2016 Presidential

Speaking to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Thursday’s Today, NBC’s Matt Lauer did his best to play up Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on his fellow Republican throughout the Republican presidential primary. During the one-on-one interview, Lauer told Bush “your resume and your pedigree are perfect for the job of president” but wondered “after several months in the race, you're losing in the…

There was Hillary Clinton, telling Al Sharpton of all people that she found Kevin McCarthy's comments about the Benghazi hearings "deeply distressing."   That was too much for the Morning Joe panel, which just had to laugh.  As John Heilemann put it, far from being distressed, Hillary surely sees McCarthy's comments—implying a political motive behind the hearings—as a Christmas and birthday gift…

On Wednesday night, the CBS Evening News punted on the latest batch of Hillary Clinton’s State Department e-mails released hours earlier while their competitors at ABC and NBC did cover them, but only through the veil of defending Clinton against Speaker of the House candidate Kevin McCarthy’s comments on the Benghazi Committee that NBC’s Andrea Mitchell touted as “an unlikely political lifeline…

How damaging to Republicans are Speaker-presumptive Kevin McCarthy's comments in which he tied the drop in Hillary's poll numbers to the Benghazi hearings? Very damaging, according to the With All Due Respect duo on today's show. John Heilemann called them a "disaster" for congressional Republicans and GOP presidential candidates alike.  Mark Halperin called them a "huge, huge problem" for the…

How many times have we heard that Donald Trump has peaked since he declared his candidacy for president in June? A half dozen times? More? And each time Peak Trump was announced by pundits, it was inevitably followed by yet another surge in the polls. This is probably why in recent weeks, media prognosticators seem to have shied from declaring Peak Trump since it is always followed by you-know-…

Good Morning America’s Tom Llamas, a vocal critic of Donald Trump, on Wednesday touted Bill Clinton’s defense of his wife against the candidate. Llamas narrated, “He's back. Former President Bill Clinton making the rounds and the case why his wife should be president, defending Hillary from one of her harshest critics.” 

On Tuesday night, Daily Show host Trevor Noah surprisingly took time out of his second broadcast to mock Hillary Clinton’s recent softball interview with liberal actress Lena Dunham. The Comedy Central comedian introduced the segment by joking that “Hillary knows how to win the nation. First you have to win the butt-smotherers. And here's the thing, Lena Dunham loves Hillary, too.”

On Wednesday, the State Department will release 6,000 more pages of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails but NBC’s Today was the only network morning show to cover this news whereas ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning ignored the story altogether. In a full report, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell stressed that the e-mail release was a result of a “court order” which will continue the “drip, drip, drip…

Tuesday’s edition of the CBS Evening News used a liberal tax group, passed off as “non-partisan,” to bash, from the left, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s tax plan. Trumpeting the “non-partisan Tax Policy Center,” chief White House correspondent Major Garrett used multiple soundbites from senior fellow Howard Gleckman to hype that “an independent analysis says Trump's plan would…

Hours after Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards testified Tuesday before the House Oversight Committee concerning the videos that have embroiled the abortion provider in scandal over the selling of aborted baby parts, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC rushed to the defense of the “unfazed” and “spirited” Richards as she “endured a five-hour interrogation” by the GOP.

CJ Pearson, the 13-year-old conservative social-media star, could use a few good role models, suggested TNR’s Brian Beutler in a Monday article. After noting that Pearson has been “revealed as the perpetrator of a number of hoaxes,” Beutler mused that such behavior isn’t surprising given the ideological company the youngster keeps. “He's coming of age in a movement that often treats reality as…

First Lady Michelle Obama appeared on Stephen Colbert's new late show last night and something unexpected happened -- a brief stretch of conversation that was actually funny. Prior to that, Colbert appeared nervous in Mrs. Obama's presence, frequently interrupting and talking over her. But the interview finally delivered during an exchange where former president Bill Clinton came up, albeit…

You know the saying: once is a fluke, twice is a trend. Yesterday, Stephen Colbert and First Lady Michelle Obama shared a laugh over Bill Clinton's "passion." On today's With All Due Respect, responding to Mark Halperin's report that Bill Clinton "keeps saying he doesn't know what Snapchat is," John Heilemann quipped "let's hope not, for his sake." For those who might not be familiar, Snapchat…

During Monday's edition of CNN Tonight With Don Lemon, the host lost control of a discussion about what Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have said about not accepting a Muslim as the nation's commander in chief. Referring specifically to Carson's comment on the potential for a Muslim president -- which he said he would not support because of Islam’s ties…