In the late hours of Wednesday night after the Republican debate, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews was in his element as he whined about the 2016 GOP candidates being “very ideological tonight” and targeted the Cuban-American heritage of Senators Marco Rubio (Fl.) and Ted Cruz (Tex.) for thinking that “they still are fighting a Cold War” and “treat[ing] Obama like he’s Castro.”
While ABC’s World News Tonight aired on Tuesday David Muir’s exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News soldiered on with full stories on the 2016 campaign boosting the Clinton camp’s “reset” trying to promote the candidate’s “fun side...along with a lighter touch” in an attempt “to match the exuberance surrounding Bernie Sanders.”
It’s a matter of political record that since at least 2009, Republicans have talked at length about health-care reform, especially alternatives to Obamacare. Apparently almost all of them were, as Jon Lovitz’s Master Thespian would put it, “Acting!” That’s essentially what The Week's Paul Waldman alleged in a Wednesday post.
“Republicans have faced a real health care problem for many years now, which is that health care just isn't their thing,” asserted Waldman. “It's one of those ‘mommy’ issues that liberals care about, while conservatives are much more likely to be interested in topics like tax policy or national defense. Yet throughout the Obama years, they've had to act like they both care about and understand the substance of this issue.”
ABC’s World News Tonight chose to ignore on Wednesday the latest on the Hillary Clinton e-mail server scandal to instead continue obsessing over video of a little boy being hit in the head with a football after missing a pass from Republican Senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio (Fl.) in Iowa. After the networks spent 18 seconds on Tuesday night and two minutes and 43 seconds Wednesday morning on the video, anchor David Muir spent another 18 seconds promoting “one unscripted moment from the campaign trail” with the football from Rubio.
On Wednesday morning, the “Big Three” (ABC, CBS, and NBC) networks eagerly pounced on video of Florida Senator Marco Rubio mistakenly hitting a boy with a football while throwing him a pass, giving the video a combined 2 minutes 43 seconds of coverage from 7-9:00 a.m. NBC’s Today introduced its broadcast with Matt Lauer declaring “Rubi-ow. A pass from Senator Marco Rubio to a young fan doesn't quite go quite as planned...Why the presidential hopeful says the quarterback always gets the blame.”
The journalists at CNN again went after Marco Rubio on abortion, Thursday. Veteran reporter Carl Bernstein appeared on New Day to weigh in on the state of the presidential race. Singling out the pro-life senator, Bernstein suggested Rubio "has painted himself so far to the right" and "has put abortion so front and center in this campaign as to render his candidacy unelectable, probably, in terms of the general electorate, no matter how articulate he might have appeared in that debate."
Bloomberg’s political team of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann seem excited that Hillary Clinton has finally found her “passion” in this campaign. Invited on Monday’s edition of PBS’s Charlie Rose show to discuss the campaign, the With All Due Respect hosts hailed that Marco Rubio’s stance on abortion had shaken Clinton out of her stupor. John Heilemann began the Hillary hype: “You saw her today give a very fiery, very passionate and I thought very authentic attack on Marco Rubio....She looked better today than I think she has in months.”
While all three broadcast evening newscasts tonight noted Hillary Clinton's reaction to Donald Trump's offensive comments regarding Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and her menstrual cycle, NBC gave considerable attention to Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton's attempt to exploit the Trump kerfuffle in order to attack all Republican presidential candidates as anti-woman.
For close to a hundred and fifty years, the elephant has represented the Republican party, but The American Prospect’s Meyerson suggests that these days, a more fitting choice for the GOP’s symbol would be an extended middle finger.
In his analysis of Thursday’s prime-time presidential debate, Meyerson, who also writes a weekly column for The Washington Post, identified several of the candidates onstage in Cleveland as “Fuck-You Republicans.” He explained that some FYRs, such as Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, qualify by dint of ideology; others (Donald Trump, Chris Christie) make it in mostly through anger and abrasiveness.
If a woman announced on live national TV that she had shoplifted an iPhone, there'd presumably be a cop at the studio door to greet her. So why is it that someone can blithely announce on national TV that she's in the country illegally, and far from fearing any repercussions, have her views on the American presidential election respectfully solicited?
It happened this morning, when MSNBC invited Erika Andiola, who described herself as "an undocumented Mexican woman," onto the Up show to give her take on the GOP candidates' comments on immigration during Thursday's debate. Andiola was disappointed in general that the candidates didn't stand up to Donald Trump's remarks on immigration. In particular, she jabbed Jeb Bush for continuing to express opposition to sanctuary cities. That doesn't "make the cut" as far as Andiola's concerned, adding that Bush needs "to push back stronger." Good point, Ms. Andiola. I mean, without sanctuary cities, where is poor Francisco Sanchez supposed to hang out?
Liberal CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Friday berated Marco Rubio's pro-life stance at Thursday's debate, deriding it as " backward." The presidential candidate fought back, mocking the journalist's defense of abortion as "radical." Cuomo lectured: "To not have a carve-out for rape and incest is also something that seems very backward-looking in terms of the cultural mores that we have today." Cuomo warned: "...Cultural mores in this country, certainly the opinions of women, are not in step with what you're saying right now. You're comfortable with that?"
On Friday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer spent a three-minute interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio grilling the Republican presidential candidate on an opponent’s debate performance: “Donald Trump refused to rule out a third-party run. He says he's using it as leverage to make sure the party treats him well. Sounds like a bit of a threat to me. How does that impact the way you and other candidates take him on directly?”