Notable Quotables: Special Media Meltdown Edition

Posted below: the November 21 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC’s bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This issue: The media throw a collective fit over the election of Donald Trump. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews moans: “This is a different Earth today than it was 24 hours ago.” CNN’s Van Jones declares Trump’s victory was a “white-lash” against Barack Obama and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman compares Trump’s victory to 9/11. 

Also in this issue: MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell crowns Obama the “most noble” president ever. Hollywood celebrities freak out over the election results with actress Kristen Bell blurting “Anyone else wanna puke?” and film director Joss Whedon threatens that Trump: “cannot be allowed a term in office.” 

[LANGUAGE WARNING: The meltdown of journalists and celebrities over Trump’s victory led to frequent vulgarity.]

<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>

 

The complete issue, with 27 quotes, is posted below: 

“Scared” of the “Trumpocalypse”

“People are scared.... I’m still having a hard time getting myself used to standing on this Earth right now. This is a different Earth today than it was 24 hours ago. It’s different place. It just is different.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, November 9. 

“There were gasps around the world. Headlines, ‘Trumpocalypse’ and ‘Disunited States.’ And echoes of the Brexit vote too, against the European Union establishment. But there are deeper concerns tonight that the world’s shining light of democracy has gone dark.”
— Correspondent Richard Engel on NBC Nightly News, November 9.     

“This is a moral 9/11. Only 9/11 was done to us from the outside and we did this to ourselves.”
— New York Times columnist Tom Friedman on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, November 11. 

“For 240 years, American government and American civilization has been steadily moving up, slowly but surely improving, rising higher and higher and higher and then last night, we turned down. That’s what you’re feeling. That’s what the decline of a civilization feels like....Millions of people, men, women, and children who are feeling this decline of the civilization have been crying over these last 24 hours..But millions of people love that [Trump’s] voice. Millions of American women love that voice. Voted for that voice....That’s the way it is in the decline of the civilization....Every declining civilization has had their cheerleaders on their way down.”
— MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word, November 9.     

 

Mr. President, Are You as Worried About Trump as Us? 

“Given some of the harsh words you had about Mr. Trump, calling him temperamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief, did anything surprise you about President-elect Trump when you met with him in your office? And also, I want to know, does anything concern you about a Trump presidency?....Do you still have any concerns about his temperament?” 
— ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz’s questions to Barack Obama at a press conference, November 14. 

 

Anything to Say to Those “Terrified” By a Trump Presidency? 

“A lot of people are afraid. They’re really afraid. African Americans think there’s a target on their back. Muslims are terrified...Do any of you want to say anything about this fear that’s out there?”
— Lesley Stahl’s question to the Trump family on CBS’s 60 Minutes, November 13. 

 

MSNBCers Mourn for “Most Noble” President Ever

“President Obama is the most noble man who has ever lived in the White House and he proved that again today....Our presidential mythology insists that most of the 44 of them have been noble men, despite the fact that most of them tried to exterminate Native American tribes. Most of them were racists. Many, if not most of them, were anti-Semites. Donald Trump will take his place now among the racists who have lived in the White House.”
— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word, November 9.     

“I’m thinking about President Obama, too. I mean, to have the first African-American President succeeded by a guy who was endorsed by the KKK...and have that be the succession to the first black president, it’s a big deal.” 
— MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow on MSNBC’s live election coverage 2:37 am ET, November 9.   

 

Journalism Is “Broken” Because They Failed to Stop Trump

“I fear that journalism is irredeemably broken, a failure. My profession failed to inform the public about the fascist they are electing.”
— November 8 tweet by City University of New York journalism professor Jeff Jarvis.

 

Trump’s “White-Lash” 

“I think the extent to which Donald Trump has won, winning a campaign of racism and bigotry, turning out millions of white Americans for that campaign, suggests we are living through a kind of second redemption, a kind of push-back against the advancement of African-Americans, of Hispanics, of women, of Muslim-Americans and I don’t know how long we live with that backlash.”
— Slate columnist Jamelle Bouie on CBS’s live election coverage 12:03am ET, November 9. 

“It’s hard to be a parent, tonight, for a lot of us. You tell your kids, don’t be a bully. You tell your kids, don’t be a bigot....And then, you have this outcome....how do I explain this to my children?...This was a ‘white-lash.’ This was a ‘white-lash’ against a changing country. It was a ‘white-lash’ against a black president.”
— CNN’s political analyst Van Jones during live election night coverage 12:44 am ET, November 9.

 

“Fuck Everything and Blame Everyone”

“Blame white people. Blame white men in particular, but reserve plenty of blame for white women. Blame old people...Blame rich people, as always. Blame the public...for Donald fucking Trump getting more votes than Donald Duck....Blame the Founders for enshrining white supremacy in our constitution and making it nearly impossible to fully expunge. Blame a political system that advantages rural areas at the expense of urban ones, mostly in order to preserve our white supremacist heritage.”
— Deadspin editor Alex Pareene in November 9 article “Fuck Everything And Blame Everyone.”

 

America Switched Places With Nazi Germany

“How awkward is it that the country that dealt with Nazism is now the country that we’re all looking to with hope that has a woman president [Chancellor Angela Merkel], free college, and is being looked at as the leader of the free world while we have neo-Nazism a la Breitbart.com about to get a seat in the White House. My head hurts —  what about yours?”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s AM Joy, November 12. 

 

Hillary’s “Magical Night”

“James Taylor played for 45 minutes. It was extraordinary and I thought ‘well, that is so mellow and such a wow, how does Khizr Khan follow that?’ He came and this crowd was on their feet screaming for Khizr Khan with his heartbreaking story about his son and a message against bullying. This has been sort of magical night of staying on message and trying to recapture the momentum going into the final day.” 
— MSNBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell live from Clinton campaign rally in Manchester, November 6.  

 

Depiction of Hillary as “Corrupt” Is “Baffling” 

“I think she [Hillary Clinton] is a positive, caring, sincere and honest person in spite of this — for me a sort of baffling depiction of her as being this corrupt person, this untrustworthy person. I think it is a stretch to say that.”
— Singer James Taylor at 2:45pm ET on MSNBC Live, November 7. 

 

Maher Issues Marching Orders for the Media

“I know this is a comedy show, and I’m going to try to keep it on that level, but it’s not fucking funny. There is a slow-moving, right-wing coup going on. Media, do your fucking job. Report on this. The FBI has become politicized. They’re calling it ‘Trumplandia.’ There’s a faction in it that is politicized and trying to sabotage Hillary’s campaign because they’re convinced that she is the devil.”
— Host Bill Maher on HBO’s Real Time, November 4.

 

Stephanopoulos Moving Down Under?

“If Trump wins, we’ll start looking at real estate in Sydney, Australia. No crime, no guns.”
— Actress and wife of Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos, Ali Wentworth, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, November 1. 

 

The View = The Only “Check” on President Trump    

“What scares me the most...is that not since George W. Bush has there been a White House, a Senate and a House of Representatives all from the same party. And then the FBI has stuck its nasty little nose in the middle of this. Plus the Supreme Court, who knows where that's going to go? So the only checks and balances we have are us, The View. That’s it!”
— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, November 9. 

 

Late Night Hosts Lose Their Minds

“Right now, the election is too close to call and too terrifying to contemplate. The huge story is that Trump has outperformed expectations in early results. This one is a nail biter and a passport grabber. It feels like we are trying to avoid the apocalypse and half the country is voting for the asteroid.”
— Host Stephen Colbert on Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale: Who’s Going to Clean Up This Shit? on Showtime, November 8.

Host Stephen Colbert: “Let me ask you a technical question that you guys being political analysts would know — you would understand. What the fuck is happening?”...
Showtime’s The Circus co-host Mark Halperin: “He is now on the doorstep of 270 electoral votes.”
Colbert: Wow. Wow, that’s a horrifying prospect....I cannot put a happy face on that. And that’s my job.”
— Exchange on Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night Democracy’s Series Finale, Who’s Going to Clean Up This Shit? on Showtime, November 8, election night.

“I don’t know if you’ve come to the right place for jokes tonight because this is the first time throughout this entire race where I’m officially shitting my pants. I genuinely do not understand how America can be this disorganized or this hateful.”
— Host Trevor Noah on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, November 8. 

“How the fuck did we get here and what the fuck do we do now?...Let’s look at one narrow element that may have helped bring us here, because it will be important going forward: That is our media. Specifically, how a system that is supposed to catch a serial liar failed.”
— Host John Oliver on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, November 13. 

 

Celebrity Freak-Out 

“Anyone else wanna puke?”
— Actress Kristen Bell as reported by The Northern Virginia Daily, November 10.

“Dear God Please let Ruth Bader Ginsburg live to be 120. Amen.”
— November 9 tweet by actor Albert Brooks, November 9.     

“The Klan won last night. White nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons....Hate was given hope. Abject dumbness was glamorized as being ‘the fresh voice of an outsider’ who’s going to ‘shake things up.’”
— Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin in November 9 Vanity Fair article “Read the Letter Aaron Sorkin Wrote His Daughter After Donald Trump Was Elected President.”

“This is simple: Trump cannot CANNOT be allowed a term in office. It’s not about 2018. It’s about RIGHT NOW.”...
“Letting Trump take office means burying democracy. Letting him take it without the popular vote means burying it alive.” 
— November 14 tweets by film director Joss Whedon.

 

You Voted for Your Own Doom                             

“They’re going to get rid of ObamaCare. Probably get rid of Roe v. Wade. Enjoy your victory, Trump voters. Because when you’re dying because you don’t have health insurance to treat the infection you got for a back alley abortion you had to get because of fetal lead poisoning, you can say to yourself, at least I didn’t vote for someone with a private e-mail server.”
— Bill Maher on HBO’s Real Time, November 11.