will blame the Tea Party all he wants, with a full-court press by the lapdog media. All the rhetoric in the world pales in comparison to the actual record Duh One has racked up thus far. I'll go so far as to say that if economic conditions stay as they are, or worsen, this will be a slam dunk of a Republican campaign, PROVIDED the candidate actually takes the fight to Obama. All the lies, all the broken promises should be extremely easy for a strong, aggressive candidate to capitalize on.
The TEA Party downgrade?
Submitted by GregE on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 10:29pm.
TEA party members. Fiscal conservatives, trying to stop the government spending circus.
John Kerry, one of the most liberal members of the Senate, in office for the last TWENTY-SIX years, voting in spending bill after spending bill after spending bill.
The End.
tea party
Submitted by vpose on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 10:48pm.
So, what's the problem? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/us/politics/05teaparty.html?_r=1 and http://www.businessinsider.com/sp-does-not-believe-the-bush-tax-cuts-wil...
Downgrade the Left Forever
Submitted by AgentAmerican on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 11:41pm.
There needs to be a general strike nation wide. Obama is cracking. The left is cracking. Let's get louder. The streets need to be flooded with the Tea Party. A Tea Party chapter in every town needs to form. I seen a Gadsden Flag on the front of a truck today.
Get loud. This is our time. Forget next November. Our time is now.
I'm getting a snake flag. Are you?
Losing Control - Fun To Watch
Submitted by rammingspeed on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 11:47pm.
Their desperation is palpable. Their anarchistic nature - always bursting to be let out - is coming through. Loud and clear. Their disregard of millions of audience members who are at least open minded about the tea party is literally insane. But then the murderers marauding the Moscow streets circa 1917 and the murderers in Berlin during Hitler's rise were also insane.
Kerry's comments predictable
Submitted by Cactus Kurt on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 11:56pm.
(yawn)
Kerry's comment on the Tea
Submitted by celator on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 11:55pm.
Kerry's comment on the Tea Party suggests that the Massachusetts Tea Party has focused its energy toward throwing this fraud out of the Senate. I'm going to have to check that out.
Liberal trash talk.
Submitted by Boil It Down on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 12:20am.
The MSM is doing a fine job of manipulating the public if people believe Kerry. Giving him a platform for this dishonest trash talk means they are every bit as low and deceitful as Kerry himself. -bidn-
I've Just Joined the Tea Party!
Submitted by scottyusmc on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 7:02am.
They have to be doing something right if this many liberal lapdogs are against them... The reason defaming the TEA Party will not work is because it is not an individual (like Palin) but a movement of ideas. Fiscal sanity and citizen control over their government is cause these idiots defame by their rhetoric.
Remember back when we were saying
Submitted by SickofLibs on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 9:08am.
"Just wait till Comcast takes over!"
Yeah, right. And now we even have 'elder statesman' Sharpton as the new NBC star.
Dear Senator Katsup
Submitted by Motormouth KOS on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 10:01am.
Did the wifey let you out of the basement again? That is very dangerous for you. Every time you open your cakehole, it terrifies me to think how close we were to having an imbecile like you become the President.
Please take the True or False Quiz below:
The Obamination... A crisis leading to a catastrophe..(please donate to MRC)
Remember the mantra that Kerry lives by............
Submitted by Herbster on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 11:41am.
Cash IS NOT king! ....... KETCHUP is king!
Hey, John Kerry: Why the long
Submitted by eolon on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 11:42am.
Hey, John Kerry:
Why the long face?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !
...that never gets old!
Best Regards,
e
.::.