Reacting to the resignation of John Boehner, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Friday assessed the state of the modern Republican Party. After Brian Williams wondered, “who is the Republican establishment,” the cable host insisted that the GOP has been supplanted “by the sun belt because of the civil rights passage in ‘64.” He sneered, “Now, we have a Solid South which is pro-white in the South and we have a Western party in the Mountain states, which is Mormon and conservative.”
John Boehner
By Scott Whitlock | September 25, 2015 | 12:04 PM EDT
ABC’s breaking news coverage of John Boehner’s resignation from the House included George Stephanopoulos describing the Speaker as fighting “guerrilla war” against conservatives. Analyst Cokie Roberts on Friday lamented “But it is going to be much, much harder for President Obama to make deals with the Republicans in Congress.”
By Scott Whitlock | September 25, 2015 | 10:41 AM EDT
Brian Williams, now demoted to breaking news anchor for MSNBC, on Friday lamented that John Boehner had to “put up” with the Tea Party as Speaker of the House. His colleague Chris Matthews cheered, “Everybody likes John Boehner. I can tell you the media like him.” Talking to NBC political editor Mark Murray, Williams blurted, “Talk about what John Boehner has had to put up that is unique to his Speakership. I guess I'm mostly thinking of the Tea Party revolution.”
By Curtis Houck | September 24, 2015 | 10:39 PM EDT
In the litany of network news coverage Thursday night on Pope Francis’s address to Congress, ABC’s World News Tonight largely stayed away from the Pope’s comments about abortion and traditional marriage by relegating them to vague references while CBS and NBC did their due diligence and mentioned them amidst their continued obsession over the Pope’s liberal positions.
By Matthew Balan | May 29, 2015 | 8:56 PM EDT
On Friday's World News Tonight, ABC's David Muir avoided mentioning the critics as he reported on the Obama administration removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Instead, Muir spotlighted how "President Obama [told] us back in December his plans to restore diplomatic ties with the Cuban government," and that during a January 2015 visit to the island country, "the children of Cuba [told] us they want to visit America."
By Jeffrey Meyer | May 3, 2015 | 1:37 PM EDT
On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd spoke to House Speaker John Boehner about a variety of issues, including the ongoing protests in Baltimore, but found time to press his guest on a variety of liberal issues that included money in politics and the role of special interests in the legislative process. Todd did his best to point out that Boehner’s “dire predictions about health care” were wrong
By Bryan Ballas | April 24, 2015 | 9:29 PM EDT
While Mika Brzezinski is leftist enough to be an Elizabeth Warren fan girl, this has not stopped her from being a vocal critic of Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal. However, if her treatment of John Boehner's attack on Hillary's e-mail practices is any indication, Brzezinski seems to believe that only a select few can legitimately criticize Hillary.
Brzezinski kicked off the discussion by noting that "it does seem like there are a lot of politics involved" with Speaker Boehner's openness to the possibility of subpoenaing Hillary's e-mails for the sake of the Benghazi investigation.
By Tom Blumer | March 29, 2015 | 11:39 PM EDT
One of the first rules of genuine comedy is that to be funny, a joke or skit needs to have some basis in truth.
On that primary measurement, the cold open on "Saturday Night Live" last night failed miserably on so many fronts, it's hard to know where to begin. Its most offensive aspect is its portrayal of a Democrat inflicting violence on three Republicans to the audience's pleausre. It is impossible to imagine the program putting on a skit showing Ronald Reagan doing to the same thing to Ted Kennedy — who, in an objectively treasonous act, sought the Soviet Union's help in the 1984 presidential election for the purpose of defeating Reagan.
By Tom Blumer | March 18, 2015 | 11:22 PM EDT
Many media myths won't die because those who should know better — and I believe in many cases do know better, and don't care — perpetuate them.
One can't divine his mindset, but Politico's Michael Crowley, in his coverage of Benjamin Netanyahu's resounding Tuesday electoral victory, did his part to continue the myth that the Israeli Prime Minister's "March 3 speech to Congress (was) arranged by Speaker John Boehner behind the Obama White House’s back." It wasn't, and claiming that it was a million times won't change that.
By Ken Shepherd | March 2, 2015 | 8:27 PM EST
Informing Hardball viewers of something host Chris Matthews would never tell them, moderately-conservative columnist Kathleen Parker on Monday gave some much-needed context to why Speaker John Boehner did not extensively consult with the White House prior to inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the Congress.
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By Mark Finkelstein | February 27, 2015 | 9:48 AM EST
On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski suffered a bad bout of PKSD: Post Kiss Stress Disorder.
After a clip was rolled of John Boehner blowing kisses at a reporter, Mika got all verklempt, exclaiming "I know a lot of dirty old men who did that to me. I'm throwing up. That brought back bad memories." Things got so bad for poor Mika that she eventually fled the set and had to be coaxed back.
By Tom Blumer | February 9, 2015 | 1:31 PM EST
In an entry at the Washington Post's Volokh Conspiracy blog yesterday, George Mason University School of Law Professor David Bernstein asked, "Did the Obama Administration lie about Netanyahu?"
The issue is whether, when and how the Obama White House learned of the Israeli Prime Minister's plans to deliver a speech to the U.S. Congress. The New York Times got dragged into the discussion, and deservedly so. Additionally, Bernstein went back to 2011 to note that Netanyahu had appeared before Congress before without Team Obama howling about it. But Bernstein, and apparently others, haven't focused on what Netanyahu said in that 2011 address, and how its content almost certainly infuriated President Barack Obama, who just days earlier had declared that Israel's 1967 borders should be the starting point for any territorial negotiations in a two-state solution with a Palestinian state.