How did Howard Dean go from vivid voice of the New Left to political hack defending Hillary Clinton at all costs? Joe Scarborough called Dean on it today, telling Howard he had become the "New England version of James Carville."
Dean, on today's Morning Joe, dismissed the latest Washington Post story suggesting possible financial improprieties at the Clinton Foundation as "a breathless piece of hot air" and, incredibly, Dean said he'd advise Hillary not to address the rising tide of questions.
On Friday’s Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox News’ Charles Krauthammer blasted Hillary Clinton over the ongoing controversy surrounding the Clinton Foundation.
On the Thursday edition of NBC’s Late Night, host Seth Meyers jumped aboard the Clinton campaign’s push to discredit the upcoming book Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer by mocking Schweizer’s background, previous book titles, and chalking the book up to be nothing more than the latest work from “the cottage industry of anti-Clinton books that come out every year.”
On two occasions during CNN’s New Day on Friday, CNN personalities raised the often-used liberal argument that Republicans have “overplayed their hand” on a scandal with the latest being their handling of the allegations surrounding the Clinton Foundation. The first person to raise the point was CNN political commentator and NY1 host Errol Louis. Jeff Zeleny parroted a Clinton campaign talking point about there being no quid-pro-quo with the donations coming in while the uranium deal was taking place: “The big picture here is there's no huge smoking gun so far in this book as we know now.”
On Thursday night, CBS and Spanish-language networks MundoFox, Telemundo, and Univision continued their silence on the latest controversy involving the Clinton Foundation and claims made in the upcoming book Clinton Cash about donations to the group while a Russian company purchased an American-owned uranium mine. Meanwhile, NBC ended its blackout on the story with a full report on NBC Nightly News, but downplayed the claims by touting an expert with the Soros-funded Sunlight Foundation, who declared that the book’s allegations offer “no smoking gun” regarding Clinton’s behavior.
On Saturday, Newsweek reported that the largest donor to the Clinton Foundation “may be in breach of US sanctions” on Iran due to his business dealings with the authoritarian regime in his capacity as the billionaire head of a Ukrainian pipe-making business. Since the article went public, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC have yet to even acknowledge this new development. Wednesday’s The Kelly File on FNC led with this story and Howard Kurtz noted how Newsweek itself buried the story which has generated little notice.
After briefly alluding to the Clinton Foundation scandal on Monday’s CBS This Morning, the CBS Evening News made no mention of the scandal or a damning new book on the subject from author Peter Schweizer on its Monday evening broadcast. Both ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News did cover the story as well as Hillary Clinton’s response Monday afternoon in New Hampshire, but also parroted Clinton campaign talking points in responding to Schweizer’s allegations.
On Thursday morning, NBC’s Today ignored the latest revelations in the controversy surrounding the Clinton Foundation’s practice of accepting donations from countries with questionable human rights records. In contrast, CBS This Morning devoted a full 2 minutes and 32 seconds to the Clinton Foundation whereas ABC’s Good Morning America gave it just 60 seconds but bundled the story in with Chris Christie’s recent stop in New Hampshire in an attempt to downplay its significance.
The major English and Spanish broadcast networks ducked a new development in the Clinton Foundation scandal on Thursday night as a report surfaced that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported a U.S. trade deal with Colombia following donations to her family’s foundation from a Colombian oil company and its founder despite concerns of human rights violations and labor strikes.
On Monday night, ABC, CBS, and NBC combined to ignore the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal with zero coverage of it in their evening newscasts. ABC and NBC also failied to mention the growing controversy surrounding the millions of dollars in donations to the Clinton Foundation from foreign governments and individuals. The CBS Evening News, however, stood out with a report that scrutinized the millions in donations from foreign individuals and spotlighted one member of Chinese parliament who gave $2 million to the organization in 2013.
During Monday’s NBC Nightly News, Andrea Mitchell hit Hillary Clinton hard over her email scandal and the millions the Clinton Foundation had received from foreign governments, but still found time to fawn over “a path-breaking speech” Clinton gave “in Beijing 20 years ago” on women’s rights and her “extraordinary” levels of support among Democratic voters.
After ABC and NBC failed to cover a front-page story in The Washington Post on Thursday morning about ethics questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation, their evening news counterparts continued the blackout by showing no interest in this story -- yet allocated nearly six minutes to efforts to catch two runaway llamas in Arizona.