On Sunday’s This Week, ABC’s Matthew Dowd used Speaker of the House John Boehner’s resignation as the perfect opportunity to attack Republican voters who were unhappy with his tenure. The so-called conservative proclaimed that Republicans are “really upset” that “America has changed...America is now less white, less married, less churched, less conservative, and that is a difficult prospect for them to face in the course of this.”
Robert Costa
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 6, 2015 | 10:08 AM EDT
After Hillary Clinton gave a rare interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell about her ongoing e-mail issues, the political panel on Fox News Sunday took the former Secretary of State to task for her refusal to fully take responsibility for her use of a private e-mail server. Conservative columnist George Will dismissed Clinton’s claim that she “absentmindedly set up an alternative e-mail system” as something that “doesn't pass the laugh test.”
By Brad Wilmouth | July 27, 2015 | 2:02 PM EDT
On Monday's New Day, several CNN regulars hurled attacks at GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee for his characterization of President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran as "marching" the Israelis "to the door of the oven." Words like "ugly," "dangerous," and "despicable and terrible," were thrown at Huckabee's comments across two segments.
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 26, 2015 | 10:04 AM EDT
On Sunday’s Inside Politics, CNN’s John King argued that despite the numerous scandals the Clintons have dealt with over the years one “thing the Clintons have benefited from in the past is Republican overreach.” The CNN host then asked the Washington Post’s Robert Costa, formerly of National Review, if “there is a risk in overplaying it as they have in past Clinton scandals?”
By Jeffrey Meyer | February 15, 2015 | 11:11 AM EST
On Sunday, ABC’s This Week promoted Vice President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Iowa, fueling speculation that he might seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. While the Sunday show was quick to play up Biden’s Iowa trip, fill-in host Jonathan Karl and his panel ignored a gaffe he made during a speech at Drake University on Thursday in which he referred to former Iowa Democratic Representative Neal Smith as his “old butt buddy.”
CBS Frets Jeb Bush Will Have Trouble in Primary Since GOP ‘Enthusiastically’ Backs ‘More Conservative Candidates’
By Curtis Houck | January 2, 2015 | 3:24 PM EST On Thursday’s CBS Evening News, correspondent Jan Crawford reported on former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s resignation from a number of corporate and nonprofit boards ahead of a possible campaign for president in 2016 but also found time to lament about the challenge the GOP primary could present for Bush.
“Now, the challenge of Bush is going to be running a center right campaign for the Republican nomination,” Crawford stated. She then added that the reason for possible troubles in the Republican primary is because “this is a time when the party is enthusiastically embracing more conservative candidates.”
By Jeffrey Meyer | December 7, 2014 | 12:31 PM EST
On Sunday, CNN’s Inside Politics spent several minutes hyping the supposed headache Tea Partiers could give GOP leadership despite the Republican Party winning their 54th Senate seat following Saturday’s runoff in Louisiana. During the discussion, Robert Costa of The Washington Post insisted that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is trying “to govern responsibly and he wants to set the party up for major gains in '16. And that started in 2014 by pushing back the Tea Party and it starts now by making sure that all the passions and eagerness in the House don't overtake the party.”
By Tim Graham | November 21, 2014 | 10:57 AM EST
The Washington Post divided its Obama-speech coverage into three parts on Friday's front page: the speech, "the immigrants," and "the opposition," because it's always fun to pitch Republicans as opposing immigrants. The headline was "The Opposition: Republicans confront own worst enemy." That would be the conservatives.
Post reporter Robert Costa warned of an "immediate and widening rebellion among tea party lawmakers that top Republicans are struggling to contain." Inside the A section, Obama's speech was headlined. "Obama promotes a 'common-sense' approach." The article on the opposition was headlined "GOP to face internal bickering."
By Laura Flint | June 17, 2014 | 5:45 PM EDT
MSNBC The Cycle co-host Krystal Ball enjoyed an extra hour with which to bash Republicans and puff the Obama administration today as she filled in on the 1 p.m. Eastern Ronan Farrow Daily program. Ball questioned whether breaking news of the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala, a terrorist wanted for organizing the Benghazi attacks, would “take away a sort of key talking point for Republicans.”
The failed congressional candidate invited Howard Fineman, of the Huffington Post, and Robert Costa of The Washington Post on to Farrow’s program to discuss Republican reaction to the news of the capture. Ball then proceeded to ask if why Republicans “have a huge problem with using our own justice system to go forward and prosecute terrorists,” and are “expressing a lack of confidence in our normal [civilian] justice system.” [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]
Press Ignores How Judicial Watch Had to Go to Court to Force Obama Admin to Respond to FOIA Requests
By Tom Blumer | May 21, 2014 | 9:27 AM EDT During the Obama administration, the Associated Press has annually gone through the motions of noting its lack of transparency in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests. In March, its coverage of 2013 FOIA results led with the following sentence: "The Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data." Then everyone went back to work defending the administration against the information seekers.
Part of that defense includes mischaracterizing the legal hurdles those who file FOIA requests must overcome to get the administration to do what it is legally required to do right off the bat. Three sentences from recent coverage of Judicial Watch's attempts to pry information out of the State Department will make my point.
By Paul Bremmer | May 9, 2014 | 12:47 PM EDT
On Thursday’s NewsHour, PBS ran a full-length segment on the new special committee created by House Republicans to investigate the September 2012 Benghazi attacks. However, anchor Judy Woodruff and her guest, Robert Costa from The Washington Post -- formerly of the National Review -- pushed the idea that Republicans are exploiting the tragedy by fundraising off of it. The thing is, the network didn’t seem to care back in 2012 when President Obama gave a brief Rose Garden statement after the attacks and then dashed off to Las Vegas for a campaign fundraiser.
Woodruff brought up the issue of fundraising near the end of the interview:
By Tom Blumer | May 7, 2014 | 1:14 AM EDT
Robert Costa's disdain for Tea Party-sympathetic conservatives was quite evident tonight in his coverage of Republican House Speaker John Boehner's primary victory at the Washington Post. Costa, a former writer at National Review, even insulted the noble pursuits of justice and the truth regarding Benghazi and the IRS's targeting of conservative and other groups by calling them "red meat for the tea party faithful."
The WaPo reporter characterized Boehner as having "swatted away" his opposition without revealing that the Speaker got only 69 percent of the vote. Yes, I wrote "only." Costa himself noted that "a sitting speaker still has never been defeated in a primary election," but didn't disclose Boehner's percentage of the vote. That's odd to say the least. I don't recall a sitting speaker ever losing 31 percent of the vote in a party primary, and it's possible that it has never happened outside of circumstances involving scandal or crime. I certainly don't recall a sitting speaker opening his wallet to defend his seat in a primary as Boehner did. Excerpts and analysis follow the jump (bolds are mine):
