Viewers tuning into Sunday’s edition of ABC’s This Week witnessed matters getting awkward towards the tail end of Republican presidential candidate John Kasich’s interview with co-host Martha Raddatz as Kasich attempted to flatter her by insisting that she condemn Donald Trump and half-heartedly telling her he wished “you were in the race” for President because he’d support her.
John Kasich
By Curtis Houck | November 11, 2015 | 9:58 PM EST
The Wednesday editions of ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News each provided their own wrap-ups of the Fox Business Network Republican presidential debate from the night before, but the theme was predictably similar as both networks spun the event as illustrating “fierce opposition” and “dramatic divisions” within the GOP on apparently every issue.
By Curtis Houck | November 11, 2015 | 8:39 PM EST
Filling in for Scott Pelley on Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, Charlie Rose provided a wrap-up of Tuesday’s Fox Business Networks Republican presidential debate and seemed exasperated when he wondered to Face the Nation anchor John Dickerson “why” did the GOP candidates level “a lot of attacks on Hillary Clinton.”
NYT Debate Bloggers Aggrieved at GOP Debaters Who 'Whine About Media Bias,' 'Trash the News Industry'
By Clay Waters | October 29, 2015 | 10:25 PM EDT New York Times political reporters Nicholas Confessore, Alan Rappaport, and Maggie Haberman live blogged the third GOP debate, and while the NYT didn't have a problem with the slanted questions from CNBC, they were quite perturbed over the counterattacks from the candidates, a pile-on jump-started by a lengthy and detailed off-the-cuff condemnation by Ted Cruz: "...candidates whine about media bias and lack of substance from moderators, and then often refuse to answer the questions or address policy issues....Rubio [is] continuing his mission to trash the news industry."
By Mark Finkelstein | October 23, 2015 | 8:40 AM EDT
Talk about politics making strange bedfellows . . . Joe Scarborough has said that when he goes back to Washington, DC, his "best friends" are "liberal Democrats." The one person Scarborough singled out to illustrate this was Maxine Waters, mentioning that he hugs her on the House floor.
Scarborough's statement came during a pre-recorded New Hampshire town hall with John Kasich that aired on today's Morning Joe. I wish Scarborough had explained why his best friends are liberal Democrats rather than any of the 247 Republicans in the House. Maxine Waters, really? The woman who called George W. a "liar" and Dick Cheney a "liar" and "thief?" Who refused to call the Rodney King riots by that name, labelling them a "rebellion" instead?
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 8, 2015 | 9:37 AM EDT
On Thursday, the hosts of CBS This Morning repeatedly urged Ohio Governor John Kasich to criticize his fellow Republicans for being to conservative on issues ranging from ObamaCare to immigration reform. Co-host Norah O’Donnell proclaimed Kasich has “taken a risk within your party, differing on a number of issues whether it’s immigration, on gay marriage, even on ObamaCare” before she asked if the “party’s platform needs to evolve on those issues?”
By Jeffrey Meyer | October 7, 2015 | 2:20 PM EDT
On Wednesday, the co-hosts of ABC’s The View repeatedly ganged up on Republican presidential candidate John Kasich over the issue of gun control. Throughout the heated interview, Kasich stressed that mental illness was the root cause of many mass shootings that occur across the nation but the show’s cast repeatedly called for greater restrictions on gun ownership.
By Curtis Houck | September 17, 2015 | 4:25 AM EDT
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.”
By Curtis Houck | September 16, 2015 | 10:31 PM EDT
Near the end of the first hour of the CNN Republican Debate, co-moderator Dana Bash fretted to numerous 2016 candidates about the possibility of a federal government shutdown over a conservative effort to defund Planned Parenthood that included her hounding Governor Chris Christie (N.J.) whether or not he would “support the shutdown.”
By Curtis Houck | August 17, 2015 | 8:49 PM EDT
After having ignored Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal since Saturday night, ABC emerged out of the wilderness during Monday’s World News Tonight to again cover the latest development while CBS and NBC went in the opposite direction Monday evening and ignored the story following three minutes of airtime on their Monday morning newscasts. On NBC, Katy Tur made sure to mention to viewers that Republican Governor Scott Walker (Wisc.) was heckled by “union protesters at the Iowa State Fair today.”
By Ken Shepherd | August 10, 2015 | 4:11 PM EDT
While MSNBC host Chris Matthews may be over the moon about John Kasich, seeing him as the most "moderate" and ergo acceptable choice of the Republican presidential primary field, The Rachel Maddow Show host and msnbc.com contributor Steve Benen took to the Lean Forward network's website today to denounce Kasich as a hard-core rightie.
By Tom Johnson | August 9, 2015 | 11:45 AM EDT
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.