Liberal reporters and hosts have been paving the way for Joe Biden, as they have excused his non-stop gaffes as “endearing” and even “Reagan-esque.”
At the same time, they were shocked by the “horror show coming out of Trump’s mouth” as MSNBCers like Chris Matthews and Donny Deutsch compared the President to tyrants like Idi Amin and blamed him for the El Paso shooting.
The Hollywood elite continued to look down their noses at Trump supporters. Actor Sean Penn claimed they voted “against their own interests.” HBO host Bill Maher rooted for their economic ruin: “I’ve been hoping for a recession....it would get rid of Trump.” Maher added that he didn’t care about the lost jobs and homes as he callously claimed “It would be worth it.”
The following is a round-up of the most obnoxious outbursts from liberal journalists and celebrities over the past month.
Biden’s Gaffes Are “Endearing,” “Reagan-esque,” Trump “Lies” are “Horror Show”
Host Chuck Todd: “There’s a part of Biden that seems more Reagan-esque, that way you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s grandpa, it’s Uncle Joe,’ whatever that is. ‘Eh, let the old man do it.’”...
Vice News Washington bureau chief Shawna Thomas: “When Trump lies, it’s about Google and Google changing votes, and making you scared about things. When Joe Biden lies, it’s about trying to say he’s going to be commander-in-chief and he understands heroism.”...
— Discussion about Vice President Joe Biden peddling a false war story at campaign events as aired on NBC’s Meet the Press, September 1.
ABC News political director Rick Klein: “It’s him [Joe Biden] connecting and telling a really compelling story....People have made the comparison to President Trump with his misleading statements is on another scale....I think from Biden’s perspective, though, and Biden supporters, they could say: ‘Look, when the Vice President does it, it is to make a point in a more artful way perhaps and to connect with people in a genuine way. When Donald Trump does it, it’s often to demean and belittle.’”...
NPR reporter Asma Khalid: “There’s a sense that these qualities are almost endearing to voters. There’s a sense that they find him more believable because he makes missteps every so often.”
— ABC’s This Week, September 1.
“His [Joe Biden] verbal flubs might even be one of his most endearing strengths for voters who crave authenticity....Biden’s gaffes really only showcase what we’ve known about him for a long time – that he makes gaffes. Compared to the horror show coming out of Trump’s mouth on a near-daily basis, who cares?”
— Former CNN reporter Peter Hamby in August 27 Vanity Fair article
Raddatz’s Rave Review of Democratic Debate
“I loved the ending. It was inspirational....You saw really real authenticity. I think from most of the candidates telling their stories. Even if they’ve told those stories before.”
— ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz on ABC News’ online post-Democratic debate show, September 12.
Blame the Planes, Not the Terrorists
“Eighteen years have passed since airplanes took aim at the World Trade Center and brought them down.”
— September 11 tweet from The New York Times’s official Twitter account.
Trump Like Idi Amin Playing With Toys and Crayons
“It’s like...an eight-year-old with crayons. ‘I want to make more money down in Doral.’ ‘I like this guy Boris Johnson, who just suspended the Parliament, the mother of all parliaments, just [get] rid of the Parliament.’ Its Magna Carta is at stake here and he says, ‘I like this guy’s style.’ This is an eight-year-old. If Mussolini was around today, [Trump] would say, ‘I love that guy’s chin, the way it sticks out.’...This guy is Idi Amin. You know, when they found Idi Amin, the guy running Uganda, finally, they found he had toys in his room and he was actually spending his time playing with toys.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, August 29.
Trump = Mussolini
“When Mussolini is standing up on the terrace like this, with his face like that, to me, the parallels with Trump in terms of that self-satisfaction at the chaos he’s creating, the parallels are stunning there.”
— MSNBC host Donny Deutsch on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, August 2.
Still Hating Huckabee
“Where can you go after lying repeatedly, daily, hourly?....Sarah [Huckabee] Sanders announced today she’s boarding judge Jeanine Pirro’s trolley to hell. Toot toot. And joining, try to contain your shock, Fox News as a contributor....She’s a double threat. She goes from stonewalling all the way to lying.”
— Host Anderson Cooper on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, August 22.
Trump Rhetoric “Feeding” Violence
“We’ve had shootings at mosques, at synagogues, at the El Paso Walmart where a shooter was specifically targeting Hispanics. These are people who are echoing Donald Trump’s rhetoric, who are praising him in their manifestos before they go in and kill people....And the President’s gonna hide again behind his Jewish son-in-law and his Jewish daughter, but I think we all need to keep our eye on the ball, and realize that he is feeding a lot of this anti-Semitic violence, Islamaphobic violence, anti-Hispanic violence, and anti-black violence, and it’s only gonna get worse.”
— GQ magazine reporter Julia Ioffe on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, August 21.
Trump Isn’t Being Called “Crazy” Enough
“News outlets use words like ‘erratic,’ ‘volatile,’ ‘unstable’, but rarely are the words and actions covered as a whole, rarely do they take it to the next level....What he just said seems crazy....When you watch a broadcast nightly newscast, how often do you hear about just how far off the road Trump is? Not often enough. Yes, they do note the daily madness, but they rarely connect the dots between the freak-outs.”
— Host Brian Stelter on CNN’s Reliable Sources, August 25.
Burn Down the GOP and Everybody In It!
“It’s not only that Trump has to lose, but that all his enablers have to lose. We have to collectively, in essence, burn down the Republican party. We have to level them because if there are survivors – if there are people who weather this storm, they will do it again.”
— Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin on MSNBC’s AM Joy, August 25.
Unlike Trump, Liz Warren Won’t “Inspire” Mass Shooters
“There were a lot of people who are thinking, okay, if Elizabeth Warren gets in there and she’s too liberal, well, we’ll have Congress to balance her out. But at least she’ll respect constitutional norms. At least she won’t threaten the safety of members of the press. At least she won’t inspire mass shootings. Or inspire Coast Guard people, or inspire other people in Florida, to make hit lists of Democratic politicians.”
— Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, August 16.
Worshiping Warren Like a Rock Star
“Warren has a fully evolved performance style, one that binds her roll-up-her-sleeves biography powerfully and fluidly to her average, working person’s philosophy. In a grittily poetic way, her spiel is akin to that of a folksy troubadour: She is the Springsteen of campaign 2020.”
— Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks in August 16 article “Elizabethan: Warren knows the power of words.”
MSNBC Analyst Brands Trump and His Supporters “Terrorists”
“Attacking [Trump’s] followers is going to be counterproductive. He demands that loyalty, and they are loyal. So if you call Trump followers racist en masse, they simply coalesce around each other and become more defensive and protective of the leader, just as they would in, say, a terrorist organization.”
— NBC News National Security analyst Frank Figliuzzi on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, August 12.
Blaming Fox and Trump for Shooting
“It has to be said, not only Tucker’s rhetoric, but also the President’s. This anti-Latino, anti-immigrant, what some elegantly call demographic anxieties have now been replaced by violence and bullets....They’re in part responsible for what we saw in a place like El Paso. The man responsible for this was inspired by some of the words, some of the rhetoric coming from them.”
— Univision anchor Enrique Acevedo on CNN’s Reliable Sources, August 11.
Trump Supporters “Own the Blood” of What Happens
“You can’t say, ‘well, I like his economic policy or whatnot and – but I disagree with.’ You own it. You own the blood that happens. You own Charlottesville. You can’t do it. You get the whole package and that’s what swing voters have got to understand and be shamed into. You don’t get to do that....You own the racism.”
— MSNBC host and former advertising executive Donny Deutsch on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, August 9.
Decades From Now They Will Ask: Where Were You On This Historic Day?
“There will be the day before Beto O’Rourke called Donald Trump a white supremacist and the day after. I think the Democratic primary now changed. The face of it, the feel of it.”
— Host Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, August 7.
Still Thrilled
“I was thrilled and....I get thrilled thinking about what happened in ’08. It’s still thrilling to me. It was thrilling what he [Barack Obama] said in ’04 up in Boston....Will Barack Obama, who has laid back during this primary fight, will he come on like Richard the Lionheart coming back from The Crusades? Will he come on next November, maybe starting in September and really be the lion of the Democratic Party for whoever the nominee is?”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, August 1.
MSNBC’s Logic: The Constitution Is Unconstitutional
“The weirdest thing about the Electoral College is the fact that if it wasn’t specifically in the Constitution for the presidency, it would be unconstitutional.”
— Host Chris Hayes on MSNBC’s All In, August 30.
Condescending Sean: Trump Supporters Vote Against Themselves
“If people truly want to vote against their own interests, [Trump will] be the president of the United States again....We’ve seen the potential of a president, for example the current president, to lead us to El Paso and to lead us to all kinds of enhanced hatred and anger and separation.”
— Actor Sean Penn on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, September 12.
Hate-Filled Obits for a Conservative
“David Koch of the zillionaire Koch brothers died....of prostate cancer. I guess I’m going to have to reevaluate my low opinion of prostate cancer....As for his remains, he has asked to be cremated and have his ashes blown into a child’s lungs....He and his brother have done more than anybody to fund climate science deniers for decades, so fuck him. The Amazon is burning up – I’m glad he’s dead, and I hope the end was painful.”
— Host Bill Maher on HBO’s Real Time, August 23.
“In lieu of flowers, the family of David Koch requests that mourners simply purchase a Republican politician.”...
“Personally, I have a tear in my eye, although that might just be smoke irritation from the Amazon rainforest burning because of that fucker’s climate denialism.”
— Pair of August 23 tweets by actor/comedian Michael Ian Black.
“Wishing the Koch brothers a speedy reunion.”
— August 24 tweet by actor Ron Perlman. David Koch’s brother Charles is still living.
Reiner Rages
“Can’t say this enough. Donald Trump is out of his fucking mind. He’s moronic. He’s racist. He’s childish. He’s beyond unfit. GOP, step the fuck up! And Dems, the house is on fire! Get out the Impeachment hoses. Stop this greedy narcissistic soulless fool or say goodbye to US.”
— August 21 tweet by film director Rob Reiner.
Rooting for a Recession: “Worth It” to Get Rid of Trump
Host Bill Maher: I’ve been hoping for a recession. People hate me for it, but it would get rid of Trump. So you shouldn’t hate me for it.”
New York magazine columnist Josh Barro: “I mean recessions are really bad. People lose their jobs and homes and we shouldn’t wish for it.”
Maher: “I know. It’s worth it.”
— HBO’s Real Time Overtime, August 2.
