This past month saw lefty journos like CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Jeffrey Toobin and PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor attack the GOP’s “assaults on democracy” as they raged against “racist” Republican efforts at “rigging” elections to preserve “white supremacy.”
On the other hand, they sucked up to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki with the likes of CNN’s Brian Stelter asking her “what do we [journalists] get wrong?” and MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace gushing, “You get such high marks from the vast majority of the people in the [press] room.”
[Earlier in June they were in a tizzy over President Joe Biden’s EuroTrip.]
Acts of patriotism triggered lefty-types as well. The New York Times’s Mara Gay was freaked out by prideful displays of the American flag that she found to be “disturbing.” The View’s co-host Whoopi Goldberg found the National Anthem was sometimes “tough to take.”
CBS This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil justified a spike in shoplifting in ultra-liberal San Francisco by downplaying a robbery caught on video as an “act of desperation.” Actress Cynthia Nixon tweeted “I can’t imagine thinking that the way to solve the problem of people stealing basic necessities out of desperation is to prosecute them.” No wonder people are fleeing California and New York for Texas these days.
The following are the worst outbursts by lefty journalists and celebs over the last month:
“Existential Crisis In America!” Republicans “Will Take Away Your Vote”
“This is an existential crisis in America. Who can actually get the access to vote? Republicans in state legislatures are saying if you, essentially, and critics would say that ‘if we don’t like the way that you voted, we will take away your vote.’”
— PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor on NBC’s Meet the Press, June 27.
“Rigging the System” Republicans Could Lead to “Death” of Democracy
Host John Berman: “Senate Republicans are afraid to even discuss voting rights….Mitch McConnell likes the status quo because status quo is Republican-led states rigging the system.”...
Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin: “The voting rights is very different. This is life or death for the democracy. This is about whether the people are going to control their government, or the government is going to decide how the democracy works or doesn’t work. And I just think one of them is an existential crisis for the United States, and the other seems like it’s going to be worked out.”
— Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on CNN New Day, June 23.
There’s a “Through-Line” From Tulsa Race Massacre to GOP Today
“Here we are on the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the deadliest attack on black Americans on U.S. soil....And at the same time that we condemn this as obscene, as a reminder of what is wrong, we see in real time today one of the greatest assaults on democracy under way once again targeting minorities. The party of Trump intensifying its efforts to strip people of color of their rights to vote. The boldest attempt since the era of Jim Crow. President Biden drew a through line in Tulsa today….A through-line of hate. A through line means just because there’s not another Tulsa massacre doesn’t mean the efforts are not equally unholy and un-American....Only Congress can hold back the latest wave of Jim Crow….Are we just going to watch another mass attack on minorities unfold?”
— Host Chris Cuomo on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, June 1.
Racist Republicans “Do Not Believe That Everyone Is Created Equal”
“In Tulsa, Oklahoma, today, President Biden described what he called a truly unprecedented assault on our democracy. And he was talking about voting rights when he said that. But he went to Tulsa today to mark an assault that happened there 100 years ago. These two assaults 100 years apart are both driven by white supremacy. That is what is behind both of the assaults that President Biden talked about today….Not everyone is created equal is the first commandment of white supremacy. Republicans do not believe that everyone is created equal. That is why Republican legislators believe they can restrict black Americans’ right to vote. Because Republicans do not believe that all voters are created equal. Republicans believe that Republican voters are better people than Democratic voters.”
— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, June 1.
“The Modern GOP” Is “Preserving Racism” and “White Supremacy”
“How much of what the modern GOP is doing and what Joe Manchin is helping them to do about Jim Crow 2.0, about preserving racism, and white dominance, white supremacy in this country?”
— Host Mehdi Hasan to The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer on MSNBC’s The Mehdi Hasan Show, June 6.
CNN senior political analyst John Avlon: “We’re witnessing a sustained assault on our democracy, on voting rights in many states, Texas just being the latest example...And they are Republican states….This is a sustained assault on our democracy that’s going on right now, and it demands defense of our democracy at this time. So Democrats got to figure a way to get this [H.R. 1 bill] through.”...
Co-host Poppy Harlow: “I keep thinking about this fight in Texas happening on — you know— the same day that we as a nation mark and recognize the massacre in Tulsa. And all of the civil rights and constitutional rights that the people of Greenwood were stripped of over that two days and what is happening now in terms of access to the ballot.”
— CNN Newsroom, June 1.
Lemon’s Low Opinion of His Fellow Americans
“I don’t know if America sees Black people and especially Black gay men as fully human, and as deserving of the American Dream.”
— CNN host Don Lemon in June 15 online Washington Post interview printed in the June 20 paper edition of Washington Post Magazine.
Ranting Against Republican “Maggots”
“I agree with brother Tim in speaking about, you know, the maggots — I’m sorry, the MAGA — that is so corrosive in this, you know, political moment….I resent as an intellectual and as a black person in America that we have taken the brunt of anti-intellectualism. We have borne the brunt of being disloyal to this nation. And we have stood by to see mediocre mealy-mouthed snowflake white men who are incapable of taking critique, who are willing to dole out infamous repudiations of the humanity of the other and yet they call us snowflakes and they are the biggest flakes of snow to hit the Earth. They are incapable of criticism. They are incapable of tolerating difference. They’re scared of, ‘Oh, my God, critical race theory is going to kill your mother.’”
— Former MSNBC analyst Michael Eric Dyson on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, June 23.
Sucking Up to Psaki
“Jen, I’ve walked in similar shoes to the ones you walk in together probably 23 and half hours a day. I’m guessing. How do you feel like it’s going and — you get such high marks from the vast majority of the people in the room. You spar a little bit with some of the President’s detractors. But I’m sure privately even they give you grudging respect. How do you feel it’s going?”
— Host Nicolle Wallace to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, June 24.
“What does the press get wrong when covering Biden’s agenda, when you watch the news, when you read the news, what do you think we get wrong?...You were a CNN commentator in between your time working with the Obama administration and now working for Biden. What did you learn here? What did you take from CNN and how does it apply to your job now?”
— Host Brian Stelter to White House Press Secretary and former CNN colleague Jen Psaki on CNN’s Reliable Sources, June 6.
“Balance” = East Coast Liberals + West Coast Liberals
“We all need to eat a healthy balanced media diet. That’s why I pay for the Washington Post and the L.A. Times, right? I want to hear the California perspective, I also want to know what’s happening in Washington.”
— CNN Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter in a June 24 Washington Post Live interview.
Abbott, DeSantis “Ensconced” in “Trump’s Anatomy”
“If you’re a Trumper Republican, there’s really no limit to what you can say to fire up the base. You can gaslight with the best of them, you can lie with impunity. Generally the rule is: Say or do the most shocking thing imaginable, and that’s how you stay on brand. Which brings us somehow back to the rootin’-tootin’ Trumper governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. His state doesn’t have a dependable power grid, and yet he’s going to build his own wall on the border. And he’s being richly rewarded by a visit from his guy, Trump, next week. If Abbott wants to, say, run for President, he must be more further ensconced in a particular area of Trump’s anatomy than even Ron DeSantis of Florida. And that won’t be easy.”
— Host Brian Williams on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, June 22.
Screw the Republicans, Just Ram Through Legislation
“There’s criticism from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party saying why is President Biden working with Republicans at all on this [infrastructure bill]? It’s clearly a futile effort. So why continue to push for a bipartisan bill when you could just go it alone through reconciliation?”
— Co-host Tony Dokopil to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on CBS This Morning, June 10.
How Many Costco Customers Choked On Their Free Samples, After Reading This?
“We are a fact-based, neutral broadcast that relies on the support and trust of our audience, no matter their political beliefs or ideology.”
— CBS Evening News host Norah O’Donnell in the June issue of Costco Connection.
China’s Forced Abortion Policy “Considered Sound At the Time”
“China needs more babies, yes, that may seem like a strange thing to say since it’s the world’s most populist country with 1.4 billion people. But China is getting older faster and Beijing expects deaths will outnumber births. Fewer people mean less consumption which means slower economic growth. That’s a threat to stability for the Communist Party….In 1980, Beijing embarked on its controversial one-child policy to control it’s then skyrocketing population. Considered sound at the time, most Chinese appeared to have gotten used to it.”
— Correspondent Ramy Incencio reporting on China on CBS This Morning, June 1.
NYT Warns: Anti-Semitism No Longer a “Right Wing” Trump Thing
“Until the latest surge, anti-Semitic violence in recent years was largely considered a right-wing phenomenon, driven by a white supremacist movement emboldened by rhetoric from former President Donald J. Trump, who often trafficked in stereotypes. Many of the most recent incidents, by contrast, have come from perpetrators expressing support for the Palestinian cause and criticism of Israel’s right-wing government.”
— New York Times May 27 front page article by Ruth Graham and Liam Stack headlined “Anti-Semitism Surges in Wake of Gaza.”
Triggered by the American Flag
“We have tens of millions of Trump voters who continue to believe that their rights as citizens are under threat by simple virtue of having to share the democracy with others. I think as long as they see Americanness as the same as one with whiteness, this is going to continue….I was on Long Island this weekend, visiting a really dear friend. And I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with you know, expletives against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases, just dozens of American flags, which you know is also just disturbing, because essentially the message was clear: ‘This is my country. This is not your country. I own this.’”
— New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 8.
National Anthem Is “Tough to Take”
Co-host Sara Haines: “To Representative Crenshaw, who says, you know, this is the basic thing of an Olympian, to represent the country, Gwen Berry is representing the country. She’s questioning an American anthem that maybe doesn’t represent all people in the country.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “In the upcoming days, we’ll play you the American anthem and let you see what you think of it. Because there’s some stuff in there that makes it a little bit tough to take.”
— Discussion about Olympian Gwen Barry protesting the National Anthem, ABC’s The View, June 29.
Theft = “Act of Desperation”
“That [video of man shoplifting] reads as an act of desperation. You’re not getting rich off what you take from a Walgreens. You’re getting probably something you need.”
— Co-host Tony Dokoupil during a discussion about a spike in shoplifting at San Francisco-area Walgreens stores as aired on CBS This Morning, June 16.
Legalize Theft!
“The CVS on my corner has started locking up basic items like clothing detergent. As so many families can’t make ends meet right now, I can’t imagine thinking that the way to solve the problem of people stealing basic necessities out of desperation is to prosecute them.”
— May 22 tweet by actress Cynthia Nixon.
Time to Replace Old Glory
“The Confederate battle flag, which was crafted as a symbol of opposition to the abolishment of slavery, is just recently tired. We don’t see it much anymore. However, on [January] 6th, when the stormers rained on the nation’s most precious hut, waving Old Glory — the memo was received: the American flag is its replacement….Like the Confederate, it is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect. It no longer represents democracy and freedom. It no longer represents ALL of us. It’s not fair to be forced to honor it. It’s time for a new flag….Let’s look to the stars. There are 50, where there should be 52. D.C. and Puerto Rico have been lobbying for statehood for decades. Both have been denied….What if the stars were the colors of ALL of us — your skin tone and mine — like the melanin scale?”
— Singer Macy Gray in a June 17 column for MarketWatch.
