It’s time to find out who had the Worst Media Quote of the Week. This interactive series is where you — our loyal NewsBusters visitors and MRC supporters — get to vote on which leftist journalist or celebrity had the worst media quote of the week.
Much appreciation to all who voted last week via NewsBusters and the MRC’s various social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and X.com).
The results of the Worst Media Quote of the Week are in and the winner is…
Robert De Niro!
The actor won with 65 percent of the vote. De Niro won for his rant at the State of the Swamp counter-event to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. De Niro rhetorically asked how we can “love our country” now that its being run by a “handful of dishonest, greedy, and cruel authoritarians?” ABC late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel came in second place with 19 percent. Finishing last was MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough at 16 percent.
Check out the following clip (via the MRC Video team) to see the nominees in action:
🔴 POLL: Worst Quote of the Week, presented by @TJTAW44 and @Justine_Brooke
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) February 26, 2026
1. Joe Scarborough trashes Trump's unrelenting bigotry
2. Jimmy Kimmel: Trump's speech was like a Christmas message from the Grinch
3. Robert De Niro: How can you love our country now?
Vote below pic.twitter.com/YfOftsQqy3
WINNER (65 percent of the vote)
Robert De Niro: How Can You “Love Our Country” Now?
“Tragically, we’re now in a country of by and for a handful of dishonest, greedy, and cruel authoritarians. So - love our country? Let me ask you: Can you love a country where our neighbors are shot down in the streets by masked government thugs? Can you love a country that denies healthcare for tens of millions of our fellow citizens? Can you love a country that ends contributions to sick and starving people around the world, causing hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, many of them innocent children?...The bottom line is that I feel betrayed by my country.”
— Actor Robert De Niro at Defiance.org’s “State of the Swamp” event, February 24.
SECOND PLACE (19 percent of the vote)
Jimmy Kimmel: Trump’s “Angry Speech” Like a “Christmas Message From the Grinch”
“It was an angry speech. The theme of tonight’s speech was all foreigners are murderers….He bragged about ending DEI. He bragged about kicking two million people off food stamps. It was like a Christmas message from the Grinch. Trump applauded the efforts of a World War II vet who liberated an internment camp, at the same time he is building new ones here in the United States.”
— Jimmy Kimmel on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, February 24.
THIRD PLACE (16 percent of the vote)
Joe Scarborough Trashes Trump’s “Unrelenting Bigotry”
“There are a couple things that I thought were extraordinary that you wouldn’t see in other State of the Unions, unless they were Donald Trump’s. The first, of course, was just the unrelenting bigotry, the lies, the attacking of one group specifically, the Somalis, Somali-Americans. That’s the sort of thing that, oh, you know, I’m not going to talk about fascism or Nazism. You just read history and see what type of regimes will pick one or two groups and blame all of America’s ills on those groups.”
— Host Joe Scarborough on MS NOW’s Morning Joe, February 25.
Thanks again to all who participated!
Sponsored by James P. Jimirro
