Campaigns & Elections

Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who has all but been anointed the successor to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nevada), exploited the media focus on the GOP presidential debate last night to release a press statement announcing that he would be voting against the Iran nuclear deal when it comes to the Senate floor. This decision, according to MSNBC's Luke Russert, is a "public act of being…

The Associated Press seems determined to become even worse at "fact-checking" politicians' statements than Politifact, the current cellar-dwellar in that regard. At the rate things are going, the wire service, in addition to richly earning its nickname "the Administration's Press" since January 2009, appears to be in line for yet another: "Associated Politifact." In his "fact check" following…

Liberal CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Friday berated Marco Rubio's pro-life stance at Thursday's debate, deriding it as " backward." The presidential candidate fought back, mocking the journalist's defense of abortion as "radical." Cuomo lectured: "To not have a carve-out for rape and incest is also something that seems very backward-looking in terms of the cultural mores that we have today." Cuomo…

The first GOP debate's Fox News moderators were so hard on the candidates that a New York Times columnist called it an "inquisition" and said the debate "compels me to write a cluster of words I never imagined writing: hooray for Fox News."  Frank Bruni, who was a White House correspondent under George W. Bush. His headline was "A Foxy, Rowdy Republican Debate." 

During an appearance on Friday’s CBS This Morning, Ohio Governor John Kasich was praised for his decision to “buck” the GOP and expand Medicaid and the CBS hosts urged him to do the same and "buck" the GOP to condemn Donald Trump. 

Despite having two debates featuring 17 Republican candidates the day before, Good Morning America on Friday only found time for Donald Trump. For the second time in three days, the ABC News program highlighted the former reality TV star turned candidate, minimizing all the other contenders. NBC's Today featured Trump as well as Rubio. CBS This Morning's anchors talked to Scott Walker and John…

On Friday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer spent a three-minute interview with Florida Senator Marco Rubio grilling the Republican presidential candidate on an opponent’s debate performance: “Donald Trump refused to rule out a third-party run. He says he's using it as leverage to make sure the party treats him well. Sounds like a bit of a threat to me. How does that impact the way you and other…

During an interview with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker after the first GOP presidential debate, CBS This Morning’s Norah O’Donnell repeatedly badgered the Republican over Donald Trump’s performance during Thursday night’s debate. 

Prediction: Al Hunt will pay no price for calling Donald Trump the "Caityln Jenner of American politics." But can you imagine the outraged reaction on the left if a conservative commentator had said something similar about Hillary for her changing positions on everything from the Iraq war to gay marriage?   Reacting to Hunt's crack on Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough told Hunt "I think I can…

A frequent whiner when it comes to Republicans and voter ID laws, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews couldn’t help but briefly commiserate with his guests following the first 2016 GOP presidential debate that the “denial of voting rights” and other issues like “childhood development” that “parents, especially mothers care about” were not discussed in the debate.

Speaking during CNN’s analysis of the first 2016 Republican presidential debate on Thursday night, CNN political commentator and former Obama White House adviser Van Jones panned Jeb Bush’s performance as “terrible” and “like oatmeal getting colder” but praised Ohio Governor John Kasich as “just unreal,” “emotional,” and an “authentic guy who cares.”

On Thursday’s network evening programs, ABC’s World News Tonight was the only newscast to make no mention of the 5:00 p.m. EDT debate between the bottom seven Republican presidential contenders ahead of the 9:00 p.m. EDT event featuring the top ten candidates. In addition, the CBS Evening News skipped Carly Fiorina’s attack on fellow candidate Donald Trump for his phone call with Bill Clinton. 

Republican presidential contender Carly Fiorina has to be Chris Matthews's worst nightmare: a conservative who punches back hard and doesn't let Chris control the narrative during his interview. Watch this exchange from the August 6 edition of Hardball.

During MSNBC’s 4 p.m. ET hour pre-debate coverage on Thursday, Hardball host Chris Matthews called on Fox News moderators to grill the Republican presidential candidates on evolution: “So I would like to think that Fox is just brazen enough to ask some – what they call bizarre questions....If a person doesn’t believe in science or evolution or the evidence of our life on this earth, that’s a bad…