Vladimir Putin

Virtually every morning, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough vociferously reject the notion that they're in the tank for Donald Trump. And it's true that in word and print they can occasionally be critical of him.  But on today's Morning Joe, Mika came up with an odd defense to the assertion that Trump often lies: "He's not just blurting out outright lies--he's kind of making people think in some…

ABC's morning and evening newscasts, as of Friday evening, have yet to cover the Thursday announcement by Washington, D.C. law enforcement officials that Mikhail Lesin, a former advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in November 2015 of "blunt force injuries of the head." Friday's NBC Nightly News devoted a full report on the Lesin's death; while earlier in the day, CBS This Morning…

Andrea Mitchell touted how "the [Bill] Clinton-[Tony] Blair relationship was, indeed, special" on Friday's NBC Nightly News, as she reported on the release of transcripts of conversations between the two former leaders during the former's presidency. Mitchell spotlighted how "Blair calls Clinton 'mate.' Clinton offers to babysit Blair's son. They chat about everything from Pink Panther movies to…

Monday’s Morning Joe began with an evaluation of the actions of the White House prior to and after the attack on Paris Friday night. Joe Scarborough began by demanding to know if the roundtable thought the President actually looked involved and engaged in understanding “the level of threat.” When Mike Barnicle tried to claim the President “looks fully engaged,” Scarborough felt it necessary to…

On Wednesday, while discussing Forbes magazine releasing its 2015 Most Powerful list, the hosts of CBS This Morning were perplexed by Russian president Vladimir Putin beating out President Obama for the top spot, with Obama only being number three on the list. Charlie Rose pressed Forbes assistant managing editor Luisa Kroll: “Make the case as to why Vladimir Putin is more powerful than President…

It seems more than fair to say that establishment press coverage of the deteriorating situation in Syria has been much lighter than what we'd see if a Republican or conservatives was in the Oval Office. Additionally, what has been reported in the admittedly complicated situation has been confusing at best and misleading at worst. There was a moment of disconcerting clarity today which, if…

Embattled 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sat down for her latest interview on Wednesday and surprisingly, the liberal media’s questioner in Judy Woodruff of the PBS NewsHour (and Clinton Foundation donor) came prepared and hit Clinton on issues ranging from her e-mail scandal to the administration’s misjudgment of Russia’s global threat to allied super PACs attacking…

On Thursday's The Nightly Show on Comedy Central, host Larry Wilmore skewered President Barack Obama in the aftermath of Russia undermining the President's Syria policy by bombing the Syrian rebels Obama has been supporting. The Comedy Central host reminded viewers that Obama had mocked Mitt Romney in 2012 when the GOP presidential candidate warned that Russia would be one of America's…

On Tuesday's New Day, CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto tagged the Obama administration efforts to train Syrian rebels as an "utter failure" and he as CNN substitute co-anchor John Berman recalled the scant results of trying to build up Syrian rebels as opposed to the more substantial troops and weapons Russia has supplied to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The CNN…

Vladimir Putin probably had to wait 20 minutes for an elevator. Yeah, that's the ticket . . .  Josh Earnest, Barack Obama's spokesman, has excused Vladimir Putin's snub of the President of the United States, in which the Russian strongman turned up 20 minutes late for their lunch at the UN yesterday.  On today's Morning Joe, Earnest lamely defended Vlad's tardiness: "anybody that's been around…

During MSNBC's live coverage before President Obama's speech to the United Nations on Monday, a panel consisting of NBC's Chuck Todd and guest Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group fretted over the "disaster" of President Obama's Syria policy in the aftermath of Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent success in using the civil war to increase Russian influence in the Middle East.

While the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC all covered on Monday night the developments at the United Nations (U.N.) and the meeting between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News failed to go the distance and report that Obama’s disastrous rebel training initiative in Syria had been suspended. In contrast, the CBS Evening News…

Does Donald Trump’s popularity among Republicans indicate that a big part of the GOP base is more authoritarian than it is conservative? Yes, suggested Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas in a Friday post. “The crazies don't really care about any conservative platform, they just want someone to reflect their own bigotries and xenophobia, all the while telling the weenies to fuck off…

On Sunday, the hosts of NBC’s Today laughed at how Russian President Vladimir Putin scored 8 goals during an exhibition hockey game in Sochi on Saturday.