Media Research Center President Brent Bozell was on fire ripping Republican Senator Jeff Flake (Ariz.) during Monday afternoon’s Cavuto: Coast to Coast, telling FBN host Neil Cavuto that Flake is an “intellectual fraud” “who is working overtime to curry favor with” the liberal media.
Bozell’s comments were directed at Flake in reaction to an upcoming speech in which Flake will compare President Trump to the evil, murderous, and communist Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
“I think it's stunning. If this were anybody else saying this about the President of the United States, and I think he would be thrown out of his office...But this is a man, Jeff Flake, who is working overtime to curry favor with the national press corps that despise Donald Trump and they’re loving that he says it,” Bozell began.
He wasn’t done though, adding that Flake is not only “an intellectual” and “political fraud,” but someone who “stole the title of Conscience of a Conservative, the best-selling polemic in history and made it his own” despite having been “elected by the Tea Party and immediately stabbed them in the back.”
Cavuto took particular issue with Flake’s comparison, arguing that “I think you lose an audience of things at the Hitler comparison, I would say the Stalin comparison” because “[t]here’s no one to compare Hitler to except Hitler, no one to compare Stalin except Stalin, so stop it already.”
Bozell responded:
Yeah, must one point out that Joseph Stalin killed 20 million people more than Donald Trump? Must one person pointing out that he is, in effect, President Trump is the opposite of Joe Stalin where the media are concerned in that Joe Stalin controlled the media and if anything Donald Trump doesn't control, it’s the national news media. So, but it's all an attempt to create a favor whether it's at The Washington Post or CNN or one of them, which is look at me and look at me, look at the bright, shiny object called Jeff Flake. I'll do your bidding. I will attack him personally and you won’t be called — you’ll just be reporting the news when you report the attacks have made.
As far as CNN was concerned, Bozell reminded Cavuto and viewers that CNN’s casual, uncensored use of “s***hole” when describing Trump’s Thursday comments reflect poorly on the network as they’re on almost every airport, doctor’s office, and school TV in the country.
“This is CNN's commitment to a sense of decency. I think the American public is getting sick and tired. They don't like that the fact the President might've said it, no question about it. But they’re getting sick and tired of people who — and organizations that are obsessing it at a time in the national crisis with our economy,” he stated.
Here’s the transcript from FBN’s Cavuto: Coast to Coast on January 15:
FBN’s Cavuto: Coast to Coast
January 15, 2018
1:29 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Sen Flak (R-AZ) to Compare Trump to Stalin in Senate Floor Speech]
NEIL CAVUTO: In the meantime, Republican senator Jeff Flake is already comparing Donald Trump’s attack on the media to Joseph Stalin’s. Generally, when you go down this avenue, you are losing your audience very quickly. But what do I know? Media Research Center founder/president Brent Bozell. Brent, what did you make of that?
BRENT BOZELL: Neil, I think it's stunning. If this were anybody else saying this about the President of the United States, and I think he would be thrown out of his office, he’d be thrown out of his office on Capitol Hill by his colleagues. But this is a man, Jeff Flake, who is working overtime to curry favor with the national press corps that despise Donald Trump and they’re loving that he says it. But let me be, in the infamous words of Richard Nixon, be very clear about something — what I think about Jeff Flake. In my opinion, Jeff Flake is an intellectual fraud. He stole the title of Conscious of a Conservative, the best-selling polemic in history and made it his own. He is also a political fraud. This is a man who was elected by the Tea Party and immediately stabbed them in the back, which is why he is the most unpopular person in Arizona and the reason he is not running for reelection is because he's radioactive, because he’s so unpopular which is why the national media loves them because he's going in their direction.
CAVUTO: You know, I think you lose an audience of things at the Hitler comparison, I would say the Stalin comparison. Save it for those guys. There’s no one to compare Hitler to except Hitler, no one to compare Stalin except Stalin, so stop it already.
BOZELL: Yeah, must one point out that Joseph Stalin killed 20 million people more than Donald Trump?
CAVUTO: Incredible.
BOZELL: Must one person pointing out that he is, in effect, President Trump is the opposite of Joe Stalin where the media are concerned in that Joe Stalin controlled the media and if anything Donald Trump doesn't control, it’s the national news media. So, but it's all an attempt to create a favor whether it's at The Washington Post or CNN or one of them, which is look at me and look at me, look at the bright, shiny object called Jeff Flake. I'll do your bidding. I will attack him personally and you won’t be called — you’ll just be reporting the news when you report the attacks have made.
CAVUTO: He was among all the Republican senators voted for this tax package. What’d you think of that?
BOZELL: Well, you know and consider this also. This is where Jeff Flake comes to play and Jeff Flake is so much of an enemy of this President that he went out of his way to confirm that he had heard Donald Trump had used the words he had used and Jeff Flake, who’s part of this small group of bipartisan senators who was — who was debating this, you know, the DACA thing, he wasn't even there. So whether it is DACA, whether it’s tax policy or whatnot, Jeff Flake really is an relevant human being.
CAVUTO: Alright, so you’re not a fan. Where do you think this goes at the obsession of what the President might have said when they use foul language or what days ahead of what could be potential government shutdown. Where is this thing going?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: 4 Days to Avoid Shutdown]
BOZELL: Well, let me say something about the foul language and CNN. The audience needs to be very clear about this. Those of us who were your network talking were admonished by producers in our dear not to use that word. CNN put it — has put it on hundreds of times and mentioned that hundreds of times since they been doing it. When they put it on the crawl space, where is it being viewed? In virtually every airport in America, they saw it. In a doctors office, they saw it. In a school, they saw it. This is CNN's commitment to a sense of decency. I think the American public is getting sick and tired. They don't like that the fact the President might've said it, no question about it. But they’re getting sick and tired of people who — and organizations that are obsessing it at a time in the national crisis with our economy.
CAVUTO: You know, I remember Barack Obama referring to a certain storm in Syria and didn't get a fraction of the grief — in Libya, I should say.
BOZELL: Yeah, no and one of my colleagues, Craig Bannister has done a little bit of history and you can trace the word going back to Abraham Lincoln. No kidding. He used it, too. Barack Obama used plenty of other terms, too. You didn't see CNN putting it on the screen. CNN never even reported it. And one wonders, in the cosmic order of things, Neil, if you look at that term, he was not, just think about this in an obvious sense, you would referring to the state of the government, the state of the country, not the people living in it and one last point. I look anybody in the eye and ask them, have you ever used a phrase such as that? And guess what? All of us have, including the reporters at CNN.
CAVUTO: I'm surprised you've used that kinda language frankly. Brent, thank you very, very much.
BOZELL: No! I’ll deny it. Just like Trump.
CAVUTO: Well, you know, Brent, that's what you've got to do. You got to — plausible denial. Brent Bozell, very good seeing you.
