Over the past month liberal journalists were infuriated by “dark” Donald Trump’s “bizarre” State of the Union performance and his “vindictive,” “viperous” victory speech after his impeachment acquittal.
Lefty hosts like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and Lawrence O’Donnell tried to redo the Russian hoax. Meanwhile liberal debate moderators like Chuck Todd actually pushed the already-liberal Democratic candidates even further left.
There was also outrage over “racist” Rush Limbaugh receiving the Medal of Freedom and ABC’s The View co-host Joy Behar compared Trump to O.J. Simpson as she confessed the President is making her “nuttier” by the day.
The following are some of the most obnoxious outbursts by liberal reporters and hosts over the last month:
Hitting Lefty Candidates From the Left
“In 2000....You specifically praised [Sen. Bernie Sanders] for embracing socialism. You have now since said you’re concerned about his policies....Millennials by a big chunk embracing his version of democratic socialism. You do not. Are you out of touch with your generation?”
— Todd to South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg at the NBC/MSNBC/Telemundo Democratic debate in Las Vegas, February 19.
“Mayor Bloomberg, should you exist?....Is it too much? Have you earned too much? Has it been an obscene? Should you have earned that much money?”
— NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd to former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg at the NBC/MSNBC/Telemundo Democratic debate in Las Vegas, February 19.
“You have said you want to hold oil and gas executives accountable for their role in harming our planet. You have even suggested that you might put them in jail....What would you do with these companies that are responsible for the destruction of our planet?”
— Telemundo correspondent Vanessa Hauc to former Vice President Joe Biden at the NBC/MSNBC/Telemundo Democratic debate in Las Vegas, February 19.
Mayor Pete Is “Amazing”
“God bless Pete Buttigieg, but he kind of talks at the level of Mr. Rogers and with that composure and poise and he just did it up here on the stage in New Hampshire....He speaks in perfect sentences. It’s impressive. He’s an amazing human being....He is that guy that everybody wanted their kids to be friends with at school.”
— Correspondent Vaughn Hillyard on MSNBC’s live coverage of the New Hampshire Democratic primary, February 12.
Russian Hoax Redux
“The President is a Russian operative...It is Vladimir Putin’s greatest achievement. Decades after America’s victory in the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the President of the United States is now helping the President of Russia help the President of the United States to get re-elected....This is one of those shocking news days if you retain the capacity to be shocked in the Trump era by the Trump regime, which might be better labeled the Trump-Putin regime.”
— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s The Last Word, February 21.
“It’s all happening again....Russia has endorsed the re-election of President Donald Trump who is trying desperately to keep that matter secret....This news paints a devastating portrait of a President who appears now willing to suppress intelligence of Russia’s intentions for his own political purposes keeping Congress in the dark about new Russian attacks on our democracy.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, February 20.
Trump Would Totally Throw Us In Jail If He Could
“Our constitutional republic, literally, and the institutions in it, literally, are being challenged every single day by this would-be dictator....Would Donald Trump not do whatever he could do if he could get away with it? Seriously. If he could arrest every journalist he didn’t like, if he could arrest us tomorrow?...Do you think he would arrest us tomorrow? Do you think he would arrest the editor of the New York Times, the editor of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos? Do you think he would arrest them tomorrow and throw them in jail to silence them?...Because if you say he wouldn’t, you’re just lying to yourself.”
— Host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, February 12.
“Fearful” Republicans In Trump “Cult”
“Senator, when we look at pictures from North Korea, just an example of a dictatorship, and you watch everybody wearing those high peaked hats and everybody smiling in unison or frowning in unison or marching in unison in goose step, and you watch the people in their so-called assembly....They are all so frozen in fear of being seen as somehow out of line...Are Republicans beginning to act like that? Fearful of not showing the right emotion, even in public? You have to be exuberant in this cult when he stands before them, it seems.”
— Host Chris Matthews to Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown on MSNBC’s Hardball, February 6.
“Appalled” by Donald’s “Insecure” “Viperous” “Vindictive” Victory Speech
CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger: “It was vindictive....It was mean-spirited, it was poisonous, it was spiteful.”...
Host Brienna Keilar: “I was struck by just what a dark place this was in this speech....This was so dark.”...
Correspondent John Harwood: “This was a very disturbing tableau for the country. It was dark because he’s made clear that his mind is dark. This is someone who is in deep psychological distress right now, self-pitying, insecure, angry.”
— Discussion on Donald Trump’s post-impeachment speech as aired on CNN Right Now with Brianna Keilar, February 6.
“I’m going to express how appalled I was by it....Voters should be forced to listen to an entire Trump press conference because then I think it’s impossible to vote for him. But they’ve [Republican senators] got to be sitting there and thinking: ‘What a poor excuse for a president, what a poor excuse for a man, what a poor excuse for a human being. And I voted to acquit him.’”
— Former Time editor, former Barack Obama administration official and current MSNBC analyst Richard Stengel on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, February 6.
“President Trump spoke today with the venom of a black mamba. ‘Witch hunt, evil, corrupt dirtty cops, leakers, liars, disgrace.’ These were the viperous words he spewed in the East Room on a day he begun at a prayer breakfast....They sounded like the language of a dictator unleashing a violent purge that his targets would be unlikely to survive.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, February 6.
Trashing Trump’s “Bizarre” “Dark” State of the Union, Reminiscent of “Goebbels”
“The dark parts were dark. The bizarre parts were bizarre, down to the awarding of the Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh by the First Lady during the speech which at so many points differed from the truth.”
— Anchor Brian Williams on MSNBC’s post-State of the Union coverage, February 4.
“[Trump] is a master marketer, and he understands, as Mark Twain said, that a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on....and part of it is [Nazi propagandist Joseph] Goebbels, the big lie.....What I think is scary for a lot of Democrats is he’s going to run a big lie campaign all the way to the election.”
— Former Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter on MSNBC’s post-State of the Union coverage, February 5.
Honoring the “Face of Racism”
“Rush Limbaugh is a bigot. Rush Limbaugh is racist. Rush Limbaugh was a birther....This President goes from Charlottesville to s-hole nations to giving the Medal of Freedom for the whole world to see to Rush Limbaugh – that is a big contradiction. That’s hypocrisy.”
— CNN political commentator and Urban Radio Network White House correspondent April Ryan on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, February 7.
“Limbaugh has lived the American Dream, but, at the same time, he’s used his words to make a mockery of that dream, sometimes sharing xenophobic, misogynistic, and racist sentiments with the masses.”
— Correspondent Sara Sidner on CNN New Day, February 6.
“Rush Limbaugh recently said he has lung cancer. There are a lot of people in the Republican party who love Rush Limbaugh. But for Democrats and a lot of people, independents and African-Americans, he’s just seen as someone who is the face of racism, frankly.”
— PBS NewsHour correspondent Yamiche Alcindor on MSNBC’s State of the Union coverage, February 5.
“Opinion: What’s next – giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to David Duke?”
— February 5 tweet from Washington Post’s official twitter account.
Time to Politically “Kill” Trump
“I am nauseous when I see Democrats fight amongst themselves....Can I tell you what Republicans would do? A Republican would take Mike’s [Bloomberg] money and say, ‘Help me kill Trump.’”
— Host Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, February 3.
Trump Is So Bad, Sam Is Endorsing a Candidate for the First Time...
“When I was a working reporter in Washington for 52 years, I never did anything like this [endorsing Mike Bloomberg for president]. I never gave any money to candidates. I didn’t even register for a political party....I think it’s very important now. We are in the grip....of a sick, ignorant man. He’s mean, he’s corrupt. And if we don’t get this right, we may lose the things that have made this country the best place to live in the world.”
— Former ABC News White House correspondent Sam Donaldson on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, February 14.
...Except When He Did It Before
“I’m nominating you for President of the United States and I’m going to quit my job and go to work for you.”
— Former ABC News White Correspondent Sam Donaldson to Mario Cuomo, July 13, 1992 New York Daily News.
Obama Made Voting “An Act of Love”
“Barack Obama was such a transformative figure for people. And he was for many people our age [Millenials] the first president that they really got behind. And he made voting into an act of love.”
— Time magazine journalist and author Charlotte Alter on MSNBC Live, February 18.
You Know Who Else Was Acquitted? OJ
“Acquittal doesn’t mean you didn’t commit a crime. Three words: O.J. Simpson....I’m crazy today. He’s [Donald Trump] made me crazy this week. I mean, he’s winning because I’m getting nuttier and nuttier!”
— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, February 7.
Pelosi Goes Low to Stop “Criminals and Fascists” Currently Running the Country
“She’s [Nancy Pelosi] playing hardball like he does. When they go low, we go lower...That’s the only thing that works with these criminals and fascists who are running the country right now!”
— Co-host Joy Behar praising Nancy Pelosi’s ripping up Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, as aired on ABC’s The View, February 5.
