Friday's CBS This Morning hyped that "thousands on the government's terrorist watch list...bought firearms in the last decade...and all of the sales were legal." Nancy Cordes played up that a bill to "close that loophole" that has been introduced for eight straight years has "gone nowhere" due to opposition from the NRA and congressional Republicans. Cordes later hinted that House Speaker Paul Ryan and his GOP caucus had a double standard on national security, for opposing closing the "loophole," but supporting a bill to "beef up screening of Syrian refugees."
Dick Durbin
By Matthew Balan | March 19, 2015 | 4:34 PM EDT
On Thursday's CNN Newsroom, Brooke Baldwin actually pointed out that both Democrats and Republicans are "pretty angry" with Senator Dick Durbin for his incendiary "back of the bus" attack on Senate Republicans, after they delayed the confirmation vote of Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch. Republican guest Margaret Hoover attacked Durbin for his "incredibly divisive" remarks, and underlined that "this has absolutely nothing to do with her race."
By Scott Whitlock | March 19, 2015 | 11:31 AM EDT
ABC and CBS on Wednesday night and Thursday morning ignored Democratic Senator Dick Durbin's smear that Republicans are keeping attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch in the "back of the bus." NBC mentioned the liberal politician's attack, but featured no critical analysis or questioning of the remark.
By Tom Blumer | March 10, 2015 | 4:03 PM EDT
Imagine if a Republican congressperson called Illinois' senior senator Dick Durbin "Dick Turban" in not one tweet, but two (Durbin has been given the nickname by several center-right pundits and commentators; but as far as I can tell, no national Republican politician has used it). Does anyone think it would take the establishment press over 15 hours (and counting) to report it?
Late Monday evening, Democratic Colorado Congressman Jared Polis referred to GOP Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton as "Tehran Tom" twice. In one of the tweets, Polis claimed that Cotton had asked "Iranian Revolutionary Guards for help in battle against US diplomats." Cotton is a military veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
By Scott Whitlock | March 25, 2014 | 4:30 PM EDT
It's not often that the hosts of MSNBC trumpet an elected Republican as a "hero." But liberal anchor Ronan Farrow did exactly that on Tuesday as he praised Senator Mark Kirk's insistence that he would not campaign against his Illinois colleague, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.
According to Farrow, Kirk's declaration caused him to release "weeping tears of joy" for "those rare magical moments of congressional harmony." Regarding the 2014 senatorial election in his state, Kirk asserted, "I am going to be protecting my relationship with Dick and not launching into a partisan jihad that hurts our partnership to both pull together for Illinois." An effusive Farrow swooned, "For the increasingly novel approach of putting substance over politics, Senator Mark Kirk is our hero today." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
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By Randy Hall | February 13, 2014 | 8:15 AM EST
Senator Dick Durbin apparently didn't check his facts before making a number of wild claims during his appearance on Sunday morning's edition of CBS's Face the Nation.
The Illinois Democrat's assertions that 10 million Americans have found insurance coverage thanks to ObamaCare -- which he also claimed would lower the budget deficit -- earned him four Pinocchios from the Washington Post's "fact checker," the lowest rating possible.
Politico's Purdum Decries 'Trash-Talking the President' Over Denied Incident, Silent on Obama's and Dems' 'Hostage' Language
By Tom Blumer | October 24, 2013 | 12:50 PM EDT Taking journalistic hypocrisy to ever-headier heights, Politico's Todd Purdum spent hundreds of words Wednesday evening bemoaning the potential impact of an incident which both sides involved say never happened, and acted as if incivility only comes out of the mouths of conservatives and Republicans.
Earlier Wednesday, the website's Tal Kopan relayed news that Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin "said in a Facebook post that a House Republican leader told off President Barack Obama during a negotiation meeting, and that GOP leaders are so disrespectful it’s practically impossible to have a conversation with them." The supposed statement to Obama by a GOP leader, which both White House spokesman Jay Carney and House Speaker John Boehner say never was made, and which Durbin could not have observed or heard because he wasn't there, was: "I cannot even stand to look at you." Durbin, it must be recalled, ultimately was forced to apologize for comparing U.S. troops at Guantanamo Bay to "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings," in 2005.
By Randy Hall | October 3, 2013 | 11:53 AM EDT
It's only three days into the federal government shutdown, and Senate majority leader Harry Reid is already showing signs of stress. That was especially apparent on Wednesday, when he was asked by Cable News Network reporter Dana Bash if the Senate would vote to pass a resolution if it was already approved by the House to restore funding for the National Institutes of Health, which among other things, does pediatric cancer research.
The Nevada Democrat responded angrily that the CNN journalist was “irresponsible” and “reckless” for questioning whether he would put politics over helping “one child who has cancer” and is receiving treatment through the NIH.
By Andrew Lautz | July 29, 2013 | 1:59 PM EDT
Ed Schultz took a dive off the deep end on Saturday’s The Ed Show, claiming that Social Security is a “cheap” program that “has never contributed one penny to the deficit.” The bombastic MSNBC host also blasted Republicans who support partially privatizing Social Security, arguing those lawmakers just want to “get their hands on the money.”
Schultz echoed similar arguments made by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who suggested that Social Security doesn’t contribute a “penny” or a “dime” to the national deficit. Both Democrats’ claims were challenged by fact-checking organizations, including PolitiFact, The Washington Post’s Fact Checker, and FactCheck.org. And while the term "cheap" is relatively subjective, few would argue that Social Security – which takes up one-fifth of the federal budget – is "cheap."
By Matthew Sheffield | July 8, 2013 | 5:40 PM EDT
In addition to trying to redefine the Second Amendment as not protecting anyone's right to bear arms, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is now excited about how to redefine the First Amendment.
As with guns, Durbin is trying to limit constitutional freedoms so that they cannot be used by people of whom he disapproves. In an opinion essay published in the Chicago Sun Times last week, Durbin argued it was "time to say who's a real reporter," so that no one else can be given First Amendment protections.
By Noel Sheppard | January 6, 2013 | 5:50 PM EST
CNN’s Candy Crowley asked a question of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on State of the Union Sunday that should have all American wage earners quaking in their boots.
“Do you think that taxes have been raised enough on the wealthy?” (video follows with transcript and commentary):
By Matt Hadro | November 19, 2012 | 4:19 PM EST
The media's preoccupation with tax hikes over spending cuts continued on Sunday's State of the Union, with CNN's Candy Crowley pitching a millionaire's tax hike while not mentioning spending cuts once.
"Senator, there has been some thought on your side as well that perhaps $250,000, that if you could get the House to go along with something, that perhaps $250,000 is too low to be raising taxes, that maybe you could make it a genuine millionaires' tax that might be more palatable. What about something like that?" Crowley pressed Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).