Richard Wolffe

Regardless of the facts, some at MSNBC continue to peddle White House talking points surrounding the terrorist attack in Benghazi. Appearing on Morning Joe on May 9, Richard Wolffe, the executive editor of MSNBC.com, gleefully used Democratic talking points in his denunciation of congressional hearings on Benghazi. 

The segment began with co-host Joe Scarborough challenging the White House narrative that Eric Nordstrom, a 22-year State Department veteran who was in Tripoli during the Benghazi attack, was not demoted for speaking to members of Congress about his doubts over the response to the attack.  [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]

On Wednesday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe -- formerly of Newsweek -- claimed that President Bush "ignored all the warnings about al-Qaeda wanting to attack the homeland" before 9/11 as he mocked Republicans for praising Bush's record of preventing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil after the 9/11 attacks. As he alluded to Republicans criticizing President Clinton for not handling al-Qaeda more aggressively during his presidency, Wolffe asserted:

MSNBC continued the bashing of Margaret Thatcher on Monday. Richard Wolffe, a British journalist and editor of the network's website, smeared the late prime minister as "the antithesis of freedom" when it came to how she dealt with her domestic enemies. The liberal reporter sneered that the Conservative politician "hurt working families and working people." Now host Alex Wagner even went so far as to quote arch-socialist Ken Livingstone while attacking Thatcher.

Speaking of the woman who was instrumental in bringing about the end of the totalitarian threat of Soviet Communism, Wolffe, a former correspondent for Newsweek, excoriated, "She had an attitude to her domestic enemies that frankly was the antithesis of freedom." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] The journalist summarized Thatcher as "someone who was a pioneer for women, who actually also hurt working families and working people and that includes teachers and women across the board."

As Joe Scarborough said, "this is liberal on liberal on liberal violence. I love watching it."  He was referring to the intra-squad liberal dogfight, spurred by Rand Paul's filibuster, that broke out on Morning Joe today over the use of drones by the U.S. government. H/t NB reader Ray R.

Though former car czar Steve Rattner played a supporting role, the two main combatants were Sam Stein of the Huffington Post and Richard Wolffe of MSNBC itself.  Stein criticized the lack of guidelines that the Obama administration has established for the use of drones on U.S. citizens, supporting Paul's argument that it should be an easy question for the Obama admin to answer.  In the other corner, Wolffe was the internationalist, suggesting all terrorists should perhaps be entitled to the same due process, be they Saudi, Kuwaiti or American.  Stein and Scarborough had to enlighten Wolffe about the special protections the Constitution extends to U.S. citizens. View the video after the jump.

Appearing on Wednesday's MSNBC Morning Joe, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was greeted with childish behavior by the show's panel of left-wing pundits, who were unable to conceal their disgust with the state's right-to-work legislation just signed into law by the Republican. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Contributor Richard Wolffe led off the disrespectful display when Snyder defended the new law: "I don't believe this is actually anti-union. If you look at it, I believe this is pro-worker." Wolffe started laughing and rudely interrupted: "Hang on a second. Are you really – are you serious? Are you serious?  This is not anti-union?  This actually, at its core, undermines the ability for unions to organize. So you can make many arguments you like, but saying it's not anti-union..."

Attempts by liberal MSNBC pundits like Touré and Richard Wolffe to dismiss conservative criticisms of Amb. Susan Rice as racially-motivated are evidence of the "militant, radical Left flexing its muscles" post-Obama reelection, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on the "Media Mash" segment of the Fox News host's November 29 program.

"Where were" liberal journalists when "Clarence Thomas was smeared in his confirmation hearings" or "with Allen West in Florida?" Bozell asked. "When a conservative black man is attacked," the media are mute, failing to consider if perhaps there is racism at play in the criticisms leveled by liberals. What's more, if Rice were white, the media would simply complain Republican critics are "anti-woman," the Media Research Center founder observed [watch the full segment below the page break].

In what has been a daily and exhausting exercise, Richard Wolffe, executive editor of MSNBC.com, continues to push the slanderous claim that opposition to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice is racially motivated. 

Appearing on Thursday’s Martin Bashir show, Wolffe and fellow liberal journalist Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post continued to slam Republicans for their investigation of Susan Rice.  [See video below page break.  MP3 audio here.] 

Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren has reached her boiling point after seeing yet another person at MSNBC hurl a gratuitous, objectively false charge of "racism" at Arizona Senator John McCain for having the gall to believe that Susan Rice would not be a good choice to be the next Secretary of State.

She let it rip in a blog post Monday afternoon:

It’s one thing for a leftist pundit to appear on MSNBC and smear Republicans as racist and bigoted.  It’s another when the editor of MSNBC.com, a supposedly professional journalist, joins the ranks of liberal pundits slamming the GOP for its criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s comments following the attack on our Embassy in Benghazi. 

Appearing on Tuesday’s NOW with Alex Wagner, Wolffe started off the show by having the audacity to claim, “there has been a witch hunt against every prominent person of color that has served alongside this president.”  [See video below page break.  MP3 audio here.] 

On Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's The Ed Show, all but official Obama campaign surrogates Ed Schultz and Richard Wolffe discussed the third and final presidential debate. Both declared the president a clear winner and insulted the intelligence of anyone who would disagree. Failing to recognize the irony of what they were doing for Obama, Schultz criticized the Romney campaign for declaring victory -- as if it defied all logic.

"Romney's camp is spinning last night as a victory for him," he said. "What about that? I mean, do they really think the American people are that stupid?" [ video below, MP3 audio available here ]

After Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted the blame for the avoidable tragedy that occurred in Benghazi last month, one would think the media would be a little more critical of an administration that initially tried to cover it up with misinformation. While this sounds like a logical presumption, it hasn't been the case. Clinton was applauded for "falling on her sword" and taking responsibility for failing to protect those who were killed in the attack on the consulate.

MSNBC's Martin Bashir and his contributors didn't seem to think an apology was necessary however, blaming the Republicans in Congress for imposing cuts on foreign aid and embassy protection instead. In other words, it was all their fault and the Romney campaign has no right bringing it up. [ video below, MP3 audio available here ]

Quite the MSNBC two-fer tonight.  Wrapping up Hardball, Chris Matthews counseled President Obama to explain his accomplishments to the American people "as if he were talking to a two-year old."

Later, on Al Sharpton's MSNBC show, MSNBC contributor Richard Wolffe said he "might get into trouble" for saying that President George W. Bush has done a dignifed job of staying out of the limelight since leaving office.  Was Wolffe being facetious?  He seemed straight-faced. View the video after the jump.

On Friday's The Ed Show, MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - compared Mitt Romney's economic plan to a "pre-9/11" mentality as he went along with substitute host Michael Eric Dyson's complaint that Republicans are being "clearly obstuctionist" against President Obama's economic agenda.

Dyson asked the question:

On Monday's The Ed Show on MSNBC, as host Ed Schultz and MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - discussed Mitt Romney's crack on President Obama that even President Carter would have had the judgment to order the killing of Osama bin Laden once the 9/11 mastermind had been found, the two MSNBC personalities fretted that Romney had taken a "cheap shot" at Jimmy Carter.

On Friday's The Ed Show on MSNBC, host Ed Schultz and MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - drew attention to a woman at a shooting range who recently encouraged Rick Santorum to "pretend it's Obama" while the GOP presidential candidate was firing at a target.

After Schultz noted that Santorum criticized the comment when it was brought to his attention, Wolffe warned viewers:

Appearing as a guest on MSNBC's The Ed Show, MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - complained that the economic policies of GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum "are a repeat of the Bush years," and asserted that President Bush had the "worst jobs record of any President in modern times."

After host Ed Schultz asked "how does Romney and Santorum win over" middle class voters in Ohio, an amused Wolffe recommended that the GOP candidates "change their policies." Wolffe:

On Thursday's Ed Show on MSNBC, Ed Schultz introduced a Sarah Palin segment in the usual way: "And just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water – America's worst nightmare could come true." Palin had told Eric Bolling on Fox Business that she might be willing to emerge if there's a brokered convention in Tampa this August.

Schultz called her "the entitlement candidate. She doesn't work for it by going through a messy primary and caucuses. She is only interested in campaigning for two months and serving for two years like she did when she was governor of Alaska." Then Schultz turned to former Newsweek reporter and current MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe to bring his British-accented smackdown, calling Palin "delusional" three times and "crazy" twice, including the accusation that her alleged insanity has been topped: "her brand of craziness has now been trumped by a whole bunch of other people."

Feminist author Naomi Wolf insisted on today's Now with Alex Wagner that New Yorkers were not really all that inconvenienced by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

"Yesterday, commuters and small business owners couldn't get to work the Occupiers were blocking subway entrances, you [also] had the Brooklyn Bridge" pedestrian walkway crammed with Occupiers, conservative columnist S.E. Cupp complained in a panel segment on Occupy Wall Street's political objectives, if any.

"I didn't see any of that. There's no reporting about that, I follow the reporting very carefully," Wolf retorted (see video below page break).

Appearing as a guest on Saturday's Today show on NBC, MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - labeled Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's supporters as "ultraconservative" as he admitted to the media's unpopularity not only with the general population, but with conservatives in particular.

After co-host Lester Holt noted that Cain's poll numbers have held steady despite accusations of sexual harassment, Wolffe explained:

Appearing as a guest on Friday's Last Word to discuss Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman's plan to simplify the income tax code, MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe saw extremism in the Tea Party movement as he asserted that Huntsman's plan was "moderate when you compare it to where the Tea Party extremists want to take this."

As the discussion turned to the current anemic job growth numbers and Texas Governor Rick Perry's views on economics, Wolffe claimed that President Jimmy Carter had created more jobs that President George W. Bush as he blamed Bush and Republicans for the current economic slowdown:

As NewsBusters reported moments ago, MSNBC's Richard Wolffe said Wednesday that House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Oh.) request for Barack Obama to reschedule next week's jobs address might have been due to the color of the President's skin.

On his radio program Thursday, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh responded by saying, "If they ever do a colonoscopy on Obama, they're gonna find Richard Wolffe's head there" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Richard Wolffe went there. The political analyst for the Lean Forward network actually played the race card in his analysis of why the Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner did not accept Barack Obama's big foot move to deliver a speech to Congress on the same night as a GOP presidential debate, as he pondered: "it could be, let's face it, the color of his skin."

Appearing on Wednesday's edition of The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Wolffe made the following accusation of racism:

(video after the jump)

As the prospects for Barack Obama's reelection decline, American media are getting more and more cavalier with the truth when defending the object of their affection.

On Friday, MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe not only lied about the adminstration's projection that unemployment wouldn't rise above eight percent if its stimulus package was enacted, he also badly misrepresented the timing of job losses during the recession (video follows with transcript and commentary):

 On Friday’s Last Word on MSNBC, as host Lawrence O’Donnell brought up his belief - explored more thoroughly earlier in the show - that President Obama had succeeded in a strategy to appear to be the "reasonable man willing to make compromises" without actually having to make those concessions, MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe at first seemed to buy into O’Donnell’s "cynical" theory of Obama’s true intentions, but the MSNBC analyst also suggested that Obama was indeed being "reasonable" and "the grownup in the room." He went on to suggest that Republicans were not being "responisible’ or a "serious party about deficits," and that they were behaving as "irresponsible children."

 Saturday’s The Early Show on CBS gave New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg an unchallenged forum to promote his views favoring same-sex marriage as the show celebrated New York’s recent legalization of gay marriage by interviewing a gay couple who are planning to get married. As Mayor Bloomberg will be performing the ceremony because the two are members of his staff, the mayor also took part in the interview. Early Show co-anchor Rebecca Jarvis set up the segment:

Can you imagine liberal media members in 2007 or 2008 blaming George W. Bush's sagging poll numbers on the public's dismal view of the Democrat Congress?

On Friday, the Huffington Post's Howard Fineman actually told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell "the fact the Republicans and Congress are so poorly regarded, that the whole system is so poorly regarded, drags everybody down, including the president" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Monday spent much of show scaring viewers about Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) recently released budget proposal.

So apoplectic was the "Hardball" host that he told liberal guests Howard Fineman and Richard Wolffe that Ryan's Medicare reform plan "is going to kill half the people who watch this show" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe on Tuesday said, "The experiment of democracy, of untrammeled democracy inside the Middle East is most clearly demonstrated by the Palestinian authority with Hamas taking power in the Gaza strip."

Such transpired in the same lengthy "Hardball" segment wherein Chris Matthews called Sarah Palin "a cuckoo clock" and Newt Gingrich "a mortal enemy to our civilization" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

It's rare when Chris Matthews is outdone in his praise of Barack Obama but Time's Mark Halperin, on Thursday's Hardball, managed to top the MSNBC host as he delivered a rave review of Barack Obama's performance at the National Prayer Breakfast. After playing a clip of the speech, Matthews merely offered a "That's pretty good" but the Game Change co-author did him one better, going as far to warn any GOP candidate considering a presidential run in 2012 to study the address because it had "a level of sophistication and skill that not one Republican on the field right now can duplicate."

(video, audio and transcript after the jump)

While lambasting Sarah Palin for using violent imagery with her now infamous crosshairs election strategy map as well as her "Don't Retreat - RELOAD" Twitter posting, MSNBC's Chris Matthews used an expression concerning the former Alaska governor that could easily be misconstrued as a threat.

As he chatted with Cynthia Tucker and Richard Wolffe on "Hardball," the host said, "If she doesn't get off of this and stop trying to have somebody else skate her off of it like Glenn Beck or this person Mansour, she is going to be erased as a potential candidate" (video follows with transcript and commentary):