On two occasions during CNN’s live coverage Monday night previewing the sixth Republican presidential debate, CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish attempted to paint the issue of climate change and the deal reached in Paris as posing a “down ballot concern” for the GOP and causing “brand damage” since the party has largely rejected the ideal and declined to embrace the issue as a whole.
Sean Spicer
By Jeffrey Meyer | June 11, 2014 | 3:51 PM EDT
Following the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) in the Republican primary, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell rushed to claim that the GOP is in disarray following the election.
Speaking with Sean Spicer, Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer, on her Andrea Mitchell Reports program on Wednesday, June 11, Mitchell proclaimed “There's frenzy on Capitol Hill among the House Republicans. This looks like an episode of House of Cards up there.” [See video below.]
By Tim Graham | May 11, 2014 | 5:33 PM EDT
Someone in the GOP is starting to listen to our refrain of "Say No to Feisty Liberal Moderators." On Friday, RNC spokesman Sean Spicer talked to Newsmax TV host Steve Malzberg after the RNC voted to change the rules to include more conservative moderators in the primaries.
Spicer noted the obvious: “ For too long, it’s been the media that’s decided when we’re going to debate, who is going to be in the debate, what questions are going to be asked, what subjects are going to be forward....As we all know, the liberal media does not have the interest of the party at hand . . . You should not just have left-wing, liberal moderators asking questions of our candidates and determining that.” (video below)
By Matt Hadro | April 25, 2014 | 6:16 PM EDT
RNC communications director Sean Spicer flayed the media for its double standard over Republican and Democratic controversies, on CNN on Friday morning. CNN's Carol Costello had asked him if Cliven Bundy's racist statements "affect the Republican Party as a whole" given that certain notable Republican figures had supported his stand against the federal government.
"[W]hat I find fascinating as the chief spokesman for Republican Party is that when a guy who has a problem with cattle grazing and has a discussion about the size of government and the overreach of the federal government makes a comment, every reporter calls the Republican National Committee asking for comment," Spicer ranted.
By Paul Bremmer | January 24, 2014 | 5:19 PM EST
As if Weekends with Alex Witt weren’t bad enough, viewers were subjected to a weekday with Alex Witt as she guest-hosted the 11 a.m. hour of MSNBC Live on Friday. During a discussion with RNC communication director Sean Spicer, Witt brought up New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent insulting remarks about “extreme conservatives.” The weekend host played a clip of Cuomo’s comments and then tried to turn them into an indictment of the Tea Party.
Witt demanded of Spicer:
By Andrew Lautz | August 15, 2013 | 2:58 PM EDT
MSNBC host Thomas Roberts took a hostile tone with RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer in a Thursday interview on MSNBC Live, suggesting the GOP just wants “to scream into an echo chamber” during the 2016 presidential cycle. Roberts appeared to take issue with the RNC’s campaign against planned Hillary Clinton projects from CNN and NBC, asking if the RNC was “making a huge mistake with this ultimatum.”
Spicer wasn’t going to let Roberts off easy, though. The Republican blasted CNN and NBC, pointing out that the two networks “are not the be-all and end-all of how people get their news.” Spicer suggested the RNC may reach out to Bloomberg, ABC, and Spanish-language networks for 2016 primary debates, simply asserting: “there are other networks.”
MSNBC's Roberts Attacks GOP Spox Over Voter ID 'Poll Tax,' Then Treats Dem Congressman to Softball Chat
By Ken Shepherd | October 10, 2012 | 5:03 PM EDT Updated: Roberts defends himself on Twitter (see bottom of post) | In a segment today on MSNBC Live entitled "Who's Got the Ground Game?" and ostensibly about how both the Democrats and Republicans were working hard to get out their voters to the polls on election day and to the early voting stations before hand, MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts set out to attack the GOP for pushing for a "poll tax" with voter ID requirements.
"Did Republicans [put] too much stock in voter suppression issues and not enough in the ground game," Roberts asked Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer, asking if the GOP put too much "emphasis" in GOP-controlled state legislatures.