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 confront him on it.
Bashar al-Assad
Will Press Cover State Dept. Envoy Declaring Russia's Bombing Shows Obama's Syria Policy Is Working?
By Tom Blumer | October 8, 2015 | 5:15 PM EDT 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 reported, should disturb even those Americans who only have a vague understanding of what's going on in that country. As reported by Tim Mak and Nancy A. Youssef at The Daily Beast:
By Mark Finkelstein | March 4, 2015 | 9:06 AM EST
It was almost a funny moment . . . until you realized that members of the press were openly laughing at the fecklessness of the ostensible leader of the free world.
On today's Morning Joe, the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, his voice occasionally cracking with emotion, repeatedly insisted that President Obama would use military force if necessary to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Andrea Mitchell eventually had enough, saying in a devastating aside "ask Bashar al-Assad," an allusion of course to how President Obama ran away from his red line in Syria. Joe Scarborough laughingly joined in, repeating "ask Assad." Even Mika Brzezinski couldn't suppress a smile [see screencap below.]
By Paul Bremmer | March 4, 2014 | 2:22 PM EST
Appearing on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Monday, MSNBC host Joy Reid repeatedly refused to characterize either Russian president Vladimir Putin or Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as “evil.” During a contentious debate over Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine, Hewitt asked his guest point-blank, “Do you agree that what Russia is doing is evil?”
Reid hedged on her answer, replying:
By Ken Shepherd | February 20, 2014 | 3:16 PM EST
Kudos to the Daily Beast for reporting this story. Don't hold your breath for the network news outlets to pick up on it and doggedly pursue it.
In an exclusive published at the website today, Josh Rogin and Noah Shachtman explain how there's credible evidence that regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad may have used chemical weapons in January 2014, something that U.S. intelligence officials are denying but which eyewitnesses on the ground insist occurred (excerpt follows; emphasis mine):
By Randy Hall | February 8, 2014 | 10:57 PM EST
What was the best way for NBC to begin that network's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia? Have sports anchor Bob Costas host a brief profile on Vladmir Putin in which the Russian president is hailed as a global statesman superior to U.S. president Barack Obama. '
During a video portion of the profile, Costas said that Putin is an accomplished peacemaker, crediting him with preventing an American airstrike on Syria and coaxing the Iranian government to the nuclear negotiating table.
By Cal Thomas | September 17, 2013 | 8:45 AM EDT
Expecting Syria to live up to an agreement between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for the cataloging, inspection, removal and eventual destruction or sequester of chemical weapons is a subtle seduction.
Why would a dictator like Bashar al-Assad relinquish his most potent weapon in the midst of a civil war? President Obama and his sycophants claim it was the threat of military action against Syria that focused Assad's mind. That hardly seems credible after Kerry's promise that any U.S. missile strike would be "unbelievably small."
In 66-Paragraph Masterpiece, WSJ Details 'Head-Spinning Reversal on Chemical Weapons' in Obama White House
By Ken Shepherd | September 16, 2013 | 7:13 PM EDT It was bound to be overshadowed by breaking news of the fatal Washington Navy Yard shooting this morning, but today's Wall Street Journal front-pager, "Inside White House, a Head-Spinning Reversal on Chemical Weapons," would have likely gone unnoticed by the liberal broadcast and cable media regardless.
In a 66-paragraph masterpiece, Journal reporters Adam Entous, Janet Hook, and Carol Lee gave a behind-the-scenes look of how, "Through mixed messages, miscalculations, and an 11th-hour break, the U.S. stumbled into an international crisis and then stumbled out of it." Among other things disclosed, "The same day [Secretary of State John] Kerry made his fateful remark" that Syria could simply give up its weapons to the international community, "the State Department sent Congress a memo detailing: 'Russian Obstruction of Actions on Syria.'" It really is a great exploration of the Keystone Kops nature of the Obama team's bungling of Syrian foreign policy. Here's a taste (emphasis mine):
By Noel Sheppard | September 16, 2013 | 11:27 AM EDT
There are times when the media's liberal bias is so obvious it's nauseating.
Take TIME magazine for example which used the cover of its September 16 issue to blatantly shill for President Obama.
By Noel Sheppard | September 15, 2013 | 3:54 PM EDT
Bob Schieffer interviewed Senators Bob Corker (R-Tn.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) about recent goings-on in Syria on Sunday's Face the Nation.
For some reason, only Levin was asked to grade the President on how he's handled this foreign policy matter (video follows with transcript and commentary):
By Noel Sheppard | September 15, 2013 | 3:00 PM EDT
The award for this week's best line concerning the American-Russian agreement regarding Syria goes to Washington Post columnist and former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson.
Appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, Gerson marvelously observed, "Assad used chemical weapons and improved his job security."
By Noel Sheppard | September 15, 2013 | 11:54 AM EDT
This is just way too delicious!
A petition has been created at the White House website to force President Obama to give the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded in 2009 to Russian President Vladimir Putin.