Donald Trump

Donald Trump asked a politically sensitive question Friday after it was announced that the second Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been captured.

Via Twitter, "Is the Boston killer eligible for Obama Care to bring him back to health?"

As NewsBusters reported Monday, Donald Trump is suing HBO's Bill Maher for the $5 million the comedian offered to the real estate mogul if he proved that he wasn't the product of his mother having sex with an orangutan.

With the suit having been filed in California court hours ago, NewsBusters has obtained a statement from Trump via his EVP and Special Counsel:

As NewsBusters reported in early January, HBO's Bill Maher offered Donald Trump $5 million if he could prove he wasn't spawned by a father that was an orangutan.

On Fox & Friends Monday, Trump announced that he was suing Maher for $5 million for not following through on his offer (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, Bill Maher on NBC’s Tonight Show offered Donald Trump $5 million to prove that he wasn’t “the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.”

Later in the day, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir actually echoed Maher’s contention challenging Trump to come out and disprove it (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Maher on Monday offered $5 Million to the charity of Donald Trump’s choosing if the billionaire could prove that he wasn’t “the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.”

Such happened on NBC’s Tonight Show which clearly was in on the gag (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

For at least 24 hours, the mainstream media have been trying to figure out a way to make Hurricane Sandy an aid to Barack Obama's re-election.

On Monday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews had a related concern asking guest John Nichols of the Nation magazine, "How long do you think it’ll take for Donald Trump to take a crack at the President for engineering this?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Adopting Obama campaign talking points that Mitt Romney has dramatically shifted positions, on Friday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer asked Donald Trump: "Are you happy with the Romney campaign right now? In the last couple of weeks he has clearly moved toward the center, way closer to the center than he was during the primaries and the early part of the campaign. His comments on abortion out in Ohio." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Trump dismissed any concerns: "I think he's doing amazingly. It started with the debate. We were all a little bit worried for a while. He just knocked it out of the park in the debate, and you look at the polls, he's generally winning." Lauer pressed: "But you think he's the same candidate that you signed on with several months ago?" Trump replied: "I think he's a great candidate and I think he's going to win." Lauer couldn't let it go: "Same candidate?" Trump reiterated: "Yes, I think he's a great candidate."

The media's seemingly incessant attacks on the Koch brothers continued Wednesday.

On CBS's Late Show, host David Letterman aired an insulting mock ad by the Republican National Committee that depicted the Kochs as running a "dirtbag multinational corporation" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Donald Trump on Monday had some harsh words for Bill Maher's incessant attacks on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormonism.

Appearing on Fox News's On the Record, the real estate mogul said, "If a conservative Republican made a like statement about somebody else's religion, there’d be hell to pay. It’ll be all over the place. It would be the end of that person's career as you know it" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The Big Three networks certainly have their priorities straight. ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning shows on Wednesday dedicated more time to entertainment news than the results of the Wisconsin recall election. On CBS This Morning, Disney's new ban on junk food ads from its kids programming received a minute and a half more than the political story. The same gap occurred on ABC's Good Morning America, but instead of junk food, the Miss USA pageant got the extra time.

NBC's Today, however, one-upped its competitors, as they devoted over six minutes to former Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus getting engaged, while Republican Governor Scott Walker's victory received under four and a half minutes. Today also spent over five minutes on the Miss USA story.

New York Times reporter Ashley Parker was in Las Vegas and made controversy Wednesday over Mitt Romney's appearance at a fundraiser with media mogul and political controversialist Donald Trump. Parker used Trump's "birther" beliefs as an excuse to dredge up old Romney flubs: "Romney, on His Big Day, Finds Himself Upstaged."

It was supposed to be a day of triumph for Mitt Romney, when he would at last formally claim the Republican presidential nomination with a victory in the Texas primary. And Mr. Romney was to focus attention on an aggressive new attack on President Obama, highlighting the White House’s role in backing failed companies like Solyndra.

Instead, Tuesday was hijacked by Donald J. Trump. Inexplicably to many in his party, Mr. Romney had scheduled an appearance at a fund-raiser in Las Vegas on Tuesday night with Mr. Trump.

CNN jumped all over Donald Trump's "birther" remarks on Tuesday as Trump hosted a fund raiser for Mitt Romney. CNN ran the story almost every single hour on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, hyping Romney's message getting "Trumped" by his supporter's controversial statements.

In contrast, CNN showed no initial scrutiny of foul-mouthed comedian Bill Maher's $1 million donation to a pro-Obama Super PAC in February. Maher is infamous for his vile and disgusting insults of conservative women, but when he announced the donation CNN simply reported it without any hint of controversy.

Birtherism really makes Jake Tapper mad. The Good Morning America journalist on Wednesday angrily attacked the untrue conspiracy theory as "bizarre," "fact-free" "nonsense." Tapper highlighted Donald Trump's support of Mitt Romney and warned that Republicans think the real estate mogul "undercuts his seriousness and suggests [Romney is] not willing to stand up to even the most offensive and false nonsense from that wing of his party."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Yet, while Tapper appeared shocked at Trump's comments and dropped his objectivity to report on them, he has not covered (on air) the offensive statements spewed by comedian/political analyst Bill Maher, who donated $1 million to Barack Obama's campaign. Maher has mocked Mitt Romney's Mormonism as a "cult." This past weekend, he speculated that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has multiple wives. GMA and Tapper haven't corrected these "bizarre" comments from a major Obama donor.

At the top of Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer worked to tarnish Mitt Romney officially becoming the GOP Nominee: "Mitt Romney secures the Republican presidential nomination....But will his ongoing relationship with Donald Trump overshadow his big moment? As Trump plays the birther card once again."

Moments later, Lauer continued to rain on Romney's achievement: "...even as he basks in the glow of securing the nomination, Donald Trump, who hosted a closed-door fundraiser for Romney in Las Vegas last night, has managed to once again grab some headlines by reigniting the debate over President Obama's birthplace. Should Romney have been quicker to distance himself from Trump?"

CNN was on the "birther" beat Tuesday night after Romney surrogate Donald Trump kept espousing the conspiracy, and the former GOP governor of New Hampshire excoriated the network on Wednesday morning's Starting Point for its "fixation" with a non-story.

"Aren't you embarrassed to be speaking directly from the Obama speaking points that they distributed yesterday?" John Sununu challenged anchor Soledad O'Brien in a testy exchange. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

On Tuesday's CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose yet again ripped a line from a liberal print media outlet that portrayed the GOP as a radical faction. Rose quoted a front-page article about Mitt Romney from that morning's Washington Post to Republican media favorite Peggy Noonan: "The Republican Party will have selected an unlikely standard bearer for 2012...a man of moderate temperament in a party fueled by hot rhetoric...a flip-flopper in a party that demands ideological purity."

Noonan herself endorsed this left-leaning spin: "That's very well put." The columnist also denounced the "freak show atmosphere to the Republican primaries in the past six months or so." [audio available here; video below the jump]

In an astonishing display of hypocrisy, NBC News repeatedly decried Mitt Romney using celebrity businessman Donald Trump to fundraise for his campaign. This is the same Donald Trump who hosts NBC reality shows The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice and who routinely appears on the Today show to promote those programs, including just last week.

On Tuesday's Today, correspondent Peter Alexander declared that Trump "causes heartburn for some in the Republican Party because of his insistence on renewing questions about where the President was born." He later wrapped up his report by parroting Obama campaign talking points: "The Obama campaign accusing Romney of failing to stand up against what they call the extreme voices in the Republican Party. And the Obama campaign says that includes Donald Trump."

Seeing little hope for Republican chances against Obama in November on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer put this question to Donald Trump: "Isn't any Republican nominee going to have a problem, and that is, by all indications, the economy is getting stronger. So if you're the Republican nominee, how do you run against a recovering economy? How do you say, 'I'm not up with that'?"

With the number of numbskulls on the airwaves today, I'm not sure I'd called MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell the dumbest man on television.

But that's how real estate tycoon Donald Trump referred to the "Last Word" host on Twitter Thursday also calling him the "poor man's Ed Schultz...and Al Sharpton":

Following Democratic National Committee talking points to the letter at the top of Thursday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams saw Donald Trump's endorsement of Mitt Romney as an excuse to bash the Republican frontrunner: "New fallout from Mitt Romney's choice of words about the very poor, and tonight a new endorsement from a man who's catchphrase is 'You're fired.'"

In the report that followed, correspondent Peter Alexander gleefully touted Democrats smearing Romney in the wake of Trump's backing: "For Romney, the endorsement of a billionaire businessman with this as his signature line [clip of Trump saying "You're fired"] Gave Democrats new fodder for attacks on cable." A nasty sound bite followed from DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "They both like firing people and they’ve both made millions doing it."

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday threw every Obama talking point he could at Donald Trump. Highlighting Mitt Romney, the GMA host parroted, "As you know, the Obama campaign is poised to really attack Mitt Romney on the issue of Bain Capital, on Swiss bank accounts, Cayman Island investments."

He continued, "How big on of a problem is this for Romney and how would you advise him to fight back against that?" Speaking of Romney and Newt Gingrich, Matthews noted the "unfavorable views of both their private sector backgrounds...That is something that President Obama, you know, will really target in a general election."

Donald Trump on Friday took a nice little poke at Wolf Blitzer.

During an interview aired on CNN's the Situation Room, the real estate tycoon said to his host, "I know you like the president and all that stuff, although less than some of the folks at MSNBC" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

Liberals worried that Newt Gingrich threatens the Obama presidency are overwrought in their criticism of Gingrich.

Examples of this occurred yesterday during a discussion on Ed Schultz's radio show between Schultz and Democrat congressman Jim McDermott, one of Saddam Hussein's most steadfast defenders in Congress. (audio clips after page break)

The media are all in a tizzy about the idea of real estate tycoon Donald Trump moderating a Republican presidential debate.

On Tuesday, one of the candidates, Rick Santorum, told KLIF substitute radio host Steve Malzberg, "I can't see in some cases where Donald Trump would be any worse than what we get from the mainstream media" (video follows with transcript):

According to Chris Matthews on Monday, the Republican presidential candidates are engaging in a "reign of terror" and "don't like democratic government." In a possible (though confusing) allusion to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the Hardball anchor smeared, "These are guys who tear down statues. They don't put them up."  [See video below. See MP3 audio here.]

Matthews has a history of comparing Republicans to violent extremists in the Middle East. On July 5, 2011, the MSNBC host foamed, "Well, the GOP has become the Wahhabis of American government, willing to risk bringing down the whole country in the service of their anti-tax ideology."