Congress

On her 12 p.m. ET hour MSNBC show on Friday, host Andrea Mitchell asserted that President Obama's executive order blocking deportation of millions of illegal immigrants was somehow "not amnesty": "...what this is not, as the President said, this is not amnesty. People have to apply, the applications won't be taken until the spring. There's a window where Republicans could act. So it's not what…

In the wake of President Obama's announcement Thursday night that he would go around Congress to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, Friday's NBC Today warned of  Republican overreaction to the presidential power grab. Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd proclaimed: "Republican leaders are nervous that they won't be able to control their conservative members who would like to lash…

The New York magazine blogger speculates that some sort of “mental breakdown led [Republicans] to a place where [a shutdown] has received serious consideration” and claims such a move would be “almost a masterpiece of self-sabotage” for the GOP heading into 2016.

On Wednesday's AC360, CNN's Dana Bash was hesitant to address President Obama's past remarks on immigration reform, where he repeatedly denied that he couldn't act alone – to the point that she first touted the Democrat's supposed academic credentials. After host Anderson Cooper played five clips of Mr. Obama making this point, Bash replied that "we should also remind people that he's not just…

On Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie framed President Obama's upcoming executive order granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants as him simply keeping his word: "President Obama will address the nation tonight on the hot-button issue of immigration reform, planning to make good on a progress – a promise to sidestep Congress and take executive action."

On Wednesday night, CBS and NBC promoted the White House talking point that previous presidential actions on immigration gives President Barack Obama the proper legal authority to enact executive amnesty the evening before a primetime address to the nation on the topic.  At no point during the coverage on either network did their reporters mention that this justification is being used despite…

Earlier today in a press conference, Speaker of the House John Boehner made a quip about President Obama's veto threat of a bill to authorize the Keystone XL oil pipeline which indirectly referenced Jonathan Gruber's infamous "stupidity of the American voter" line regarding the selling of ObamaCare.  Hardball host Chris Matthews played the clip on his November 18 program, but seemed completely…

The New York Times wants America to ignore Jonathan Gruber. Pay no attention to that architect behind the curtain! Scott Whitlock at NewsBusters noted earlier today that a Times editorial on Jonathan "stupid voters" Gruber claims that the MIT economist was not an important player in the law's creation. The Times now insists that "In truth, his role was limited." The trouble is, Times reporters…

Two cheers — and two cheers only — for the National Journal's Ron Fournier. On Fox News's Special Report with Bret Baier last night, the former Associated Press Washington Bureau chief observed that the Jonathan Gruber videos about how the Affordable Care Act was dishonestly written and promoted, as well as President Barack Obama's reaction to those revelations, demonstrate that he (Obama) "has…

The Esquire blogger argues that Obamacare-hating congressional GOPers still have no interest in actually governing, but they would like to “make a meal of Gruber as a political performance piece.” Pierce also declared that Gruber "is a lot smarter than" congressional critics "like Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, he who clings still to the shreds of his freedom against the onslaught of poor…

Michael Specter comments that Francis “believes that science, rational thought, and data all play powerful and positive roles in human life,” but that the two GOP senators “seem as if they do not.”

The New York Times and Washington Post both enthusiastically greeted the announcement of President Obama's plans (conveniently announced after the election, constitutional objections aside) to bypass Congress and declare amnesty for some illegal immigrants, or as the Times cutely put it, "to enforce the nation’s laws with discretion."

CNN's Carol Costello surprisingly acted as a supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday's CNN Newsroom, as she interviewed left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders. The Vermont politician decried the project, since climate change is "already causing devastating problems in our country," and that it would "transport 800,000 barrels a day of some of the dirtiest oil on Earth."