Which way is it? On the one hand leftist journalists complain that Donald Trump is violating the Constitution with his attacks on the media, judges, universities and his deportation of illegal immigrants.
On the other hand, why should they care? Since some of them think the Constitution is worthless anyway?
This past month The Nation justice correspondent and frequent MSNBC contributor Elie Mystal called our founding document a “piece of crap.”
Yet the likes of New York Times columnist and PBS contributor David Brooks have bemoaned Trump’s “destruction of our institutions” like the “universities” and “the media.” This as Brooks and his ilk cheered on the “heroic” judge who helped an illegal immigrant escape.
Former MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews compared the administration’s deportation plans to the “Holocaust.”
Loony celebrities chimed in too. Comedian/actress Rosie O’Donnell fled to Ireland because she couldn’t bear to watch Trump’s destruction of “the country and the Constitution.”
The following are just a few of the awful outbursts from leftist journalists and celebrities over the last month:
Elie Mystal: U.S. Constitution Is a “Piece of Crap”
“When South Africa got over apartheid, did they just go back to their Afrikaner racist constitution…No! They threw the whole thing out and started again….and they came up with a new constitution. It’s one of the reasons why the South African constitution is generally thought of as one of the best constitutions in the world and ours continues to be a piece of crap.”
— The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal on the syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club, April 3.
Judge Who Allegedly Helped An Illegal Immigrant Escape is “Heroic”
“On the issue of immigration, there are a lot of people who are appalled by what the administration is doing. And there will be times for civil disobedience….Let’s say she [Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan] did escort this guy out the door. If federal enforcement agencies come to your courtroom and you help a guy escape, that is two things. One, it strikes me as maybe something illegal, but it also strikes me as something heroic.”
— New York Times columnist/PBS contributor David Brooks on PBS’s News Hour, April 29.
Chris Matthews: Trump’s Deportation Plan Reminds Me of the “Holocaust”
“The fact that Trump is willing to say American citizens should be allowed to be sent overseas for punishment does something that rhymes very much with what happened in the Holocaust. That Germany was able to take people in France, Jewish people, and deport them to the east, and even the word deport was similar. So why would Trump personally say I’m going to take regular American citizens and deport them? It sounds like he wants to be seen as an autocrat.”
— Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews on his Substack show Hardball, April 21.
Symone Sanders: “People of Color” Are “Next In Line” to Be Snatched Off the Street
“If they [Trump administration] could snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse, they will do it to any of us. To be very clear, it’s going to be the people of color and vulnerable communities that are next in line.”
— Host Symone Sanders on MSNBC’s The Weekend, April 19.
Don Lemon: “Hatred and Bigotry” Is What Makes the “MAGA Wheel Spin”
“There’s a reason that there’s so much hate going around. There’s a reason that there’s so much anti-Semitism and so much racism going around….You can place it at the feet of one person [Donald Trump] who didn’t start this but certainly exacerbates it and foments hate and bigotry…. The racism. The bigotry. The anti-Semitism. The transphobia. The homophobia. It certainly does happen on one side more than the other….That’s the thing that makes the MAGA wheel spin. That’s the motor. That’s the axle. Is hatred and bigotry.”
— Former CNN anchor Don Lemon discussing the arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor’s mansion as aired on his podcast The Don Lemon Show podcast, April 14.
Lemon Defends His Fellow “Fascism” Fighters Against Racists Like Megyn Kelly and Trump
“She [Joy Reid] was a strong opposition to the fascism that she, as a smart woman, saw coming. It made people uncomfortable, it made the media bosses uncomfortable, and they said, ‘you gotta get rid of her.’...Tiffany Cross, who used to call Megyn Kelly out for what she was, a racist, bigoted you-know-what. And instead, what happened? She got fired because someone said, ‘you gotta get rid of that because we don’t want you saying that about someone like that.’...Megyn Kelly, as offensive as she is, they’re comfortable with her. Number one, because of what she looks like, she’s a blonde white lady. She’s racist, she spouts racist things, she says things that they think and they would not dare say for themselves.”
— Former CNN host Don Lemon on The Don Lemon Show podcast, April 17.
“77 Million White Supremacists” Elected Trump
“I’m focused not on the 77 million white supremacists that voted for Donald Trump….I can’t help them, right? That is between them and their God. I’m worried about the 90 million people who sat on their couch – the 90 million eligible voters who sat on their couch and didn’t take a stand on ‘fascism or no.’”
— The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal on MSNBC’s The Katie Phang Show, April 5.
Trump Voters Threw the “Republic Into the Trash”
“The choice that they’ve [Trump voters] made — we have to just be honest — is to literally throw the republic into the trash bin….We chose a felon who is more interested in loyalty, who’s more interested in retribution, who’s more interested in grift than in democracy. And we chose a felon because we didn’t want to elect a black woman….We would rather destroy the republic than for that to have happened.”
— MSNBC contributor/Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, April 7.
David Brooks: Must Stop Trump’s “Destruction” of “Institutions of Civilization”
“Trump is really about amassing power. And anything that might potentially restrain his power, he will destroy. And that includes the court systems and anything part of that livens humanity. It includes the universities, the scientific community, the truth, the media….All these different sectors have to get together and form one big civic movement. And it can’t be political. It’s not Democrats versus Republicans. It’s not left versus right. It’s institutions versus the destruction of our institutions of civilization.”
— New York Times columnist/PBS contributor David Brooks on PBS’s News Hour, April 18.
Democrats Should be “Shouting from the Mountain Tops” About Trump “Autocracy”
“I know Democrats get a lot of heat from Republicans about being too alarmist and talk about democracy being in peril too much. If we are in the position like we were in the 1930s, do you think talking about that too much is a problem? A collapsed economy is an open door to autocracy and that is what Democrats should be shouting from the mountain tops.”
— Boston Globe opinion editor Kimberly Atkins Stohr on NBC’s Meet the Press, April 13.
Chuck Todd: Media Didn’t Cover for Biden, That’s a “Manufactured Right Wing Premise”
“This is not a media failure. This was a failure of the Democratic Party. And I just sort of, sort of the virtue signaling that some people have done to try to say that the media missed this story [Joe Biden’s decline]. They didn’t miss this story….I just refuse to accept this, this stupid premise because it’s a right-wing manufactured, right-wing premise in order to, to stain in the media.”
— Former NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on Chris Cillizza’s Substack podcast, April 28.
Overly Defensive Eugene Daniels: “We Care Deeply About Accuracy”
“We [journalists] care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public’s trust. What we are not is the opposition. What we are not is the enemy of the people. And what we are not is the enemy of the state.”
— White House Correspondents’ Association President and MSNBC correspondent Eugene Daniels at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, April 26.
Thanks to Trump “We No Longer Live In” In a “Democracy”
“Trump is treating the justice system the way the head — the father of this patrimonialistic system would treat it. And he’s going after things that are just personal. And so that’s the erosion of democracy, which is supposed to be about clear laws that apply to everybody. And we no longer live in that system.”
— New York Times columnist David Brooks on PBS’s News Hour, April 11.
Women Love CEO Killer Because a “Morally Good Man” is “Hard to Find”
“So you’re going to see women, especially that feel like, ‘Oh, my god, right. Like, here’s this man [CEO killer Luigi Menagione] who’s a revolutionary, who’s famous, who’s handsome, who’s young, who’s smart. He’s a person that seems this like this morally good man,’ which is hard to find.”
— Former Washington Post columnist/New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz to correspondent Donie O’Sullivan on CNN’s Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, April 13.
CNNer In Denial About Harvard’s Leftism
“There’s plenty of conservatives that have come from Harvard: Tom Cotton, Neil Gorsuch, Ted Cruz, you know, over the years, Harvard has produced a lot of conservatives. So, the idea that Harvard is some cesspool of leftist thinking….certainly what the President believes is, not quite what we know is true.”
— CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez on CNN’s The Situation Room, April 17.
Ana Navarro: Comatose Joe Biden Better Than Donald Trump
“I always said I would prefer - you know - Joe Biden in a coma, over Trump, and I maintain that.”
— Co-host Ana Navarro on ABC’s The View, April 4.
“Some Are Going to Die” Under “Trump Slump”
Co-host Sunny Hostin: “Some people will become unhoused. Some people will not be able to feed their children. Some people will not be able to educate.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “Some are going to die. Let’s not get away from that.”...
Hostin: “We need to name what it is. Because we had someone saying this is Trump's economy. This is Trump’s economy. We should call this the Trump slump.”
— ABC’s The View, April 8.
Comedian: We’ll Stop Calling Trump “Hitler,” When He Stops Doing “Hitler Things”
“The right often gets mad when Trump is compared to Hitler. Then I would say, ‘Have him stop doing Hitler things.’ If you don’t want him to be compared to Hitler, maybe he should stop doing Hitler things. Maybe Elon Musk — his friend — should stop doing Hitler things if they don’t want to be compared to Hitler. And, of course, I’m referring to the Nazi salute he did — the two of them.”
— Comedian/former CNN host W. Kamau Bell on MSNBC’s Ayman, April 27.
Rosie O’Donnell Was So Scared of Trump Destroying the Country, She Fled to Ireland
“I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country….I knew that if I was in the United States and watched him destroy the country and the Constitution and really pay no mind to any of the laws that the Founders stood by and that our country stands for as a beacon of shining light and freedom for the rest of the world, that should he do what the Heritage Foundation said he was going to do in that Project 2025, that we were going to be in big trouble.”
— Comedian Rosie O’Donnell discussing why she moved to Ireland on CNN’s The Situation Room, April 22.
Actor Bradley Whitford: “Christian Faith” Has Been “Weaponized”
“During the time of this show [Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale], things — women’s health has been politicized in a way that I never could have imagined ten years ago. There are 64,000 pregnant rape victims in the country now without access to health care. We’ve seen, you know, Christian faith sort of weaponized in the service of fascism, so it’s terribly relevant.”
— Actor Bradley Whitford on NBC’s Today, April 8.
After Trump, America Doing the “Right Thing” Is “In the Past”
“When O.J. was found not guilty, I was just absolutely shocked. I had that same feeling [when Donald Trump was elected in 2016]. I had this faith in America that was shaken, and I still am not over it. I thought that when it comes down to it, this country, we do the right thing. That’s obviously in the past.”
— Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in April 15 Rolling Stone interview.
Amber Ruffin: I Couldn’t Be Fair to a White House That “Rolled Back” Civil Rights and Disappeared People
“I lost the [White House Correspondents Association Dinner] gig because I was out here talking shit, and I think it’s a good thing that I lost the gig because I was going to show up there and act all the way out….It’s not anyone’s fault because when I was hired, we were like, ‘Oh yeah, and we’ll give it to everybody.’ And I was like, bet! Then they started fucking disappearing people to a prison in El Salvador. They rolled back fucking civil rights. So I was like, if I make this equal, then I’m also a piece of shit. I can’t fucking do that.”
— Comedian Amber Ruffin on CNN’s Have I Got News For You, April 5.
