Rather than update viewers on the latest details of the scandals plaguing the Obama administration, or the President's foreign policy failures in the Middle East, the hosts of NBC's Today devoted over a minute of air time Wednesday to discussing whether broccoli was really Obama's favorite food. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
News reader Natalie Morales sparked the exchange by proclaiming: "You know it's July in Washington when there's a broccoli brewhaha." She explained how President Obama told a kid reporter at a White House children's event that the vegetable was his favorite food, "with many greeting the President's claim with skepticism."
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By Kyle Drennen | July 11, 2013 | 5:03 PM EDT
By Matt Hadro | July 11, 2013 | 3:50 PM EDT
Is this the advocacy channel? CNN's Chris Cuomo begged Congress to "fix" rising student loan rates, and now the New Day co-host insists that "leadership" means Congress selling the public on a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
"Well that's what leadership is," Cuomo responded when co-host Kate Bolduan noted that congressmen in predominantly white districts would have to persuade constituents to support the pathway to citizenship.
By Kyle Drennen | July 11, 2013 | 11:58 AM EDT
On Thursday's NBC Today, correspondent Andrea Mitchell couldn't contain her excitement over Hillary Clinton's potential presidential run in 2016: "She already has her library. Hillary Clinton read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but everyone waited for the next chapter as she opened the new Hillary Rodham Clinton Children's Library in Little Rock. Not far from a famous Arkansas presidential library." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Mitchell gushed over former Obama advisors joining "Ready for Hillary," a pro-Clinton 2016 super pac: "First they were rivals, then a team of rivals, and now Hillary Clinton seems to be picking up support from key members of team Obama....Barack Obama out-organized her in 2008. Now some of his former top campaign aides could help her clear the field."
Andrea Mitchell On Immigration: McCain 'Heroic,' Conservatives Focused On Border 'Ought To Be Ashamed'
By Mark Finkelstein | July 11, 2013 | 9:43 AM EDT
Want to be "heroic" on immigration in Andrea Mitchell's eyes? Easy: team up with Chuck Schumer and President Obama to push amnesty through Congress. Want to earn Andrea's ire? Focus on border security. She'll scold you and say you should be "ashamed."
Yes, there was Andrea on today's Morning Joe, praising amnesty-pushing McCain as "heroic," while scolding conservatives who want to focus on border security. They "ought to be be ashamed," said Mitchell. View the video after the jump.
By Kyle Drennen | July 10, 2013 | 5:22 PM EDT
Speaking to Republican Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, moderator David Gregory expressed newfound respect for former President George W. Bush: "[He] is expected to speak out about immigration reform this coming week. He could be a very strong voice within the Republican Party after the Senate has passed immigration reform to put pressure on the House. How will you respond to that?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Introducing a report on Wednesday's Today about Bush's upcoming speech on the matter, news reader Natalie Morales touted him being "front and center today, weighing in on immigration reform." Correspondent Kelly O'Donnell noted: "And that's something the former president has strictly avoided for years, talking about a hot political issue. But immigration has always been important to him..."
By Matthew Balan | July 10, 2013 | 4:22 PM EDT
Norah O'Donnell and Anthony Mason badgered National Review editor Rich Lowry on Wednesday's CBS This Morning over his opposition to the Senate's immigration reform bill. O'Donnell, who has a history of hardball interviews of conservative guests, wondered if there is a "civil war in the Republican Party" over the immigration issue, and hyped that "the Republican Party is in demographic death spiral unless they do something on immigration reform."
Mason touted the supposed "huge economic benefits" of the proposal, and brushed aside Lowry's slam of the bill as being "deeply flawed". The substitute anchor replied, "But you could say that about most legislation in Washington. Come on!" [audio available here; video below the jump]
By Matt Hadro | July 10, 2013 | 2:52 PM EDT
On Tuesday's Piers Morgan Live, actor Jeff Daniels pushed for universal background checks because the Second Amendment was written during a "different time."
"I'm one of the guys that goes back to the Second Amendment and just goes, 'you know what, it was a different time and now we're into the Sandy Hooks and the – you know, all of that and whatever happened between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin that night, only they know'," Daniels told host Piers Morgan.
By Kyle Drennen | July 10, 2013 | 11:35 AM EDT
During a news brief on Wednesday's NBC Today, anchor Natalie Morales noted that following "tough new abortion laws" being approved by the Texas house of delegates, "Demonstrators on both sides of the issue descended on the state capitol building and erupted in screams and cheers immediately following last night's vote." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
However, the footage that rolled on screen as Morales talked was only that of abortion activists chanting "Shame on you!" throughout the Texas state house. Such footage belies the fact that sixty-two percent of Texans agree with the ban on abortions after twenty weeks, not to mention a plurality of Americans.
By Kyle Drennen | July 10, 2013 | 9:43 AM EDT
Leading a panel discussion on her Tuesday 1 p.m. ET hour show on MSNBC, host Andrea Mitchell ranted against Republican efforts to enact pro-life legislation at the state level: "Texas isn't the only state where Roe v. Wade is being challenged....We've seen in Ohio, John Kasich and company sneaked it in to a budget bill....Wisconsin, there's an injunction against enforcement of what the legislature there did under Scott Walker." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Minutes later, Mitchell encouraged her fellow abortion advocates to use the issue to attack the GOP in 2014: "...if the pro-choice community frames this in a certain way, the blow-back could be against Republicans...in the mid-term elections, if women feel that their rights to control their own bodies are being controlled by men, by male legislatures who are without votes, without debate, sneaking this into budget bills, as happened in Ohio."
By Noel Sheppard | July 9, 2013 | 6:06 PM EDT
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on Tuesday said that she is considering running for Senate in 2014.
Appearing on Sean Hannity’s radio program, Palin also reiterated that she would consider supporting a third party if Republicans don’t return to their conservative roots.
By Kyle Drennen | July 9, 2013 | 12:30 PM EDT
Two weeks after Texas state senator Wendy Davis and a mob of abortion activists prevented popularly supported pro-life legislation from being passed in the Lone Star State, on Tuesday's NBC Today, news reader Natalie Morales warned of another upcoming vote on the bill: "The battle over abortion rights is focused on Texas, where a controversial bill that failed last month will be back up for a vote." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
In the report that followed, correspondent Gabe Gutierrez declared Texas to be at "the epicenter of the national debate over abortion" and hyped "another showdown" at the state capitol. He detailed the bill's "controversial" measures: "...banning abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and mandating that abortion clinics meet the same standards as hospital-style surgical centers. It would also require that a doctor who performs abortions be able to admit patients at a nearby hospital."
By Scott Whitlock | July 9, 2013 | 12:06 PM EDT
For the second day in a row, the journalists at Good Morning America failed to identify prostitution patron Eliot Spitzer as a Democrat. Yet, in a story on the politician's comeback, reporter Claire Shipman made sure to highlight former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford as a Republican. Regarding Spitzer's bid to be the New York City comptroller, Shipman enthused, "A new political lesson for Eliot Spitzer: Infamy might work to his advantage."
She continued, "It certainly brought the former New York governor crowds he could not have imagined before his prostitution scandal cost him his job in 2008." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] What the reporter conveniently ignored is that Spitzer was mercilessly heckled on Thursday. A Manhattan man screamed at the Democrat, "Why were you late? Were you with a hooker?"