In a pathetic attempt to hide their euphoria over Donald Trump’s conviction, leftist journalists cloaked their verdict reactions with somber language about saving the “Republic” but their excitement was apparent.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos tried to hide his glee of Donald Trump’s conviction by soberly quoting John Adams and calling the trial the “ultimate stress test” for democracy. He also — not so subtly — pushed his audience to vote for President Joe Biden: “Do we want to be represented….for the first time in history by a convicted felon?”
The leftist media brought on their anointed presidential historians to hail the verdict and warn about the dangers of a Trump win. On CBS’s Sunday Morning historian Douglas Brinkley proclaimed: “When the guilty verdicts were read this past week, America in a tangible way rechristened itself as a republic.” Over on MSNBC, Michael Beschloss frantically warned a victory for Trump would usher in a time of “dictatorship and anarchy.”
Over on ABC’s The View, the leftist ladies couldn’t control themselves. Joy Behar blurted: “I got so excited I started leaking a little bit.” Her colleague Sunny Hostin cheered: “I felt like America won! I felt like New York won!...I felt like I won!”
Celebrities got into the act too. Actor Robert De Niro held a press conference outside the New York City courthouse to rage: “Under Trump,” democracy “will perish from the Earth.”
The following are just some of the most obnoxious outbursts from leftists journalists, pundits and celebrities from the past month:
Trump Conviction Is Democracy’s “Ultimate Stress Test”
“In 1774 John Adams said, ‘representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty.’ 250 years later, the heart and lungs of liberty are facing what may be the ultimate stress test. Twelve anonymous jurors rendered their verdict on Thursday, finding Donald Trump guilty on all counts. It’s the third time in the last two years that jurors have rendered verdicts against Trump. Jurors have yet to consider charges against Trump for even more serious crimes: blocking the peaceful transfer of power, concealing classified documents, encouraging the filing of false electors. But for now, the New York jurors have already presented their fellow citizens with a choice: do we want to be represented — to be led for the first time in history by a convicted felon? That answer will come in November.”
— Moderator George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, June 2.
Trumpeting Trump’s Conviction
“Another first in American history. Donald Trump, now the first and only man who’s held the presidency to face a felony conviction….Guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an illegal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election that made him president. This is the third time this year that citizen jurors have held Trump accountable. In January, an $83.3 million judgment for defaming E. Jean Carroll. In February, a $450 million judgment for civil fraud in his business dealings. Juries. Ordinary people doing their duty under enormous stress, demonstrating civic courage. Remarkably, convicted felons can run for president. So, this year, in this extraordinary time, American voters will be the ultimate jurors. We’re going to cover the fallout of this unprecedented event.”
— Co-host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America, May 31.
Trump Guilty Verdict = America Is Reborn
“When the guilty verdicts were read this past week, America in a tangible way rechristened itself as a republic. It was a sobering reminder that every American is precisely equal before the law. I have always admired Thomas Jefferson for wanting no title before his name except mister. Like the other Founders, he didn’t want or expect special treatment under the law….Former President Trump’s conviction proves that in the eyes of the law even an ex-president is just another Mister….The Manhattan Criminal Court has changed American presidential history forever. Out of 46 presidents, only Mr. Trump carries the ignoble albatross of ‘convicted felon.’ It’s a sad phrase, but it also gives reason to rejoice that Jefferson’s republic is new all over again.”
— Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley on CBS Sunday Morning, June 2.
A Trump Win = “Dictatorship and Anarchy”
“If Donald Trump is elected, you have to assume that he is going to go right through with his promise to be a dictator, not for a day, but perhaps for the rest of our lifetimes. And at the same time, wreck our rule of law that expands our rights and ensures that people do not commit murder, and arson….You’ve got, essentially, a dictator who is promising to wreck our system of laws with the complicity of certain people on the Supreme Court, certain people in Congress. And so, essentially, you have something we have never seen in American history, the promise of dictatorship and anarchy at the same time.”
— MSNBC presidential historian Michael Beschloss on MSNBC’s The Weekend, June 2.
Black Republicans Sold Their Soul “Cheap” to Donald Trump
Host Jen Psaki: “Tim Scott, who obviously wants to be the vice president, he posted a full-minute video saying that Alvin Bragg is the only one who is guilty. He called the trial a sham and witch hunt….[Marco] Rubio compared the trial to Cuban show trials….Byron Donalds — ‘This is election interference.’…
Host Joy Reid: “Byron Donalds, who is from East Flatbush, Brooklyn, as myself, and Tim Scott, who is from the great state of South Carolina, and Marco Rubio, who is Latino, they know damn well who normally ends up at the bottom of this criminal justice system….Those two black men….They’re willing to sell themselves cheap. Cheap. Not even Clarence Thomas will do that, at least he requires it to be expensive. For them, it can be absolutely dirt cheap. Free. That’s the cheapest it could be, to sell your soul.”
— MSNBC’s post-Trump trial verdict coverage, May 30.
Justices Alito and Thomas “Don’t Want Black People’s Votes to Count Equally”
The Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal: “The through line between the Alito flag story, the Clarence Thomas coup story, and their wives, and what we saw today from the Supreme Court in this gerrymandering decision, the through line is that they don’t want black people’s votes to count equally.”
Host Chris Hayes: “Do you think that is true of Clarence Thomas?
Mystal: “I know that’s true from Clarence Thomas, alright. Their idea and Clarence Thomas today wrote straight up, that he does not think the 14th Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of that amendment can be used to protect the voting rights of black people. I mean, he ain’t married to Ginni Thomas for nothing, alright, that’s what the man thinks.”
— MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes, May 24.
Alito Is a “Lawless Individual” for Flying a Flag
“New York Times headline, ‘Another Provocative Flag….Was Flown at Another Alito Home.” And here is The New York Times text: “Another provocative symbol was displayed at the vacation home of Samuel Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.” “It was an Appeal to Heaven flag, which like the inverted U.S. flag was carried by rioters at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Also flown as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald Trump, for a religious strand of the ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign and for a push to remake the government in Christian terms.’...So, now he’s flying a Christian nationalist, pro-Trump flag as well….He is a lawless individual, a clear Christian nationalist and now a dual insurrection flag flier.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, May 22.
Republicans Wearing Trump Matching Red Ties Is Reminiscent of Saddam Hussein Days
“Since when is it in the United States of America that people have to wear the Trump uniform in order to show fealty and loyalty? This reminds me of Saddam Hussein and the good old days when you had the big mustache, when they were sitting around the table.”
— New York Times reporter/CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro on CNN’s The Chris Wallace Show, May 18.
George Stephanopoulos: “The Deep State” Is “Packed With Patriots”
“I interviewed about a hundred duty officers from the White House — and these are….relatively young people who come from all over the government: the CIA, the DIA, Defense Department, military. And, you know, some people like to call those people the Deep State. Well, the big thing I learned doing this book is that the Deep State is packed with patriots.”
— ABC’s Good Morning America co-host and This Week moderator George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s The View, May 14.
Biden Has “Gotten A Lot Done,” Why Is the Country Still So Divided?
“President Biden ran as a bipartisan president. He’s worked with you on a number of things and gotten a lot done. The infrastructure law, the CHIPS Act, lowered healthcare costs, the list goes on, but the country remains polarized and getting more divided. If he would have a second term, do you think there is something he could do to actually bring people back together? Because he’s got a lot of policies under his belt that he has done for the country, and work with you.”
— Host Stephanie Ruhle to Sen. Mitt Romney on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle.
Going a Bit Far with the Civil War Imagery
Ted Koppel: “I don’t think there has ever been a more recorded mini-insurrection, than what happened on January 6th, and yet we’re still arguing about what happened. [To Chris Gwinn, Gettysburg Chief of Interpretation and Education] Are you seeing some of the same similarities that I’m seeing in what’s happening today?....You don’t have to [answer], if it’s too hot a potato.”
Chris Gwinn: “It’s a little hot. It’s a little hot for the park service.”...
Koppel: “When the Civil War began with the surrender of Fort Sumter in 1861, there was throughout much of the land wild celebration and no inkling of the price to be paid. Wars rarely begin in a climate of foresight….So could the chest beating at a political rally provide real insight as to what could happen in the event of another Trump defeat?...President Trump’s critics and their legion are fearful of what his victory in the election might mean for the country. And he might do well to consider the consequences of another Trump defeat.”
— CBS News Sunday Morning, June 2.
The View Celebrates Trump Verdict
Co-host Joy Behar: “My reaction [to the verdict], I was at Costco buying ten boxes of Keurig coffee and my watch started to buzz and I got so excited I started leaking a little bit.”…
Co-host Sunny Hostin: “I didn’t feel somber! I felt like the Knicks won the tournament! I felt like America won! I felt like New York won! I felt like the Manhattan DA’s office won! I felt like I won!...A man with a temperament of a toddler cannot withstand….all of the things that you would have to do to be on probation and that means he could be sent back to Rikers!”
— ABC’s The View, May 31.
Red MAGA Hat = Swastika
“By the way out there, that hat that you keep wearing – that red hat that says Make America Great Again, that tells people that you go along with this so might as well put a swastika on the hat.”
— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, May 21.
Ranting Bull
“When Trump ran in 2016, it was like a joke. This buffoon running for president ‘nah, never could happen.’ We’d forgotten the lessons of history that showed us other clowns who weren’t taken seriously until they became vicious dictators. With Trump, we have a second chance and no one is laughing now. This is the time to stop him by voting him out once and for all….Yesterday was Memorial Day. It’s a good time to reflect on how Americans fought and died so that we may enjoy the freedoms guaranteed to us by a democratic government, a government that, as President Lincoln said, ‘of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.’ Under Trump, this kind of government will perish from the Earth.”
— Actor Robert De Niro ranting outside of the New York City courthouse during the Donald Trump trial, as aired on ABC News Live, May 28.
Host Stephanie Ruhle: “What do you say to those who say ‘I don’t like the guy [Donald Trump], but I’m going to vote for him.’ What’s your message to them?”...
Actor Robert De Niro: “I don’t think they understand how dangerous it will be if he ever, God forbid, becomes president….In Nazi Germany, they had it with Hitler. They don’t take him seriously. He looks like a clown, acts like a clown, [Benito] Mussolini, same thing.”...
Ruhle: “Do you think our democracy is at risk in this election?”
De Niro: “I think that it is. I always keep saying, democracy is great, of course, but democracy people take for granted.….The guy’s a monster….It’s almost like he wants to do the most horrible things that he can think of in order to get a rise out of us….It’s [bleep] scary. Excuse my French…. As a kid, I said ‘Hitler, it’s a nightmare. That never would happen.’ But now I see that it is possible.”
— MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, May 2.
Ken Burns Bloviates at Brandeis University
“The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids. An easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact, with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction, and addiction. ‘A bigger delusion,’ James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide as Mr. Lincoln prophesied. Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer.”
— Portion of filmmaker Ken Burns’ commencement address at Brandeis University, May 19.
