GOP = “Far-Right” “Hardline” Hostage Takers
“Congressman and former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan now says he’s willing to run for Speaker of the House, but with conditions. Ryan wants Republicans to unite behind him by Friday, including the far-right members of the party.”
— ABC’s Tom Llamas on the October 21 Good Morning America.
“That turns the tables on hardline conservatives who were hoping to extract concessions from their next Speaker in exchange for their support.... [Ryan] is seen as one of the only people who can unite his fractured party after hardliners threatened to force out the current Speaker.”
— Correspondent Nancy Cordes on the October 21 CBS This Morning.
CBS’s Charlie Rose: “So the question is what happened to [House Majority Leader Kevin] McCarthy? What’s happening to the Republican Party? And is the tail wagging the dog?”
CBS’s John Dickerson: “Well, there’s wagging all over the place. I mean, the dogs are running amuck.”
— Exchange on the October 9 CBS This Morning about House conservatives and the fight over the next Speaker.
“Let’s be clear about what we have here. We have a hostage crisis within the Republican Party.”
— CNN’s John King on the October 8 Legal View.
Matthews Slams “Pathetic” “Sock Puppet” Rubio
“[Billionaire businessman Sheldon Adelson is] reportedly getting closer to endorsing Senator Marco Rubio for president....Adelson wants somebody to do his bidding in foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. He wants somebody to be his sock puppet and he’s got him in this guy, this perfect little high school debater, Rubio.... Isn’t this pathetic?”
— MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews, October 13.
NYT: Ted Cruz Is a “Menacing, Stalking” Horror Movie Villain
“He [George W. Bush] wouldn’t have felt compelled to utter them [his criticism] if Cruz wasn’t a possible factor in the race — if he wasn’t a menacing, stalking, relentless force to watch for and run from, like the body-hopping spirit in this year’s most celebrated horror movie, It Follows.”
— New York Times writer Frank Bruni in his column, “The Scary Spectre of Ted Cruz,” October 21.
“Radical” Ben Carson Is “Putting Targets” on Government Officials
Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus: “What comes out of his [Ben Carson’s] mouth about guns and about other things, is remarkably radical.” ...
The National Journal's Ron Fournier: “Right now, we have a whole Republican Party that is spending a lot of money and a lot of time convincing the American public that this government is dominating them. So what he’s basically doing is putting a target on government officials.”
— Exchange on the October 11 edition of CBS’s Face the Nation.
Trump Is “Great” When He Echoes Lefty Conspiracy Theories
“This is one of Donald Trump’s great contributions to this campaign, whatever else he’s doing that we all object to. He is calling out the Bush people for Orwellian, deceptive, historically amnesiatic thinking, right? For Jeb Bush to say, ‘My brother kept us safe,’ is not true, you know....Over the summer of 2001, Bush at Crawford, Texas, gets a report — ‘Al-Qaeda Planning Attacks in the United States’ — they were warned. The idea that he kept us safe is not true.”
— Bloomberg View columnist and MSNBC analyst Jonathan Alter on MSNBC’s Up, October 18.
Touting “Perfect,” “Historic” Hillary Debate Win
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “Good reviews coming in for the Democratic frontrunner. Her team called it the best day of the campaign.”...
ABC’s Cecilia Vega: “Hillary’s team calling this the best day of her campaign so far....”
— Good Morning America, October 14.
“Hillary Clinton’s debate experience, her debate preparation paid off last night. Her advisers this morning are ecstatic. They insist she was on, that she looked poised and passionate....Secretary Clinton appeared confident and comfortable, casting herself as a history-making candidate.”
— NBC’s Peter Alexander on the October 14 Today.
“I think she did extraordinarily well....She was so adept at making herself the candidate of both experience and change. It’s kind of hard to do that.”
— CNN’s Gloria Borger on a live, post-debate edition of Anderson Cooper 360, October 13.
“Basically tonight, Hillary Clinton was Beyoncé. She was flawless. I mean, Hillary Clinton did an extraordinary job.”
— CNN analyst Van Jones during a live, post-debate Anderson Cooper 360, October 13.
“The debate went so well for Hillary Clinton, so perfectly, that at times it was as if she had planned the whole thing....Hillary Clinton didn’t plan that moment and didn’t arrange the seating plan on this year’s Republican clown car with Donald Trump and Ben Carson in the front. She couldn’t have planned all of that. No one could. It is just too perfect.”
— MSNBC’s Last Word anchor Lawrence O’Donnell on October 14.
Spinning for Hillary: GOP Commits “Suicide” with Benghazi “Witch Hunt”
“[Hillary Clinton’s] testimony has historically been marked by steady nerves even amid withering attacks....When Hillary Clinton walks into that room, she will have more experience with congressional hearings than most of the people there and that can make even a hot seat if not comfortable at least cooler.”
— CNN’s Tom Foreman on Anderson Cooper 360, previewing Clinton’s testimony to the Benghazi Committee, October 21.
“You’ve got Hillary Clinton performing well at this debate, the Benghazi Committee now kind of de-legitimized. She’s teed up to have a great day next week.”
— Bloomberg host John Heilemann on NBC’s Today, October 16.
“Hillary Clinton has done a fairly good job of trying to disqualify this panel. Some would argue they disqualified themselves.”
— Co-host Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s Today, October 22.
“The amazing thing is that she does not even have to talk about a vast right-wing conspiracy and have people make fun of her for it, because they’re doing it on their own. I mean, for a party whose members don’t believe in assisted suicide, they’re doing a pretty good impression of it.”
— USA Today political writer Susan Milligan on the October 15 Hardball.
“We have the committee, the Benghazi committee this week. Well, she’s going to murder them because it has been a witch hunt. It has been partisan. It’s a great opportunity for her.”
— Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein on CNN’s Reliable Sources, October 18.
“It’s not even a scandal....It’s really a controversy. But ‘scandal’ is the Republicans’ word for it....So far, no one has determined there’s any scandal there.”
— CNN’s Legal View anchor Ashleigh Banfield to Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman, October 9.
NYT Writer Spews Hate at Jeb Bush
“Fuck you Jeb Bush for telling poor people they need stronger families to not be poor. Poverty weakens families.”
— New York Times news assistant Philip Richardson in an October 14 tweet. According to Politico, a Times spokesperson later called the comment “completely inappropriate.”
Rather’s Fake Documents Just a “Small Technicality”
Actor Robert Redford: “The whole thing unraveled over what was a small technicality at that time that was blown into major thing.” ...
NBC’s Matt Lauer: “Do you want people to walk out of the theater, though, with bigger questions in their mind about journalism?...Do you want them to ask bigger questions about journalism and political coverage and things?”
Redford: “Yes. That would be my hope.”
— Today, October 12. Redford stars as Rather in the film Truth, dramatizing the disgraced journalist’s role in a 60 Minutes story that used discredited documents against George W. Bush.
Delusional Dan Still Insists Bush Story Was “True”
NBC’s Matt Lauer: “If you were to look back, what would you do differently in that same circumstance?”
Ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather: “Well, I would do a lot of things differently. What I wouldn’t do differently is back off the story. The story was true.”
— Exchange on NBC’s Today, October 14.
MSNBC Imagines Democrats as Delicious Sandwiches
MSNBC’s Kate Snow: “Many potential voters taking a closer look at their picks for president. Well, with some voters considering a candidate maybe they hadn’t even considered before, you might say it’s like picking something off a menu, maybe it’s like picking a sandwich....This is a Subway sandwich. And you say that is?”
Food and Wine’s Noah Kauffman: “It’s Hillary Clinton. You look at this sandwich. It’s got steak, it’s got cucumbers, it’s got tomatoes, I think it’s got turkey underneath. It has pretty much everything.”
— Exchange on MSNBC Live comparing Democratic presidential candidates to sandwiches, October 14.
Actress Loves “Inspiring” and “Tremendous” Bernie Sanders
“I have always had the most profound respect for [Hillary Clinton]....I just think she has accomplished more than most people have accomplished in about five life times. But I love a lot of what Bernie Sanders is saying too, man. I find him really inspiring. I think he’s tremendous and we need a jolt of that.”
— Ex-Crossing Jordan star Jill Hennessy on Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect, October 16.
Inspiring Commie Overcame Asthma to Kill Thousands
“Che Guevara might have considered the United States his worst enemy, but he faced an even greater threat to his revolutionary ambitions: asthma. While it was U.S.-trained Bolivian forces who killed Che on this day, Oct. 9, in 1967, asthma was a constant threat from his earliest youth....If anything, his own affliction seemed to be an afterthought. Although he earned a medical degree before embarking on his Communist crusades, he didn’t focus on respiratory ailments.”
— Time.com writer Jennifer Latson, October 9.
View Hosts “Aroused” By “Hot” Democrats
“Before the debates, I don’t think a lot of people knew who you were and
then during the debates I think a lot of people knew who you were
because there were pictures of you that went viral.... Shirtless on the
beach. Look at you there, for God’s sake.”
— ABC’s The View co-host Michelle Collins to presidential candidate Martin O’Malley, October 20.
“I actually am aroused by him [Bernie Sanders]. I’m serious. I find him to be eye candy, not ear candy, eye candy....I like an old Jewish guy who’s a socialist. That’s my type of guy. Everybody is talking about O’Malley and how hot he was. But to me, Bernie is hot.”
— The View co-host Joy Behar, October 14.
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
DEPUTY RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Dickens
RESEARCH ANALYST: Mike Ciandella
NEWS ANALYSTS: Scott Whitlock, Kyle Drennen, Matthew Balan, Jeffrey Meyer and Curtis Houck
INTERN: Michael McKinney