Left-wing media hacks were really outraged by the Supreme Court conservatives’ decisions this month. MSNBCers like Joy Reid raged against the Court’s “anti-blackness,” having erased “70 years of protected rights.” The Nation’s Elie Mystal disgustingly called Justice Clarence Thomas “a mutilated version of a black justice,” and sneered that Justice John Roberts was the “enemy of black people voting.”
Republicans weren’t spared either. MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski ranted against the “dangerous,” “depraved,” and “inhumane” GOP. The View’s Sunny Hostin attacked the broken “moral compasses” of Republican voters and her cast-mate Whoopi Goldberg asked GOP presidential candidate and Senator Tim Scott why his party was so opposed to people’s “progression?”
Speaking of pseudo-smart celebrities. Singer Jill Scott, over the Independence Day weekend, offered an anti-American remix of the National Anthem including the lyric: “Oh say can you see by the blood in the streets.”
The following are the most obnoxious attacks by left-wing journalists and celebrities over the last month:
MSNBCer Smears Clarence Thomas As “A Mutilated Version Of A Black Justice”
“He [Justice Clarence Thomas] is such a mutilated version of a black justice that he is able to make these proclamations that, well, just fly in the face of law and facts….One of the other things you really realize….is just how angry he is at Ketanji Brown Jackson for having the temerity to be another black person on the Supreme Court. He apparently thought he got to be the only one. He thought that he had pulled up the ladder for everybody else, right?...He’s just, like, plucked out his own eyes and he doesn’t want to see anything that Ms. Ginni [Virginia Thomas] tells him he shouldn’t be able to see. That’s where he is in his head space right now.”
— The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, June 30.
GOP and Supreme Court Conservatives “Really Open” About Their “Anti-Blackness”
“A really smart friend of mine said to me this morning that what this Supreme Court ruling in affirmative action proves is that they’re not against affirmative action. Because they’re fine with it for like, the well-to-do. What they’re against is us [black Americans]. What they don’t want is people who look like you [to Howard University Civil Rights Chair Sherrilyn Ifill] and me in elite schools….How are they gonna make the argument that ‘we looked at your school class and there are too many blacks in it?’ That’s gonna be a hell of an argument to try to make. Even in front of this Supreme Court….It is an amazing thing that anti-blackness and really open anti-blackness has become — the Republican Party doesn’t feel they have to hide it anymore. They can just do it openly.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, July 6.
Supreme Court’s “Poison Pill”
Host Geoff Bennett: “Let’s start with the Supreme Court siding with a web designer in Colorado who said that she had a First Amendment right to refuse to provide services to same-sex couples, despite a law in Colorado that forbids discrimination against gay people.”…
New York Times columnist David Brooks: “That strikes me, just as someone who lives in American society, as doing great harm to American society….It’s just a poison in our society.”…
Washington Post Associate Editor Jonathan Capehart: “This ruling and a bunch of other rulings from this Court pains me. And it pains me personally….This decision is definitely a poison on society.”
— PBS NewsHour, June 30.
“Extreme Far-Right” Supreme Court “Wildly Out of Step With Public Opinion”
“It’s not just that the radical conservative Supreme Court is undoing decades of advancements in women’s rights and civil rights, it’s that they’re once again ruling in line with an extreme far-right agenda that’s wildly out of step with public opinion….The Court’s conservative supermajority, four white men, one white woman, and Justice Clarence Thomas, ruled that affirmative action programs ‘unavoidably employ race in a negative manner’ and ‘involve racial stereotyping,’ violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. Now, try to wrap your head around that. What they’re claiming is that programs designed to counteract racism by increasing racial diversity are, in fact, racist.”
— Substitute host Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, June 29.
Did the Supreme Court Bring Back the Days of “Jim Crow?”
“A lot of people worrying about things like Jim Crow. Could somebody decide they want black folks to come in the back door, because they don't want them in their store. I mean, how far might this go?”
— Co-host Sara Sidner CNN News Central, June 30.
Supreme Court’s Conservatives Are “Erasing 70 Years” of “Rights”
“Thanks to its bench of hard-right ideologues served up by the Federalist Society. They have just in the last year, on the John Roberts Court, succeeded in erasing 70 years of protected rights for women, black Americans, LGBTQ people.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, July 6.
Singer’s Anti-American Remix of the National Anthem
“Oh say can you see by the blood in the streets / That this place doesn’t smile on you colored child / Whose blood built this land with sweat and their hands / But we’ll die in this place and your memory erased / Oh say, does this truth hold any weight / This is not the land of the free, but the home of the slaves!”
— Singer Jill Scott re-writing the lyrics to the National Anthem when she performed it at the Essence Festival, June 30.
Everyone please rise for the only National Anthem we will be recognizing from this day forward.
— ESSENCE (@Essence) July 5, 2023
Jill Scott, we thank you! #ESSENCEFest pic.twitter.com/WrYrP1nhTc
Alito = “Bitter, Vindictive,” “Angry Man Who Hates the World”
“The tone of this court is set by its most outwardly bitter, vindictive, and aggrieved justice, Samuel Alito. Alito, who wrote the vengeful majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, has claimed William F. Buckley, the National Review, and Barry Goldwater as the greatest influences on his views, which actually explains a lot….I read the Dobbs decision, and it read to me like a right-wing screed that I could’ve read on Fox.com or on Newsmax.com….Is that how you read Alito, as just this angry man who hates the modern world?”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, June 27.
How Did Biden Withstand These Withering Questions From Wallace?
Host Nicolle Wallace: “This is very exciting for us.”
President Joe Biden: “It’s exciting for me.”...
Wallace: “I know that you have a lot of power but I can’t imagine you manufactured the breaking news about the [Supreme] Court. You say this Court is not normal. What did you mean?...Some of your former Senate colleagues on the Judiciary Committee would go as far as to say that it’s anti-democratic. Do you agree with that?...Do you worry that without court reform this conservative majority is too young and too conservative, that they might do too much harm?...We don’t get a lot of presidents through this studio, so consider it your chair. Consider it an open invitation….I hope you'll look at this as a place you can come and talk about anything that’s on your mind….We’re like the Hotel California, you can check out, but you can never leave.”
— Host Nicolle Wallace questions to President Joe Biden on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, June 29.
DeSantis Running “Most Openly Fascist Campaign” Ever
“What does it say about the Republican Party that the next guy down [in primary polls] is Ron DeSantis, who is running the most openly fascist campaign I think I’ve ever seen. And I’m saying that, having covered Donald Trump running for president. That’s the next guy down.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, June 26.
Brzezinski Rages About “Dangerous” “Depraved” “Inhumane” GOP
“Republican-controlled legislatures approved nearly total abortion bans in 14 states. These states are now unsafe for women….You support sterilization of women by denying them the health care they need. How depraved are you?... These are real stories, horror stories that Republicans have inflicted on women across the country because of their antiquated, unrealistic, highly judgmental and ill-informed view….Look at the Republican Party….it’s just inhumane….on so many levels. Whether it’s pushing an unhealthy gun culture where everyone should have an AK-47, lying to migrants and shipping them off on planes and tricking them and dumping them places, or forcing children who were raped to carry babies to term. They are leading a sick, inhumane political party at very best.”
— Co-host Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 23.
Vote For “Constitutionalist” Biden Over “Seditionist” Trump
“We have a pretty clear choice in this political season. We can choose a constitutionalist, a party that has been pretty faithful to the Constitution, which is the party of the incumbent president. Or, we can favor a party that has been shockingly but persistently supportive of a insurrectionist [Donald Trump] or a seditionist….It’s pretty basic. Do you want a constitutionalist [Joe Biden] or do you want an insurrectionist?”
— MSNBC presidential historian Jon Meacham on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 23.
Reid Panics! Third Party Could Elect Trump, End Democracy!
“They’ve been openly flirting with recruiting moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin who just happens to also be a co-chair. He has not said if he will run for president as a centrist. Democrats are not thrilled, you might imagine, about this prospect, because data shows that the introduction of a No Labels candidate siphons votes away from Biden and could lead to a Trump victory. Which could literally usher in the demise of American democracy, with an administration ready to end abortion access nationally, prosecute political enemies, round up homeless people and execute drug dealers. A prospect that rightfully scared people.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, June 22.
GOP Voters Have Put “Weirdos and Freaks” In Charge of the House
“You’ve got this Biden crime family nonsense. And now impeachment! Oh, my God!...Thank God we don’t have a $31 trillion debt that, that Donald Trump basically gave us, and these same Republicans gave us. Thank God we don’t have any concerns with China. Thank God we don’t have any concerns with the economy. Thank God we don’t have any concerns about skyrocketing college costs. Thank God! It’s far more important for MTG [Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene] and [Rep.] Lauren Boebert to go fight on the floor [of the House] and call each other bitches. Because they’re having a race to impeach Joe Biden. Over what? Nothing!...This is what we warned about if they put insurrectionists, weirdos, and freaks in charge of the people’s House. And they have put weirdos, insurrectionists, and freaks in charge of the people’s House.”
— Host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 22.
When Did Airing “Untrue Things” Stop MSNBC and CNN Before?
“We knew heading into this, that he was planning to make those remarks. We are prepared for his pre-fundraiser remarks tonight to again, be essentially, a Trump campaign speech. Because of that, we do not intend to carry these remarks live. As we have said before in these circumstances, there is a cost to us as a news organization to knowingly broadcast untrue things. We are here to bring you the news. It hurts our ability to do that if we live broadcast what we fully expect in advance to be a litany of lies and false accusations, no matter who says them.”
— Host Rachel Maddow on MSNBC’s All In, June 13.
“We’re not carrying his [Donald Trump] remarks live because frankly he says a lot of things that are not true and sometimes potentially dangerous.”
— Host Jake Tapper on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, June 13.
John Roberts is an “Enemy of Black People Voting”
“Make no mistake: John Roberts has been an enemy of black people voting for his entire legal career. Indeed his first job after he finished clerking was to work for the Reagan White House arguing against an expansion to the Voting Rights Act that was eventually pushed through. That was conceived of by the late Lani Guinier that was so popular that even Ronald Reagan had to sign that expansion of the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act was confirmed under George W. Bush by a voice vote. These are bedrock American principles that even Republicans agree with, but not John Roberts. John Roberts has been our enemy on voting rights for his entire life and he’s going to continue to be our enemy this month.”
— The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal on the June 2 edition of the Roland Martin Unfiltered podcast. Justice Roberts ended up voting Mystal’s way just six days later on June 8.
Still Blaming Reagan
Host A.C. Thompson: “The underride rule had been announced days before Ronald Reagan took office amid a push to deregulate the trucking industry. Lombardo says that once the new administration came in, the agency’s staffing was slashed and everything changed.”
Former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration scientist Louis Lombardo: “All rulemaking came to a halt. I mean, it literally came to a halt. I was in rulemaking, and we had nothing, nothing, nothing to do.”...
Thompson: “Lombardo believes it was a turning point from which the agency has never recovered….Did people die unnecessarily?”
Lombardo: “Oh, heck, yes.”
— PBS Frontline: America’s Dangerous Trucks, June 13.
CNN’s John King Clearly Doesn’t Understand the Meaning of “Centrism” or “Sexy”
“Read a line from David Ignatius today in the Washington Post: Biden delivering on his far-fetched pledge: Compromise, ‘President Biden this week accomplished what America elected him to do – govern from the center and make deals that solve problems….Biden’s critics miss the glaringly obvious fact he’s behaving precisely as he said he would.’ Unlike the Republicans, he [President Joe Biden] doesn’t face a serious primary challenge. So, could he make centrism, compromise sexy?”
— Host John King on CNN Inside Politics with John King, June 2.
Republicans Are Committing “Paper Genocide”
Co-host Joy Behar: “I read this book. It’s charming….It’s a children’s book. It’s called Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag….It was one of the most banned picture books last year.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin: “There are mothers groups where I live and they’re picking up banned books and giving them back to schools, giving them back to libraries. And there are mobile little libraries filled with banned books. And I think maybe that’s the only way that we can stop this paper genocide that we’re seeing of our history.”
— ABC’s The View, June 16.
Republicans Were Raised to Have Broken “Moral Compasses”
“I don’t trust this newly-found morality in the Republican Party…..You think about child psychiatry, most of our children have their moral compasses by the time they’re five years old. So if you work for Donald Trump like a Chris Christie, and he gave you COVID, and you continued to stick up for him, and he continued to stick up for…white supremacy….If you’re Nikki Haley, who just last week was a [Trump] supporter and….only took down the confederate flag in her home state after people were murdered, and then just a little while after Trump….came into power said the confederate flag stood for history for people….She flip-flops all the time….This is for me a sad day because — not solely because of Donald Trump, but because of the hypocrisy and the lack of morality that I’m seeing.”
— Co-host Sunny Hostin on ABC’s The View, June 13.
Whoopi to Tim Scott: Your Party Is Stopping People’s “Progression”
“I wonder why these conversations don’t seem to be held with Republicans. All of the exceptional stuff you’re talking about. And one of the reasons we continue to have new exceptionalism is because every time folks make 40 steps forward they get dragged 40 steps back…As a nation we seemingly get on the ‘right track’, and then we go backwards….How can you get your party to stop trying to stop the progression that people are making?”
— Co-host Whoopi Goldberg to Republican Senator Tim Scott on ABC’s The View, June 5.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Is No Longer Fiction
“You, the storytellers, no longer have to imagine a world like Handmaid’s Tale, because we’re pretty close to that right now. What you do have to do is tell the stories about what women are facing all over the country.”
— Actress/activist Lily Tomlin as part of “Showrunners for Abortion Rights” in a picket line outside of Amazon Studios, as reported in a June 23 article for The Hollywood Reporter.
