Now online: the August 3 edition of Notable Quotables, MRC’s bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous quotes in the liberal media. This week, liberal journalists use Donald Trump's rise as another reason to bash conservatives, with NBC's Chuck Todd suggesting this is a "reap-what-you-sow" moment for the GOP, even as CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson blasts that "the politics of... race baiting have defined the Republican Party for quite some time."
And The Daily Beast's Jonathan Alter says it's "not a partisan comment," but "there's a vileness gap between our political parties" — with Republicans, of course, being the only ones guilty of nasty rhetoric. Highlights are posted below; the entire issue is posted online with four videos and 22 quotes at www.MRC.org.
Trump’s Rise = Another Reason to Deplore Conservatives
“Is this a reap-what-you-sow issue here for the Republican Party?...A lot of you did one-on-one meetings courting Donald Trump back in 2011 after he dropped out, during his whole birther craze at the time, and you actively reached out for him. In hindsight, was that a mistake?”
— Moderator Chuck Todd to GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry on NBC’s Meet the Press, July 19.
“I do think this is in some ways a problem [of] the Republican Party’s own making. If you turn back to 2012, you remember, with Mitt Romney on stage next to Donald Trump saying that he was honored and delighted to have his endorsement. And a lot of the, sort of, politics around race, and, sort of, race baiting have defined the Republican Party for quite some time.”
— CNN political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson on Inside Politics, July 12.
“It would be unfair, or I think dishonest of us to not be clear that part of what he’s speaking to is a part of the American public that for the last seven years has felt outraged. They talk about taking the White House back. They’ve said, and he retweeted this, they want the White House, capital W-H-I-T-E again. You know, there is a disaffected, highly racialized, highly us-versus-them part of the American electorate that he is firing up....”
— CNN analyst Sally Kohn on CNN Newsroom with Carol Costello, July 21.
Most Reporters “Baffled” Anyone Would Love Trump
“The majority of national politics reporters live in New York and D.C., in urban areas. They tend to skew left. They don’t spend time with Donald Trump fans, and they/we are all very surprised to see blocks and blocks in Phoenix full of people waiting for hours in 100-degree weather to hear this guy. For most national politics reporters, the love of Trump is baffling and that is, itself, a bubble.”
— The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff on FNC’s MediaBuzz, July 12.
It’s “Not Partisan” to Say Republicans More Vile than Democrats
“Lawrence, there’s a vileness gap that is developing between our political parties. That’s not to say that Democrats haven’t engaged in dirty politics over the years. But...you don’t even see Bernie Sanders uttering a critical word about Hillary Clinton, his main opponent. They don’t talk this way in the Democratic Party. That’s not a partisan comment. It’s an examination of the record and the rhetoric.”
— Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter on MSNBC’s The Last Word, July 27.
CBS: Hillary’s Scandals “Shouldn’t Have Any Impact” on Hillary
Co-host Vinita Nair: “I want to ask you just about trustworthiness, because that’s obviously been something that has dogged the former Secretary of State. How do you think all of this will affect her, and in particular on that, I guess, criticism?”
Reporter Paula Reid: “This particular issue really shouldn’t have any impact on Clinton. The issue of the e-mails has been out there for a long time. This is not a criminal matter. In fact, it’s far from it. If there are any questions about trust, trustworthiness, it comes from the New York Times or the Department of Justice.”
— CBS This Morning: Saturday, July 25, discussing the classified e-mails on Clinton’s personal server.
“Of Course” Obama Deserves Nobel Prize for Iran Nuke Deal
“We don’t know if the Iran deal is going to work. If it does, it will be the major foreign policy achievement, not only of this presidency, but of this American generation. At which point, people in the not-too-distant future will look back at this presidency, they’ll look back at this President and they’ll say, ‘Of course they gave him the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course they did.’”
— Host Rachel Maddow on her eponymous MSNBC show, July 14.
America Is “Lucky” to Have “Great, Extraordinary, Exceptional” Obama
— Former CBS News producer Dick Meyer, now Washington Bureau Chief for Scripps News, in a July 16 Decode DC op-ed titled: “Mr. President, on behalf of an ungrateful nation, thank you.”
Worried Obama-Loving News Media May “Demand Too Much”
“The media, the media. You love them, they love you. So, do you — is your frustration sometimes with the media — is the media, myself included, are we focused on the wrong things? Are we demanding too much of you? Are we demanding too much of government? Are we too inflammatory?”
— Outgoing Comedy Central Daily Show host Jon Stewart to President Obama, July 21.
Scorning Marco Rubio’s Attack on “Immaculate” Obama
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, July 22.
“44 years ago you should have been left in a hotel hand towel full of jizz and Astroglide @MarcoRubio. Now THAT, was classless ... Shithead!”
— July 22 tweet by Arsenio Hall attacking Marco Rubio for saying about Donald Trump’s candidacy: “We already have a President now that has no class.”
To read the entire August 3 edition of Notable Quotables, please visit www.MRC.org.
