There were a ton of crazy, angry and ridiculous observations made by leftist journalists during their coverage of the Republican National Convention. The NewsBusters team worked literally day and night to track them down.
Joy Reid outdid her crazy self. The MSNBC host called Donald Trump the “greatest purveyor” of “political violence” since George Wallace and also claimed President Biden getting COVID was “exactly the same” thing as Trump getting shot.
PBS’s Jonathan Capehart trotted out the hackneyed charge of racist “dog-whistling.” MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace whined that the GOP and conservative talk radio were “totally codependent on disinformation.”
There were accusations that Trump exploited his grandchildren and even conspiratorial questions about his gunshot wound.
The following are the nastiest and craziest outbursts from leftist journalists and celebrities during the Republican National Convention:
Biden With COVID “Exactly the Same” as Trump Getting Shot
“These two men are both elderly. Donald Trump is an elderly man who, for whatever reason, was given nine seconds to take a photo-op during an active shooter situation….His survival of that and bouncing right back and going right to his convention is being conveyed in the media world as a sign of strength. This current president of the United States is 81 years old and has COVID, should he be fine in a couple of days, doesn’t that convey exactly the same thing?”
— MSNBC’s The ReidOut host Joy Reid on night three of MSNBC’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 17.
Trump Is “The Greatest Purveyor and Promotor of Political Violence” Since George Wallace
“The greatest purveyor and promoter of political violence really [Donald Trump], you know, since anyone can remember, since George Wallace...and people are concerned...we will allow Donald Trump as he is, you know, bathed in the glory and grandeur of his party, to rewrite himself as both a hero and a victim. That people who are the most vulnerable to not just the things he’s done but the things he’s promising to do, and that that will then happen without a guardian saying, ‘Wait, stop,’ and that the media will acquiesce to this rewrite.”
— MSNBC’s The ReidOut host Joy Reid on night one of MSNBC’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 15.
Republicans “Totally Codependent on Disinformation”
“We kind of started putting the pieces together about how we got here, we talked about talk radio grafting onto the Republican Party, rhetorically. This is a political movement….that’s totally codependent on disinformation. And so, as sort of the right-wing media ecosystem became more — people used to change channels, right? Now they are locked into Fox News. And then, if they flip around, they’ll see how Newsmax is covering the same conspiracy.”
— MSNBC’s Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace on night four of MSNBC’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 18.
GOP Engaging in “Racist” “Dog-Whistling”
“It’s one thing to present a kinder, gentler version of the Republican Party and they might veer into outright racist or dog-whistling or bull-horning. But you also have to pay attention to who’s sitting in the room, Tucker Carlson, who’s taking the stage and the language that they’re using. Bernie Moreno, who’s running for Senate in Ohio, used the term ‘illegals’ when talking about undocumented migrants coming over the border….This is where we’re going to see whether this unity theme, whether this kinder-gentler version of the Republican Party is going to come through and I have no confidence that they’re going to be able to do that.”
— PBS contributor/Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart on night two of PBS’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 16.
Trump’s Speech Returned to “Rhetoric” That Led to “Divisions He Had a Hand In Stoking”
“Despite the former President’s pledge to deliver a more unifying message after the shooting, only a brief nod before riffing, rally-style, off-script, repeating the grievances, conspiracies and insulting characteristic of his campaign speeches….In the longest campaign speech ever, issuing ominous warnings….repeating his election fraud lies and slamming Democrats.”
— Correspondent Hallie Jackson on NBC’s Today, July 19.
ABC Pans Speech: Full of “False Claims,” “Attacks on Immigrants” and “Dark Rhetoric”
Co-host George Stephanopoulos: “The former President started with a call for unity and recounting the attempt on his life, but the bulk of his 92-minute speech was a repetition of false claims about the 2020 election and familiar attacks on immigrants and his rivals.”...
Correspondent Rachel Scott: “The former president going off-script launching into partisan attacks and making false claims….using dark rhetoric to paint the U.S. as a nation in decline.”
— ABC’s Good Morning America, July 19.
Trump Speech Fact-Checkers Deserve a “GoFundMe”
“The fact-checkers probably should have a GoFundMe for trying to chase down all of the falsehoods.”
— Correspondent John Dickerson on CBS News’s live coverage on night four of the Republican National Convention, July 18.
That Was Kind of Speech a Dictator Like Castro or Khruschev Would Deliver
“The reason why [Fidel] Castro and [Nikita] Khruschev spoke for four hours or five hours at a time, and they really did and they mentioned everything that came into their brain, that’s what it sounded like tonight, is because they were dictators. And the people who worked with them were terrified to tell them they should make a shorter speech. And that’s what happens when you’ve got a cult.”
— Presidential historian Michael Beschloss on MSNBC’s live coverage on night four of the Republican National Convention, July 18.
“This is the most decisive moment in American history I have ever seen in a presidential election. And I think we can’t be dissuaded. 15 weeks from now, we will know if this night led to renewed democracy, rebirth of freedom, as Lincoln wanted us to have, or whether it led to dictatorship and the strongest president in history doing all sorts of things we can’t imagine.”
— Presidential historian Michael Beschloss on night four of MSNBC’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 18.
Trump’s “Alarming” Rhetoric Had “Shades” of El Paso Mass Shooter’s “Manifesto”
“There was a lot in there about immigration. There were, I think what was alarming, if you were paying attention to it, there were shades of the manifesto from the [2019] El Paso massacre. A lot of that language being repurposed about an invasion. There were more than 20 people who died that day because of that rhetoric.”
— Host Alicia Menendez on night four of MSNBC’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 18.
Trump Is “Uglier and Darker,” More “Dangerous” On Immigration
Anchor Amna Nawaz: “The thing that struck me about [the Republican National Convention] that was different this year was particularly on illegal immigration. There was much more dangerous, kind of vicious language, targeting really black and brown immigrants, talking about them carrying disease and attacking women and stealing jobs.”...
New York Times columnist/NewsHour contributor David Brooks: “The [Victor] Orbans, the Giorgia Melonis, the Marine Le Pens, and the Donald Trumps have fed on each this anti-immigrant theme as the thing that unites them globally. And so it’s gotten uglier and darker.”
— PBS NewsHour, July 19.
Trump’s Speech Proves His Brain Is as Bad as Biden’s
“If Joe Biden had given a rambling, shambling, all-over-the-place speech like that, elected Democrats would be demanding that the 25th Amendment be invoked immediately. They would scramble — even worse than they are now — to jettison him as the candidate for president and we would be questioning his mental acuity….Donald Trump is not a candidate that Democrats should be terrified of. Their terror is embarrassing tonight. MAGA, is this your king?”
— MSNBC’s The ReidOut host Joy Reid on night four of MSNBC’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 18.
Highlighting Trump’s Grandchildren Takes “Rough Edges Off the Strongman”
“You heard one of the grandchildren, Kai Trump, say ‘oh, grandpa calls me too.’ There wasn’t a lot of acknowledgement that the former First Lady was not here. Ivanka Trump was not here until tonight. But it takes some of the rough edges off of the strongman when you see he has a family, too.”
— CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on CBS Evening News, July 18.
J.D. Vance a “More Dangerous Virus” Than Trump
“He’s [Donald Trump] an instinctive, impulsive, intuitive nationalist. J.D. Vance is an ideological nationalist. That’s a much more dangerous virus because he can….polish this stuff and make it seem palatable to people. He can sell this stuff to Silicon Valley. He can sell this stuff to other places….It locks the Republican Party on a pathway that I think is dangerous for the world….This pick is a horror on the world stage.”
— Contributor Van Jones on night one of the CNN’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 15.
Alex Wagner Peers Into J.D. Vance’s Speech, Finds White Supremacy
“He [J.D. Vance] went on a long sort of…paragraph, at least, about this plot in eastern Kentucky where his seven or six generations of his family are buried…It reveals someone who believes that the history that the family should inherit, and indeed, the history that should be determinative in the story of the Vance family, is the history of the eastern Kentucky Vances, and not the Vances from San Diego, which is where his wife is from and from where her Indian parents are from….And I just think the construction of this notion reveals a lot about someone who fundamentally believes in the supremacy of whiteness and masculinity, and it’s couched in a sort of halcyon re-visitation of his roots, but it is actually really revealing about what he thinks matters, and who America is, and that America is a place for people with a shared Western background.”
— MSNBC host Alex Wagner on night three of MSNBC’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention, July 17.
Conspiracy Ear-ist
“It’s been three days, going on four since this horrific event occurred….We have not received a medical report from the hospital nor have we received a medical report from the campaign or from the Trump organization about the extent of the damage to his ear. If he was shot by a high-caliber bullet, there should probably be very little ear there….Is there cosmetic surgery involved? What is the prognosis for recovery? Were there stitches? What is the extent and nature of the damage to his ear? Was it caused by a bullet as opposed to some reports from those on the scene, other reporters, saying that it was actually shards of glass from the teleprompter itself, not the bullet. So, there are a lot of questions around that ear!”
— MSNBC contributor Michael Steele on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, July 16.
Capehart Stunned by the Obvious
Host Geoff Bennett: “In fairness, the left has vilified Donald Trump.”
PBS contributor Jonathan Capehart: “I’m sorry, define vilified.”
Bennett: “You can argue the merits, but in fairness, the left has vilified Donald Trump. Threat to democracy, that he’s a proto-fascist.”...
Capehart: “Is that a vilification? I don’t mean to argue with you, Geoff. I disagree with this notion that the left has vilified Donald Trump. The left has pointed out multiple things as president, has said as president, as a candidate for the presidency again, that deserve to be pointed out, deserve to be criticized. That’s not vilification, that is acknowledging what is there for everyone to see.”
— PBS’s live coverage on night one of the Republican National Convention, July 15.
Whoopi Attacks Trump’s Grandkids: “They’re Trying to Humanize Him!”
“I know his [Donald Trump] grandchild was up on the thing [RNC stage] and they’re trying to humanize him and change your idea about who this guy is. Don’t fall for that!”
— Co-host Whoopi Goldberg on ABC’s The View, July 18.
Seth Gets On His Soapbox About “Protecting Democracy”
“Engaging in the work of democracy and peaceful persuasion is the opposite of inciting violence. It’s what we need more of, not less. Accurately describing the dangers of autocracy and warning of attempts to dismantle our democracy have nothing to do with political violence. Speaking plainly about the specter of authoritarianism is not only our democratic right, it’s our civic duty. We must all continue to do it. That’s where we will continue to do here on this show. We will keep talking about protecting democracy.”
— Host Seth Meyers on NBC’s Late Night, July 15.
Recycling Old Jokes About RNC Being Too White
Clip of Sen. Tim Scott at Republican National Convention: “I know this is going to offend the liberal elites every time I say it, it offends them. But let me say it one more time. America is not a racist country!”
ABC’s Black-ish actor/substitute host Anthony Anderson: “‘Attention, large crowd of white people! America is not a racist country!’ Thanks, Uncle Tim or Tom. Whichever you go by?”
— ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, July 16.
“President Biden spoke today in Las Vegas at the national convention for the NAACP while every Republican was busy speaking at the convention for the NAAWP.”
— Host Seth Meyers on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, July 17.
