Rachel Maddow Show

Maddow Producer: ‘Republicans Abandoned Rational Thought In Their Contempt For’ Iran Nuclear Deal, Obamacare
By Tom Johnson | September 12, 2015 | 12:41 PM EDT

To Steve Benen, Obamacare is a high-quality dress shirt that Republicans treat like a greasy rag. Benen, a producer for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, wrote in a Friday post on the TRMS blog that even though “every GOP prediction about the Affordable Care Act has been discredited,” conservatives keep trying to use it to tarnish other measures they oppose, including the Iran nuclear deal.

“If there is a compelling parallel between ‘Obamacare’ and the international nuclear agreement,” contended Benen, “it’s this: Republicans abandoned rational thought in their contempt for the idea, and despite pleas for an alternative solution to an important pressing problem, they offered nothing but slogans and cheap talking points.”

Maddow Actually Claims Huckabee and Cruz 'Physically Fighting' Over Kim Davis
By Jack Coleman | September 10, 2015 | 6:21 PM EDT

Though possessed of little actual value, The Rachel Maddow Show does serve to answer an arcane question -- how would Lewis Carroll cover the 2016 presidential campaign?

Maddow was in vintage Alice in Wonderland form last night while recounting a dustup between GOP candidates Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz during a rally for Rowan County clerk Kim Davis after a federal judge ordered her release from jail after refusing to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

Dan Rather 'Suspicious' Trump and Fox Are Faking Feud
By Mark Finkelstein | August 26, 2015 | 10:07 PM EDT

When it comes to fake news stories, if anyone's an expert it's Dan Rather . . . The disgraced former CBS News anchor has a new twist on the vast right-wing conspiracy. Instead of plotting against poor innocents like Bill and Hillary, those conspiratorial conservatives are now creating phony feuds among themselves! 

On Rachel Maddow's show tonight, Rather declared himself "suspicious" about the battle between Donald Trump and Fox News, suggesting that Trump and Roger Ailes might have "gotten together and planned out" the feud for their mutual benefit.

MSNBC's Maddow Smears Fox News as Just ‘Republican Party Television’
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 26, 2015 | 3:07 PM EDT

On her self-titled MSNBC show Tuesday night, Rachel Maddow used the current feud between Fox News and Donald Trump to attack the news network as nothing more than an arm of the Republican Party. Maddow admitted that Fox was a “competitor of ours at MSNBC” but dismissed them as a news outlet and merely “Republican Party television. So we not only compete with them but we also cover them as a political entity, you have to if you want to cover Republican politics. So, in that context I have been covering FOX News as a Republican political entity for years now.” 

Kasie Hunt Blames Hillary's Shaky Campaign on Hassle of Secret Service
By Scott Whitlock | August 18, 2015 | 12:47 PM EDT

Blame the Secret Service. One reason Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is running into trouble could be the "limiting nature" of her protective detail. On Monday's Rachel Maddow Show, NBC's Kasie Hunt asserted: "Now, of course, it's hard for her to negotiate the sort of details of this caucus process in part because she has Secret Service protection. And that just makes it more difficult to get up close and personal with voters." The journalist spun, "And the Secret Service agents do the best they can, but at the end of the day, that just makes it more limiting for her." 

On Maddow Show, Boston Globe Reporter Coos at 'Wonderful and Refreshing' Bernie Sanders Ideas
By Tim Graham | August 13, 2015 | 10:36 PM EDT

On Wednesday night’s edition of The Rachel Maddow Show, Boston Globe national political reporter Annie Linskey sounded just like a writer from The People’s Republic of Massaschusetts, employing the words “wonderful and refreshing” to describe Bernie Sanders preaching the old-time religion of socialist reform.

Fill-in MSNBC host Ari Melber was asking about how Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was handling this hard-left opponent. Linskey felt she was unexciting and failing to grab on to the Sanders socialist magic

Rachel Maddow Attacks Media for Covering Hillary Like a ‘Convicted Felon’
By Jeffrey Meyer | July 29, 2015 | 12:20 PM EDT

On Tuesday night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow rushed to defend Hillary Clinton following a corrected story in the New York Times that initially alleged that a “criminal inquiry” had been sought in her use of a private e-mail. 

Rachel Maddow Excited Over 'Bernie' Sticker Found In Alaska
By Spencer Raley | July 28, 2015 | 10:57 AM EDT

Rachel Maddow spent the first segment of her MSNBC show last night gushing over Bernie Sanders’ long shot campaign– because a bumper sticker was apparently found in the far north Alaskan city of Deadhorse! 

Maddow Cites Bill Clinton's 'Student Deferments' (Translation: Draft Dodging) as '92 Campaign Issue
By Jack Coleman | July 16, 2015 | 7:34 PM EDT

It ranks high among the assorted amusements provided by MSNBC -- Rachel Maddow's invariably skewed recollection of campaigns past.

On her cable show Tuesday, Maddow served up her signature brand of revisionism on the ways in which the Vietnam War was an issue for presidential candidates in 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2008. Those who were awake and paying attention during the campaigns may find their recollections not aligning with hers.

Maddow Producer: ‘Baffling’ That GOP Doesn’t Understand It’s Dumb to Play Up Hillary’s Wealth
By Tom Johnson | July 16, 2015 | 6:00 PM EDT

The New York Times reported last weekend that one line of attack American Crossroads and other Republican-leaning groups are likely to use against Hillary Clinton is that she’s far too wealthy to relate to average Americans. Regarding such criticism, Steve Benen says, in effect: Bring it on.

Benen, a producer for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show and the primary writer for the TRMS blog, argued in a Monday post that the rich-and-out-of-touch charge won’t stick to Hillary the way it did to Mitt Romney because “Romney was extremely wealthy while pushing a policy agenda that would benefit people like him,” whereas Hillary’s economic program would help those nowhere near as well-off as she is.

Maddow, Hayes Fawn Over Iran Deal: ‘The Achievement...of This American Generation’
By Connor Williams | July 15, 2015 | 11:31 AM EDT

Following the announcement of a deal reached with Iran to lift economic sanctions in exchange for ostensible restrictions on their nuclear program, MSNBC’s primetime hosts slobbered over the “historic” nature of the agreement. All In host Chris Hayes, on Tuesday night, labeled the deal “one of the most historic days in the Obama presidency and a potentially transformative moment for American foreign policy.” Rachel Maddow claimed the deal could represent “the major foreign policy achievement, not only of this presidency, but of this American generation.”

Rachel Maddow Attacks Fox News Debate Rules; Fails to Mention MSNBC's Own Debate Restrictions
By Connor Williams | July 9, 2015 | 5:32 PM EDT

On Tuesday July 7, Rachel Maddow – evidently unaware of MSNBC’s and CNN’s similar previous rules on debates – slammed Fox News for their debate policy limiting the stage to the top 10 candidates in national polling. The Rachel Maddow Show host argued that “[t]he next three weeks are going to be off the charts bizarre. We’ve never tried to run a presidential nominating process like this before.”