Liberal reporters and hosts are closing out the year with a bang, spending the last month damning Donald Trump as an “unhinged” “sociopathic” mental case who was comparable to Charles Manson and Osama Bin Laden.
Also, journalists like CNN’s Brian Stelter and former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather continued to get on their high-horse as they proclaimed they were the “Pro-Truth” guardians against Trump’s “unrelenting campaign against the press.”
Excuses were also made for liberal Senator Al Franken, after he was accused of groping radio talk show host Leann Tweeden or as MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt called it a “mock” grope.
And celebrities raged against Trump as Netflix host Chelsea Handler hoped to see Trump in handcuffs” and Hunger Games movie star Jennifer Lawrence boasted if she ever met the President she would greet him with “a martini to the face.”
The following is a collection of the worst journalist and celebrity outbursts from the past month:
Stelter Sermonizes: “We’re Pro-Truth”
“We’re not anti-Trump...We’re pro-truth. We’re pro-honesty. We’re pro-decency, and this is a tough moment in American history for people that support facts and decency.”
— Host Brian Stelter to Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway on CNN’s Reliable Sources, November 5.
Time to Overthrow “Unhinged” Demented Trump?
Co-host Joe Scarborough: “We are headed towards a nuclear showdown....We heard this months ago, that we are going to have a ground war in Korea. They’ve believed that inside the White House for a very long time. And yet, he [Donald Trump] is completely detached from reality. We had a New York Times and Washington Post piece saying so a couple of days ago. And the question is, Mika: If this is not what the 25th Amendment was drafted for.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski: “Then what is it drafted for?”
Scarborough: “I would like the cabinet members serving America, not the President. Serving America....You don’t represent him. You represent 320 million people whose lives are literally in your hands and we are facing a showdown with a nuclear power and you have somebody inside the White House that the New York Daily News says is mentally unfit, that people close to him say is mentally unfit, that people close to him during the campaign told me had early stages of dementia.”
— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, November 30.
“Look at the New York Daily News this morning. A column calling the President a madman. Saying that he is truly unhinged....Eugene Robinson’s column in The Washington Post. People are saying we have to talk about his health now before it’s too late. Eugene Robinson saying: ‘How long are we going to pretend that President Trump is fully rational? How long are we going to ignore the signs he’s dangerously out of control?’ And here is MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough raising the same point...That’s the question. I’m going to ask you, Jeff Greenfield. Is now the time?”
— Host Brian Stelter on CNN’s Reliable Sources, December 3.
“Sociopathic” Trump is “Stain” that Needs Removing
“Donald Trump is a deeply damaged human being. He is a sociopathic, malignant narcissist, and he happens to be the – you know, the electoral system, not the American people, but the Electoral College has sort of vomited this thing up and it landed in the Oval Office and it needs to be removed. It’s a stain. It’s a big glob on the carpet there. It needs to be removed and that means impeachment or the 25th Amendment. This man is a danger to the world.”
— Former MSNBC host Ron Reagan Jr. on MSNBC’s Hardball, October 25.
Trump Worse Than Bin Laden
Co-host Sunny Hostin: “A lot of people are frustrated by Trump’s reaction to the terror attack here in New York, but you said recently via tweet that Trump and his family have done more damage to America than [Osama] bin Laden and ISIS combined.
Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann: “Yes.”
Hostin: “Do you believe that?”
Olbermann: “Yeah.”
— ABC’s The View, November 3.
When You Think About It, Charles Manson and Donald Trump Are Kind of Similar
“Charles Manson wasn’t the inevitable outgrowth of the Sixties. If anything, he was a harbinger of today’s far right.”
— November 20 tweet from the official New York Times opinion page account @nytopinion.
“How Murderer Charles Manson and Donald Trump Used Language to Gain Followers”
— Headline to November 20 Newsweek.com article.
If an Adored Democrat Is Involved, It’s Just a “Mock” Grope and We Must Avoid “Slippery Slope”
“[Franken] took a picture, which his office now says was of a joke, that showed him potentially – not actually groping – but mock-groping her while she was asleep.”
— Correspondent Kasie Hunt reporting on picture of Democratic Senator Al Franken groping former Fox Sports Network host Leann Tweeden on a 2006 USO tour as aired on MSNBC Live, November 16.
“How slippery a slope is it? I mean, again, I’m just speaking as somebody who spent 15 years of her life working on Wall Street. But if we’re gonna start to go after everyone in every power industry for something like a butt slap, I’m worried that there’s going to be no one left running anything.”
— Host Stephanie Ruhle discussing Franken on MSNBC Live, November 20.
“I spent all weekend feeling guilty that I’d called for the sacrifice of an otherwise decent man [Sen. Al Franken] to make a political point....Even as I made the case for resignation, I was relieved that it seemed as if Franken might stick around, because I adore him as a public figure.”
— New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg in November 20 article “When Our Allies Are Accused of Harassment”
Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?
“Despite the kids’ demonstration, saving the world has been harder since the Trump administration announced its pullout from the Paris climate deal.”
— Correspondent Mark Phillips right after video of children chanting “Save the world!” at U.N. climate conference as aired on CBS Evening News, November 13.
Trump Will Make You Sicker Than “Bad Oysters”
“We’ve never had one [president] that steadily, out of his own mouth, waged such an unrelenting campaign against the press. But this is something brand new in American history....It’s not normal. There is a campaign to convince people and I think particularly young people. ‘Oh well this is just the way presidencies go.’ That is not true....Look many things about the age of Trump will make the stomach sicker than bad oysters.”
— Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather on TBS’s Conan, December 4.
Republicans Are “Domestic Terror Group”
“This is not a political party – this is a domestic terror group. And I think what the American people should consider when they ask themselves that question – with a party that has done nothing to help the American people – is to vote them out and consider possibly afterwards locking them up, Joy.”
— Pollster Fernand Armandi on MSNBC’s AM Joy, November 26.
Only a “White Nationalist” Would Condemn Communism?
“‘Victims of Communism’ is a white nationalist talking point. Trump just made Nov 7 Natl Day for Vics of Communism.”
— November 7 tweet by Buzzfeed writer Blake Montgomery. Montgomery later deleted the tweet and apologized. Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation tweeted in response “Wow. Tell that to the 100+ Million people killed by communist regimes.”
How Do You Call for the Death Penalty, When Criminal is Already Dead?
“There is a consistency in his response to these kind of situations, to terrorism when the terrorism appears to be carried out by somebody who’s from an Arab country, Muslim country, not from the United States. This is the rhetoric that we heard all throughout the campaign: the bloodthirst, the aggression, the retribution...He did not react this way when a white person shot dozens of people in Las Vegas. He did not come and say: well, we have to do an immediate policy change; we need to give this guy the death penalty.”
— Wall Street Journal White House reporter Eli Stokols discussing New York City shooter, and forgetting that Las Vegas shooter was killed, on MSNBC’s Deadline White House, November 2.
Like Asking An Arsonist Advice on Putting Out a Fire?
Host Savannah Guthrie: “There’s a recent poll that said nearly half of people think the media make up stories. The media itself is under fire. And what do you think the media needs to do better to enhance its own credibility? And what do people need to understand about the value of the press?”...
Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather: “We need to do a better job, we need to do our job. Our job is to bear witness, to be honest brokers of information. To be as accurate and fair as we possibly can. So we need to do a better job....and heavens knows I’ve made my mistakes, have my open wounds from some self-inflicted wounds.”
— NBC’s Today, November 6.
Nevermind That Shooting Was Helped Stopped by an NRA Good Guy with a Gun
“The @NRA is soaked and bathed in blood. How do its adherents sleep at night?”
— November 5 tweet by MSNBC host Joy Reid after Sutherland Springs, TX shooting.
“I’d like conservatives to point to a single instance – what is it, the Whiskey Rebellion, was it the Brinks robbery, other acts of political violence in the United States, where conservatives who are [sic] saying they used their guns to protect their liberties? You won’t find a single instance of that.”
— New York Times columnist Bret Stephens on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, November 6. Shooter was confronted and chased down by NRA member and instructor Stephen Willeford.
Reporters Revisit The Nightmare: One Year Later
“I felt so alone, I knew it was done. I was by myself on the floor. I started to cry. I was thinking everything from, ‘I’m gonna have to rewrite my piece’ to, ‘Can we stay in the U.S.?’ I texted my husband, ‘Tell Rosie to go to bed. I don’t want her to watch.’”
— New York magazine writer Rebecca Traister’s Election Day 2016 recollection as printed in November 5 Esquire article “The Untold Stories of Election Day 2016. ”
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, how terrible are we that it’s even this close?’ My wife stayed up and I went to sleep, then she woke me up around 1 or 2 in the morning bawling and told me that it was over. My poor, sweet wife. She wanted to hug and kiss me but I went into a panic attack and couldn’t breathe...You take your kids to school, you go to the store, you go to the post office, you’re looking around, and you’re thinking, ‘These people hate me.’”
— CNN host Reza Aslan’s Election Day 2016 recollection as printed in November 5 Esquire article “The Untold Stories of Election Day 2016. ”
Michael Flynn Plea Deal “Like Christmas”
Co-host Joy Behar: “ABC News Brian Ross is reporting ‘Michael Flynn promised full cooperation to the Mueller team and is prepared to testify that as a candidate, Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians!’ Yes!”...On election night I had to wear a veil. I was in mourning. This is like the antithesis of that hideous night and that’s why I’m happy.”....
Co-host Sara Haines: “It’s not that it’s a happy day. It’s we need to figure out what went down here. Like, I can’t find myself cheering either.”
Behar: “Oh, no. It’s a happy day. Come on!”
— ABC’s The View, December 1. ABC was forced to issue a “clarification” on report and correspondent Brian Ross was suspended four weeks without pay by the network.
Hoping to See Trump in Handcuffs
Host Brian Stelter: “Would you say you’re on a mission to take him [Donald Trump] down?”
Netflix host Chelsea Handler: “I would like to see him brought down to the ground, preferably in handcuffs.”
— From CNN special Late Night In the Age of Trump, November 20.
Blinded by Her Own Double Standard
“Imagine being molested by an older man. Then that man denies ever doing it and then goes on and gets elected to United States senate. What kind of message does that send to young girls everywhere? And men to all the men who abuse women?”
— November 12 tweet from Netflix host and comedian Chelsea Handler referring to accusations against GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore.
“Yeah, @chelseahandler I can imagine. I was raped by the Arkansas AG who then becomes Governor & President and NBC held my interview explaining the rape until after his impeachment hearing. But I’m sure you don’t want to go there.”
— November 12 tweet by Bill Clinton accuser Juanita Broaddrick.
Trump Winning Like O.J. Aquittal
“I never imagined [Trump] would be elected. The closest thing I can compare it to is when O.J. got acquitted. It never occurred to me that it might happen. There was so much overwhelming evidence that O.J. was guilty, and you believe in the American judicial system. You believe that, for the most part, if somebody did it, they’re going to prison for doing it. We’re in a similar situation: Everything Donald Trump is doing and undoing is bad, bad, bad, and it seems so obvious, and it’s happening anyway.”
— ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in article “Jimmy Kimmel: Suddenly, He’s Walter Cronkite” for the October 30/November 12 issue of New York magazine.
Masochistic Vote for Trump
“I think, where our country is at right now, we put our dick in the toaster, and we’re all waiting to see what happens. What the fuck, man?”
— Former Comedy Central The Daily Show host Jon Stewart at November 7 “Stand Up for Heroes” benefit in New York City.
“Madman” Trump Destroying “Every Aspect of Earth”
“How is it we elected a predator-in-chief who was an open white supremacist and bragged about grabbing women’s genitals?...There’s no way that you can deny white supremacy now. There’s no way you can deny horrible sexism. There’s no way that you can deny that capitalism has failed....How are we going to live with a planet that we’ve destroyed? What are we going to do as we have this madman who is systematically destroying salmon and destroying every aspect of our Earth that we live on?”
— Playwright Eve Ensler on PBS’s Tavis Smiley, November 1.
Worst Thanksgiving Dinner Guest Ever
“I grew up coloring pictures of pilgrims and indigenous people – we called them Indians when I was a child – having this beautiful Thanksgiving together. The truth is, European invaders came to this land, took it from the indigenous people, raped, pillaged, gave them all sorts of diseases, called it their own, and desecrated a culture. It is one of the grossest examples of genocide in recent history and much as I don’t want to think about that, it’s really hard for me not to think about that when I think about Thanksgiving.”
— CBS’s Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik in a November 16 YouTube post “4 Reasons I Don’t Like Thanksgiving.”
Secret Service Might Have Something to Say About That, Jennifer
Oprah Winfrey: “Have you met Trump?”
Actress Jennifer Lawrence: “No, never.”
Winfrey: “Do you want to?”
Lawrence: “I think so. I’ve got a pretty good speech. And it ends with a martini to the face.”.
— From December 6 The Hollywood Reporter article “The Jennifer Lawrence Interview, by Oprah Winfrey.”
