On Wednesday morning, American Alan Gross was released from a five year imprisonment in Cuba in exchange for the release of 3 Cuban spies convicted in the United States. In response to the release, Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) spoke out strongly against the prisoner swap. Despite the bipartisan disapproval surrounding President Obama’s actions, during her NewsNation program MSNBC host Tamron Hall repeatedly brought on liberal guests to slam Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s comments without acknowledging the Democratic opposition to the prisoner exchange.
NewsNation
By Kyle Drennen | December 9, 2014 | 12:41 PM EST
Appearing on MSNBC's NewsNation on Tuesday, NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel took the Democrat-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee to task for its so-called "torture report" slamming CIA interrogation tactics used against terrorist detainees: "I think this is really about changing the narrative of American history....everyone in the world knew what was going on, including by the way, the Senate, which is now pretending to be a bit of a babe in the woods."
By Scott Whitlock | November 17, 2014 | 12:27 PM EST
Now that even the networks have grudgingly covered Jonathan Gruber's repeated attacks on the "stupidity" of American voters, MSNBC on Monday touted the President's efforts to distance himself. An MSNBC graphic hyped, "Obama Slams Gruber: Defending ObamaCare" and Tamron Hall insisted the President is "is firing back against" the accusations
By Kyle Drennen | September 25, 2014 | 11:45 AM EDT
Appearing on MSNBC's News Nation on Thursday to react to Attorney General Eric Holder announcing his resignation, NBC's Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd had the audacity to proclaim that Holder "wasn't political at all" during his tenure at the Justice Department. [Listen to the audio]
This is the same Eric Holder who declared America to be a "nation of cowards" on race, was held in contempt of Congress for not handing over documents related to the Fast and Furious gun running scandal, and who just in April implied to Al Sharpton's National Action Network that Republican criticism of him and President Obama was racially motivated.
By Matthew Balan | September 17, 2014 | 5:42 PM EDT
CNN and MSNBC viewers on Wednesday would have to switch channels if they wanted to watch the first hearing of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. CNN aired a 15-second news brief at the top of the 10 am Eastern hour, mere minutes before the nearly three-hour meeting began, but didn't cover the proceedings live. MSNBC set aside 12 minutes worth of segments to the event, and sometimes showed split-screen video, but didn't provide the audio. By contrast, Fox News Channel provided nearly 41 minutes (40 minutes, 51 seconds) of live coverage of the congressional committee's hearing during the 10 am and 11 am Eastern hours.
By Connor Williams | August 15, 2014 | 3:00 PM EDT
Despite new details revealed by the police that provide additional context to the Michael Brown shooting, at least one MSNBC reporter seemed to dismiss the new information as largely irrelevant. On the August 15 edition of NewsNation, guest host Alex Witt invited msnbc.com reporter Trymaine Lee to the program. He has been reporting on the ground from Ferguson, Missouri this week.
Witt mentioned the facts surrounding what the police have dubbed a “strong-arm robbery” of a convenience store that supposedly took place about 30 minutes before the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, as confirmed by still shots of the scene. The shots – while not entirely clear – indicate that Michael Brown may have been a suspect. The NewsNation guest host asked Lee how much this complicated things and whether “this fact [might] be something that instills uncertainty within this community which has become calmer overnight?” Lee replied, unconvinced: [MP3 audio here; video below]
By Laura Flint | July 28, 2014 | 3:40 PM EDT
On the July 28 edition of NewsNation, anchor Tamron Hall did her part to push the alarmist liberal narrative about how radical Republicans are itching to impeach President Obama. The news hook for this was how “the new incoming House GOP whip, Tea Party backed Louisiana congressman Steve Scalise will not rule out impeaching the president over his use of executive orders.” This despite the fact there’s much “unfinished business” and “that urgent do list” of “the border crisis” and “funding for the nation’s highway and infrastructure project” on Congress’s plate.
The Today show co-anchor aired a clip from Fox News Sunday of host Chris Wallace repeatedly asking the Louisiana Republican if he would “consider impeaching the president.” Wallace responded that “it might be the first White House in history that is trying to start the narrative of impeaching their own president.” Of course, nowhere in the clip did the Louisiana representative insinuate that he was angling for impeachment. Instead Scalise called out the White House for stressing impeachment talks in an attempt “to fundraise off of that” and “change the topic away from the president's failed agenda.” [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]
By Laura Flint | June 19, 2014 | 3:20 PM EDT
On the June 19 edition of NewsNation With Tamron Hall, the MSNBCer and Today news desk anchor interviewed Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) on American intervention in Iraq. When Hall asked the congressman what he believed would be the consequences if Maliki refused to meet American demands for reform, Meeks’s answer morphed into a rant against former Vice President Dick Cheney. Meeks snarled, “how dare he come and even raise his ugly head at this time.”
Violent rhetoric is not new for the Democrat facing multiple allegations of fraud and corruption. Just this past March, Meeks displayed a similar lack of tact towards the former veep, stating “Dick Cheney should just keep his mouth shut and stay at home.” These sentiments were mirrored later in Hall’s interview when he snapped “the guy should just go stay retired, take care of his health and just keep his mouth shut.” [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]
By Connor Williams | June 12, 2014 | 4:30 PM EDT
As city after city in northern Iraq falls to deadly Islamist extremist militias pressing onward to Baghdad, questions are now being raised about the wisdom of the United States’ swift exit from the Middle East nation just a couple of years ago at the direction of President Obama. But leave it to MSNBC to preemptively shut down any criticism of the White House.
On the June 12 edition of NewsNation, host Tamron Hall had several foreign policy experts on to analyze the chaos in Iraq specifically and the Middle East more generally. Towards the end of the conversation, Hall felt the need to defend attacks against Obama from the right [MP3 audio here; video below]:
By Connor Williams | June 3, 2014 | 5:00 PM EDT
Responding to the evolving Taliban prisoner-swap story, Politico’s Roger Simon suggested on MSNBC’s NewsNation program that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers had faulty memories on the details of Bergdahl’s disappearance and that we should not “take as absolute legal fact five-year old memories from people who served with Bergdahl under circumstances of great stress.”
In further defending President Obama’s five-for-one prisoner swap, the liberal columnist insisted there would be “little public appetite” for the wheels of military justice to grind through an investigation and possible court martial for Bergdahl. Fortunately for viewers, host Tamron Hall also had NBC military analyst Barry McCaffrey on at the same time to offer his rebuttal. The former Clinton administration drug czar strongly beat back the notion that this had anything to do with the memories of his comrades [MP3 audio here; video below]:
By Connor Williams | May 30, 2014 | 4:55 PM EDT
When you’ve lost Chris Matthews, have you lost liberal America? The Hardball host stopped by for a visit on the May 30 edition of MSNBC’s NewsNation for an analysis of the resignation of VA Secretary Shinseki and the VA scandal overall.
The former Tip O’Neill staffer didn’t hold back, repeatedly hitting Obama and Shinseki for a lack of alertness regarding the scandal. Matthews was aghast at the utter lack of awareness the president has shown–not just on the VA –but on his signature legislative achievement, ObamaCare. He even insinuated that a lack of cognizance was a part of the president’s habitual behavior, proclaiming [audio here; video below]:
By Connor Williams | May 23, 2014 | 4:40 PM EDT
As difficult as it may be to believe, Craig Melvin of MSNBC found a way to attack the Democrats’ political position on Benghazi from the left.
The substitute anchor for Friday’s edition of NewsNation brought on Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) to discuss new developments surrounding the newly-formed select committee. Melvin challenged Sanchez to answer why the Democrats would join the select committee if they could not even answer what the mission was. Insinuating that the conservative position on Benghazi is nothing more than a joke, Melvin asked [MP3 audio here; video below]: