George W. Bush

The final installment of ABC’s ratings disaster When We Rise quietly ended Friday night with a victory and a warning. In the episode titled “Night IV,” the stabilization of the AIDS outbreak led to the charge for gay marriage. The success of California’s Proposition 8 – the state constitutional amendment that banned same sex marriage – lit a fire under the gay activists in San Francisco and led…

How is Donald Trump “not a normal Republican”? Let New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait count the ways. Trump is “crudely ethno-nationalist,” wrote Chait in a Tuesday post, and he’s “personally ignorant and undisciplined in a manner that sets him apart not only from traditional Republicans but most human adults.” That’s pretty much it for Trump’s deviations from orthodoxy, according to Chait, who…

In an exclusive interview with George W. Bush on Monday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer repeatedly urged the former president to criticize current President Trump’s first month in office. Lauer began the exchange by demanding: “You took office in 2001 after an extremely contentious election, controversial end to that, the Supreme Court decided it, the nation was incredibly divided. How would you…

MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews compared White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Thursday to Star Wars villain Darth Vader, even though “he’s a good speaker” albeit “a little strong but, you know, that’s part of the deal he’s got.”

Donald Trump, like virtually every president before him, is upset that there have been leaks to the news media (and heaven knows who else) from his administration. In his Thursday press conference, Trump emphasized that leaks of classified information or matters relating to national security are "criminal" acts — because they are — and promised to pursue the leakers. That, and Trump's Friday…

CNN took the time during Wednesday’s edition of The Lead to take jabs at President Donald Trump for not being able to get much done during his first three and a half weeks besides create controversy. When asked by host Jake Tapper to walk him through the events of Trump’s first month in office, reporter Tom Foreman joked that “it's more like staggering than walking cause it's quite an experience…

On Friday's Mornings with Maria, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo interviewed Ezekiel Emanuel, considered one of Obamacare's architects. It was quite contentious, and ended with Bartiromo stopping inches short of laughing sarcastically at her guest's comments and conduct. Her reaction was completely defensible, given Emanuel's ridiculous economic claims, his sophomoric and fact-challenged…

UPDATE, Feb. 7: On Feb. 5, Jake Tapper tweeted that "if you're concerned about things being 'incomplete' maybe consider adding into your post Manchin on same show response to rule." I attempted to find that video, and could not. If it was so important, and in the interest of balance, one would hope it would be part of the CNN video at the web link cited below — and it's not. As Nicholas…

The White House Correspondents' Dinner slated to be held in Washington, D.C., on April 29 will face a “counter-event” hosted by Samantha Bee, the foul-mouthed host of the Full Frontal weekly program on TBS. Entitled “Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner,” the “alternative gala” was announced on Monday by Bee, who was a correspondent on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show before getting her own…

You would think that the establishment press and the rest of the opposition to Donald Trump's administration might be able to capitalize substantively (shrieking fundraising letters don't count as "substance") on Kellyanne Conway's shaky reference to "alternative facts" about a week ago. (She should have said, "I have different, more defensible estimates than you do," because she did.) So far…

“The most important development of the last half-century in American politics,” believes New York magazine’s Chait, is “the Republican Party’s embrace of movement conservative ideology.” In a Thursday post, Chait cited six books, none of which was written by a conservative, that “help elucidate” this phenomenon. Among Chait’s choices: E.J. Dionne’s Why the Right Went Wrong; Richard Hofstadter’s…

MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews was a living, breathing edition of Notable Quotables on Inauguration Day, offering takes ranging from joking about Mussolini and former President George W. Bush hugging Supreme Court justices to this now-infamous quip that President Trump’s speech was “Hitlerian.”

The front of the New York Times Arts section featured an exhaustive report on the controversy over the world-famous Rockettes performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration: “Still Kicking, but No Longer Silent.” The text box was harsh to Trump for ruining an American tradition: “A Trump Inauguration Casualty: The Silent, Smiling Rockettes."