While discussing whether New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will change his mind and run for President, the former New Yorker editor blurted, "Actually, I just hope he doesn't, because in the end, you know, his tremendous misgivings, maybe he is right. I mean, We had this with Obama. He wasn't ready, it turns out, really." [MP3 audio here [2].]
On December 31, 2009, Brown mocked Rush Limbaugh, who just hours earlier had been taken to the hospital with chest pains, as a "bad fairy" who ruined the magical story of Obama. She portrayed the radio host as "the bad fairy at Sleeping Beauty's christening" and added, "...Rush Limbaugh utters the words, 'I hope you fail.' 'I hope he fails,' he said, and from that moment, the sort of the Pandora's box opened."
Her full quote on Limbaugh:
TINA BROWN: It's got to be that incredible inauguration of Obama....You started the year with this huge festival of hope and renewal and everything is going to be so different now, and then, like the bad fairy at Sleeping Beauty's christening, Rush Limbaugh utters the words, 'I hope you fail.''I hope he fails,' he said, and from that moment, the sort of the Pandora's box opened, and the rest of the year has been just this big discord and toxic atmosphere in politics and partisan divide and people shouting at each other and the Tea Parties and death panels."
-Brown announcing her choice for the most important moment of 2009 on NBC's Today December 31, 2009 a few hours after Limbaugh went to the hospital with chest pains.
For more on Tina Brown, see the MRC's Profile in Bias [3].
A transcript of the September 27 exchange follows:
7:27am EDT
TINA BROWN: But if he doesn't feel ready to run- Actually, I just hope he doesn't, because in the end, you know, his tremendous misgivings, maybe he is right. I mean, We had this with Obama. He wasn't ready, it turns out, really.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Got four little kids.
BROWN: Maybe Christie isn't ready. Maybe he feels like everybody wants him to but perhaps he does need longer.
ANDREA MITCHELL: But, Tina, you could also argue that he might have a better chance at this moment of becoming the president of the United States than being re-elected governor of new Jersey and given all of the problems of running that state.
— Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [4] to follow him on Twitter.