Liberal anchors, hosts, and correspondents have spent the past few weeks cheering on Democratic presidential candidates like Kamala Harris and Liz Warren while walloping Donald Trump and his supporters on a myriad of issues.
From hoping the first Democratic candidate debates would produce a savior from the “cruel” “dictator” Donald Trump to condemning his “Guantanamo Bay” for children and then raining on the President’s Fourth of July parade, the following are the most obnoxious moments of media bias over the last month:
Raining on “Dictator” Trump’s Parade
“The President was inspired by what he saw in France’s Bastille Day two years ago, but the President’s vision bears a closer resemblance to a chest-thumping put on by his counterpart China....They’re the same kind of theatrics that his [Vladimir Putin] Soviet predecessors used as propaganda during the Cold War, all choreographed to project military might, even as they fought a losing battle with the world of ideas and as those dictators would observe the proceedings while flanked by their top military brass, President Trump now intends to do the same.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, July 2.
“[Donald Trump’s military parade is] about bolstering himself up, looking like a dictator from another nation or a time that’s forgot.”
— CNN political analyst and American Urban Radio Network’s White House correspondent April Ryan on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, July 2.
“Near the stage, it’s VIPs who get the best view for a spectacle that has some critics concerned the President’s high-jacking the holiday, putting politics over patriotism, and forcing taxpayers to foot the bill. One Democrat deriding it as a ‘vanity’ project.”
— Correspondent Hallie Jackson on NBC’s Nightly News, July 2.
Dem Debate Is About “Saving the Country” From “Cruel” Trump
“I think this is about more than just connecting and get the priorities right. I think this is about saving the country....this is about taking a 2 X 4 to the ugliest aspects of Trumpism: The racism, the misogyny, I mean, the three legs of Donald Trump’s stool.”
— Host Nicolle Wallace previewing Democratic debate on MSNBC’s Democratic Pre-Debate Show, June 26.
“I’m hoping that the debate participants get a chance to answer....how do you restore a sense of the America that we’ve said we are for the longest time? Because what Donald Trump has done is dismantle that America and replace it with this, with deliberate cruelty to children, with this hideous system that legitimately gets talked about as concentration camps....What we see is horror, and the horror is deliberate. The cruelty is the point. His base wants to see this cruelty to prove to them that he is hurting the right people....This is what they want to show the world, that we’re willing to be as cruel as you could possibly be, maximally cruel to children in order to scare brown people out of coming here.”
— MSNBC's AM Joy host Joy Reid on MSNBC's Democratic Debate Pre-Show, June 26.
New York Times’s Ridiculously Slanted Questions to Dems
“In an ideal world, would anyone own handguns?”
...
“Do you think Israel meets international standards of human rights?”
...
“Do you think President Trump has committed crimes in office?”
...
“Does anyone deserve to have a billion dollars?”
— Questions from a June 19 New York Times online project “18 Questions. 21 Democrats. Here’s What They Said. We tracked down the 2020 Democrats and asked them the same set of questions.”
Cooing Over Kamala
“Kamala Harris had a moment that was two hours long....A star was born tonight. This is a masterful performance. She completely dominated the stage, and most importantly, she would kick Donald Trump’s butt, and she proved it tonight. That was – If you had any doubt that you could nominate a woman that would take Donald Trump to the woodshed, she just took it away from you.”
— CNN host Van Jones on CNN’s DNC Post-Debate Analysis, June 27.
“Your performance last night is certainly what people are talking about this morning. I’m hearing words like, ‘A star is born,’ ‘She is fervent – she is fervent but deploys her anger precisely like a flashlight.’ Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire are telling CBS News today that you had a strong performance. How do you intend to capitalize on that momentum? Clearly the t-shirts is one way, I understand that those are already on sale.”
— Co-host Gayle King to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on CBS This Morning, June 28.
“I’ve got Senator Kamala Harris here for an amazing night in history.”
— MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Post-Democratic Debate Analysis, June 27.
Liz Warren’s Cheering Section
“On Elizabeth Warren, it’s been fun to watch her sort of slowly climb up because we’ve known her over the years, Joe, we know how much she loves this. She loves doing town halls, she loves connecting with people. You know, some people say what they say, but she doesn’t give up and so dogged and resilient and as a teacher she doesn’t give up on her students and you see that happening on the campaign trail where she just keeps going at it and it appears to be paying off.”
— Co-host Mika Brezezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 10.
Go Ahead Dems, Time to Play Dirty!
“Democrats need to understand I’m sorry, I’m a former Republican, but I am saying this, Donald Trump doesn’t play fair. They don’t need to play fair either.”
— Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 27.
Upset That Democrats Didn’t Attack “Lord Voldemort” Trump
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson: “The absence of Trump in this discussion actually surprised me a lot. – ”
Host Brian Williams: “Almost he who will not be mentioned.
Robinson: “Exactly. It was like Lord Voldemort. You know, you couldn’t say his name whereas for a lot of people in the country that is the main issue.”
— MSNBC’s Democratic Debate: Post-Debate Analysis, June 26.
Trump is the Republican “George Wallace”
Host Willie Geist: “What do you hear when you hear ‘Make America Great Again’?”
MSNBC’s AM Joy host Joy Reid: “I hear exactly that. I hear make America a country that, in the 1950s, meant white Christian men had dominion over everyone else. That’s exactly what it means when I hear it. It’s George Wallace. He’s just Republican George Wallace.”
— MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 25.
Trump’s “Dehumanizing” Gitmo for Kids
“We did open the door quite a bit with past policies to President Trump having these kids tortured essentially in these incarcerated, you know, states that they have right now....What we have right now is torture....What we have now is, essentially what you stated before, a Guantanamo Bay for children.”
— Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith on MSNBC’s AM Joy, June 29.
“[Donald Trump] is not only criminalizing, but he’s also demonizing and dehumanizing immigrants.”
— Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas on MSNBC Live with Craig Melvin, June 27.
Trump’s Hostage Crisis?
“Let’s talk about what’s happening now. Your administration, you’re not doing the recreation, not even schooling these kids anymore. You’ve gotten rid of all that stuff. It looks like these kids are being used as some sort of – is it hostage? It’s like they’re being held hostage.”
— Host Chuck Todd to Donald Trump on NBC’s Meet the Press, June 23.
Face It, You’re No Obama
“Let me show you this chart. You see that chart? It’s the unemployment rate from the peak of the recession....Your economy is great. I’m not saying it’s not great. But this recovery started and in the 28 months you’ve been president and the last 28 months of Obama’s presidency, he averaged more new jobs than your first 28.”
— Moderator Chuck Todd’s question to Donald Trump on NBC’s Meet the Press, June 23.
Mueller (Good) vs. Trump (Evil)
“What Bob Mueller – what’s so frightening about him for Trump – is that he will visually represent good versus evil. He will visually send that branding out to America over the course of two days. And that scares Trump, even more than the truth. The truth’s already out: it’s come out of Trump’s mouth. He is corrupt.”
— Co-host Mika Brezezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 26.
We Said There Was Collusion for Years, So It Must Be True
Donald Trump: “I think I’ve done more than any other first-term president ever. I have a phony witch hunt, which is just a phony pile of stuff. Mueller comes out. There’s no collusion. And essentially a ruling that no obstruction. And they keeping going with it.”...
ABC’s This Week moderator George Stephanopoulos: “I don’t think that’s what he found. But we don’t have time for that. We’ll talk about it later.”
Trump: “That is what he found, excuse me, he found no collusion. And he didn’t find anything having to do with obstruction because they made a ruling based on his findings and they said no-
Stephanopoulos: “He didn’t examine collusion, he laid out evidence of obstruction.”
Trump: “Are you trying to say now that there was collusion even though he said there is no collusion?”
Stephanopoulos: “He didn’t say there is no collusion....Did you read the report?
Trump: “Yes, I did. You should read it, too, George.”
— ABC’s 20/20 Special Edition President Trump 30 Hours, June 16.
Impeaching Trump Is the New Normandy Invasion
“Do your duty. This is D-Day. We’re celebrating people making the ultimate sacrifice only out of a matter of duty. Take a look at the Constitution. Your job is to check the executive, whether to do that or not or how, that’s up to you but you’ve got to make a decision. People will punish you doing nothing or going in different directions at once and rightly so. Mr. Mueller seemed to suggest that he found things in his report that required your oversight. Get him up there. Let it be clear for the American people and then you make a decision about what your duty is here and you do it.”
— Host Chris Cuomo on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, June 6.
Bias Denied, Bias Revealed
Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan: “I do not hear – talking to straight news journalists – that there’s a push [for impeachment]. That’s just really anathema to the way we do business....I have not heard journalists talking that way....I don’t think that journalists even really think that way.”...
Washington Post columnist Max Boot: “I would say it’s not the media that’s pushing for impeachment. It’s reality that’s pushing for impeachment.”
— CNN’s Reliable Sources, June 16.
Mika’s Meltdown Over Trump’s “Evil” Results
“He [Donald Trump] is a national security threat. And what he does is not stupidity. What he does is not evil playing out before our eyes. What he does is he manipulates the truth. He desensitizes the American public and the world to what is right and wrong and does things in plain sight, and the results are evil. What happens in a dictatorship, what happens when evil forces step in is this – slowly chipping away at our values, slowly chipping away at our democracy....whether he gives a damn or not, that’s what’s happening.”
— Co-host Mika Brzezinski discussing Trump saying he would accept information from foreign sources, as aired on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 14.
It’s Now Acceptable to Throw “Neutrality” Out the Window
“Purists in the field of journalism and academics opining from the safety of the classroom can lament the downfall of neutrality. But neutrality for the sake of neutrality doesn’t really serve us in the age of Trump.”
— Excerpt from CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s June 11 published book “The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America.”
Lonely Jim Was Trump’s Only Critic in the Media
Host Brian Stelter: “Do you have any regrets? You said some White House aides do. Do you have any regrets?”
CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta: “Do I have any regrets? You know, I wish at times that the press had been a bit more in solidarity with one another in standing up to this White House and saying listen, ‘You know, the president can’t call us the enemy of the people. We’re not going to go along with that.’ I think we’ve missed some opportunities here and there to challenge that.”
— CNN’s Reliable Sources, June 9.
Publishers Weekly: “Is there a grain of truth to claims of biased coverage of President Trump and his supporters by the mainstream media?”
Jim Acosta: “I have never witnessed a concerted effort by any news organization to take a stand one way or the other on a political issue, to damage one particular party or help another. We have been far more honest and straightforward with the American people than President Trump has.”
— CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta in a June 11 Publishers Weekly interview.
Classy: Media Kicks Sanders On Her Way Out
“You could not trust her [Sarah Huckabee Sanders]....She suffers from lie-abetes...I’ve been in that White House for 22 years, seen various press secretaries from Clinton until now....These last two, Sean [Spicer] and Sarah, the two S’s, S squared, have been the worst press secretaries in my tenure at the White House.”
— CNN White House correspondent April Ryan discussing White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders departure, as aired on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, June 13.
“Sarah Sanders has acknowledged she did not always tell the truth to reporters. So let me ask you: ‘Do you regret setting that precedent for dishonesty when you were at the podium?’”
— Host Hallie Jackson to former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on MSNBC Live, June 14.
Those Commies Weren’t So Bad
“For many former East Germans, the decision to tear down one of the architectural showpieces of the German Democratic Republic, or G.D.R., was a form of historical vandalism....The communist G.D.R. was a one-party state where many citizens were systematically monitored by intelligence services and people faced severe consequences if they spoke out against the regime. But it still arouses nostalgia among some former citizens who fondly remember its gender egalitarianism and social safety net or admire its utopian aspirations.”
— Freelance writer Thomas Rogers in June 7 New York Times Art & Design section article “Symbol of a Brutal Regime? Or a Fun Place to Party?”
Saving Nine Month Old Baby = “Horror Movie Disturbing”
“I think it’s upsetting, I think, to a lot of people, both the state of abortion rights around the country and what’s going on in Missouri, but the fact that they’re doing that to these women on order of that state government is just sort of horror movie disturbing.”
— MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, June 11.
Trump Is “Scared” of Female Reporters
“You know what I think he's scared of them. Scared of some of the female reporters at the White House asking tough questions. Nasty. Scared of Speaker Pelosi and what she might do. Nasty. And if nasty is what he calls women who are outspoken, who use their voices, who have opinions, well, then, stay nasty, America.
— Host Brooke Baldwin on CNN Newsroom, June 7.
Dystopian Fiction or Trump’s Reality?
“What do you do when reality starts looking uncomfortably like your dystopian fiction? When Bruce Miller began work on a TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 book “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the primaries for the 2016 presidential election still hadn’t happened. The Supreme Court was less conservative. Thousands of children hadn’t yet been separated from their families at the southern border.”
— New York Times writer Eleanor Stanford in June 10 interview with Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale showrunner Bruce Miller.
“Lately, you know, we’re really struggling where we see the apparent dismantling of women’s rights, you see women showing up to protest in robes. What do you think of that and how this story is really resonating with today?”
— Co-host Gayle King’s question to Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss on CBS This Morning, June 10.
Confounded By His Own Climate Change Agenda
“The glaciers are melting, the coral reefs are dying, Miami Beach is slowly going under. Quick, says a voice in your head, go see them before they disappear! You are evil, says another voice. For you are hastening their destruction. To a lot of people who like to travel, these are morally bewildering times. Something that seemed like pure escape and adventure has become double-edged, harmful, the epitome of selfish consumption. Going someplace far away, we now know, is the biggest single action a private citizen can take to worsen climate change....In February, my family of three flew from New York to Miami for what seemed like a pretty modest winter vacation. An online carbon calculator tells me that our seats generated the equivalent of 2.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide. When I did that calculation, I pictured myself standing on a pickup-truck-sized sheet of ice as it broke apart and plunged me into frigid waters. A polar bear glared hungrily at me.”
— New York Times writer Andy Newman in June 3 Travel section piece “If Seeing the World Helps Ruin It, Should We Stay Home?”
Actor “Eloquently” Compares Treatment of Illegal Immigrants to Japanese Internment
Actor George Takei: “When we were in prison, there was this sweeping characterization of Japanese-Americans – American citizens of Japanese ancestry as potential spies, saboteurs or fifth columnists – the same mentality that characterizes Latinos coming across the Southern border as rapists, drug dealers, and murders; or Muslims as all potential terrorists. It’s that simple-minded hysterical characterization of everyone without due process....It is a grotesque miscarriage of justice and a blot on American democracy.”
Host Ari Melber: “You lay it out starkly and eloquently.”
— MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber, June 13.
Trump on “Trajectory” to “Exterminating” Illegal Immigrants
Co-host Joy Behar: “Why can’t you compare it – his practices to what led up to the Holocaust? Do we have to wait for the actual Holocaust before we speak out?...Did you hear what I said? We’re really comparing – the trajectory towards. We’re not comparing it to that.”
Co-host Meghan McCain: “But we are not exterminating people!”
Behar: “Not yet!”
— ABC’s The View, June 19.
Chris Christie Caught In the Crossfire
Co-host Ana Navarro: “How the hell could you have ever supported and worked with this guy? [Donald Trump]...You’re a prosecutor. This guy’s a lawbreaker!”...
Co-host Joy Behar: “He’s a criminal!”...
Navarro: “You’re against dictators. He [Trump] coddles dictators. He looks the other way!.”
Behar: “Are you for pollution also? He has rolled back so many EPA changes.”...
Co-host Sunny Hostin: “He [Trump] doesn’t seem to believe in the science!...Kids are in cages!...Kids are dead.”
— Questions posed to former New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie on ABC’s The View, June 28.
Woke Whoopi’s Warning to Pro-Lifers
“I don’t say that everybody has to believe [in abortion], but I say you want to have choice, I don’t want you in my coochie! You don’t want me in yours, either!”
— Co-host Whoopi Goldberg on ABC’s The View, June 4.
Taking a Job With Russian TV to Attack “Monster” Trump
“We screwed up this country. Let’s talk about why Americans are hungry and feel left out and left behind. Why we elected a monster as president. So if it takes working at a Russian network to make America better and more honest about itself, why not?”
— Former CNN host and current RT America host Rick Sanchez in May 23 The Miami Herald story “How Rick Sanchez, a Miami kid raised to hate the Soviets, ended up working for Russian TV.”
