Campaigns & Elections

I see that CNN is calling upon the good offices of Mr. Potato Head to refute Donald Trump's evisceration of Hillary Clinton in his speech last Wednesday. Mr. Potato Head is very indignant that Peter Schweizer has written a book, "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich," demonstrating that a pattern of corruption exists in…

So. Over at The Washington Post this week, I see that columnist Callum Borchers is upset with me. The reason, it seems, is that in an appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter I had the audacity to say the following in a discussion about the current fashion of “fact checking” in the media.

In its coverage of Egypt's declaration of a national holiday to mark the ouster of Islamist dictator Mohammed Morsi (also spelled "Mursi") three years ago, the Associated Press recast history. It completely ignored Morsi's assumption of de facto dictatorial powers only months after he was "freely elected" in 2012, his government's brutal repression while he was in power, and his Muslim…

Lois Lerner’s confession at that conference did contain one small truth. The IRS targeting scandal did indeed start in “Cincy”—as D.C. headquarters refers to that outpost. On a cold late February day in 2010, a Cincinnati screener named Jack Koester found himself focused on an application from a local Tea Party group.  

CBS’ American Gothic took an unnecessary swipe at Republican legislators in its second episode, “Jack-in-the-Pulpit.” When Alison (Juliet Rylance) bemoans her inability to keep her thorn-in-the-side brother, Garrett Hawthorne (Antony Starr), from mouthing off at the podium, Naomi (Maureen Sebastian) helpfully suggests taking a page from the “Republican’s voter suppression tactics.”

Whatever else Donald Trump is, he’s a skillful multitasker, suggested Jeet Heer in a Tuesday article. Trump is in the news mostly as a presidential candidate, of course, but Heer claims that his “real objective, win or lose, is relaunching his lucrative brand.” As for how Trump became the Republican party’s presumptive nominee even though politics wasn’t his top priority, Heer opined that there’s…

Going into the Independence Day weekend, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews played the role of creeper on Friday’s Andrea Mitchell Reports as he excused former President Bill Clinton chatting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch amid Hillary’s FBI investigation because Bill is like the late Elvis Presley and “[h]is tail wags when he sees somebody he knows.”

MSNBC host and NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell was still at it on Friday afternoon lamenting that the Bill Clinton/Loretta Lynch airplane meeting has been “overshadowing” Hillary Clinton’s campaign and surmised that the former President wasn’t looking to “gain some influence” from the Attorney General as her Justice Department and FBI investigate Hillary’s private e-mail server.

Appearing on NBC’s Today on Friday, Bloomberg Politics editor Mark Halperin offered a laughably naive explanation for Bill Clinton’s controversial meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch: “The most obvious explanation and probably the right one, is Bill Clinton is a really social guy...” He cast Clinton and Lynch as celebrities who just ran into each other: “And we’ve all seen situations…

For the second day in a row, CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King on Friday touted the most innocent explanation for a secret meeting between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, despite the fact that the AG is in the middle of an FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton. Not seeing the problem, King sputtered, “It's almost like this is being treated like this is a House of Cards scene.” 

On Thursday, the ABC and NBC evening newscasts finally found the time to report on the secret meeting between former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, after omitting it Wednesday night and Thursday morning. However, both broadcasts tried to play the encounter off as harmless. “Aides to Bill Clinton and Lynch say it was a chance meeting, and they were simply exchanging…

On Thursday, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC saw no interest in reporting that a possible Hillary Clinton vice presidential running mate had accepted more $160,000 in gifts while an elected official in Virginia as the veepstakes moves into its later stages. In a piece published early Thursday morning by Politico, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine (Va.) admitted he had accepted “more than…

In Thursday’s installment of head-scratching lines uttered by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, the Hardball host proclaimed that it’s “[c]hilling how good” Joe Biden has been as Vice President and informed guest and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka that his very appearances on television causes him to be “in a good mood when you come on this show.”

After the House Benghazi Committee released their final report on Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the 2012 attacks in Libya that killed four Americans, the political heavyweights at The View had a strong defense for Hillary ready. On Wednesday’s show, liberal panelists Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Raven-Symone and Whoopi Goldberg complained about how unfairly the media has treated Clinton and how…