The Worst of Tapper and Bash: CNN Debate Moderators Lurch Left

[LANGUAGE WARNING] On Wednesday it was announced that CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on June 27.   Based on their reporting and analysis over the years at CNN, Republican supporters of Trump should expect Tapper and Bash to question not just his policy positions, but his judgment and even behavior.  Both had harsh reviews for Trump’s performance after the first presidential debate in 2020.  Tapper blasted Trump: “That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck….worst debate I have ever seen….it’s primarily because of President Trump.” Bash agreed: “You just took the words out of my mouth. You used some high-minded language. I’m just going to say it like it is: that was a shitshow!” On Election Night 2020, Tapper provided a nasty epitaph to Trump’s presidency: “For tens of millions of our fellow Americans, their long national nightmare is over.” On the other hand, both have profusely praised Biden.  After Biden’s 2024 State of the Union Address, Tapper prompted his colleague: “Dana Bash, what did you think? You’ve been to a lot of State of the Union addresses. Do you think that President Biden met the moment?” Bash giddily affirmed: “He certainly met the moment….[Democrats] wanted him to be a fighter and….did he deliver.” Bash can’t believe Biden isn’t trouncing Trump, even bringing Rep. Nancy Pelosi on her show to incredulously ask: “Inflation, it looks good when you look at the numbers….Wages are up….There’s a lot for President Biden to tout. So the question is about why Americans don’t seem to be giving him the credit?” Here’s a brief montage by NewsBusters Media Editor Bill D’Agostino of Tapper and Bash at their worst:      The following is a small sampling of the most liberal moments of Tapper and Bash’s time at CNN, via the MRC archives:  DANA BASH   “Dumpster Fire” “Shitshow” Debate Was Trump’s Fault     CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper: “That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck. That was the worst debate I have ever seen. In fact, it wasn’t even a debate. It was a disgrace. And it’s primarily because of President Trump, who spent the entire time interrupting not abiding by the rules he agreed to, lying, maliciously attacking the son of the Vice President.”…Correspondent Dana Bash: “You just took the words out of my mouth. You used some high-minded language. I’m just going to say it like it is: that was a shitshow!”...Tapper: “The President does not think he’s going to win this election. And he wants to bring the rest of us down with him.”— CNN’s Debate Night in America, September 29, 2020.   Biden “Met the Moment”     CNN anchor Jake Tapper: “Dana Bash, what did you think? You’ve been to a lot of State of the Union addresses. Do you think that President Biden met the moment?”CNN anchor Dana Bash: “He certainly met the moment that his members of his party, those who are really upset and worried about this coming election year and frankly, what would happen if he didn’t win another time because of their concerns about who’s on the other side of the ticket. They wanted him to be a fighter and — boy — fight, did he deliver.”— CNN’s live coverage of the State of the Union address, March 7, 2024.   Blaming Trump Rhetoric for New Zealand Shooting     “The question is can he [President Trump] and will he do more to bring together – try to bring together people. That’s the opposite of what we saw in Charlottesville and it is the opposite of what we see when the political calendar gets close to election day. When he knows what riles up his base and the problem is riling up the base using terms like ‘invaders’ in ads that he tweets out also reaches people who are nut jobs.”— Chief political correspondent Dana Bash discussing New Zealand shooting as aired on CNN New Day, March 15, 2019.   Taken Aback by Trump’s “Flip Comment” at Debate “Not to sound too corny, but what makes this country different from countries with dictators in Africa or Stalin or Hitler or any of those countries with dictators and totalitarian leaders, is that when they took over, they put their opponents in jail. To hear one presidential candidate, say — even if it was a flip comment, which it was — ‘you’re going to be in jail’ to another presidential candidate on the debate stage in the United States of America, stunning, just stunning.”— Correspondent Dana Bash during post-presidential debate coverage on CNN, October 9, 2016.   Should Trump Receive Intelligence Briefings?  “I want to ask about the idea that Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee for president. U.S. intelligence agencies are reportedly preparing to share classified briefings with him. You’re, of course, a former ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, Speaker of the House. Should Donald Trump receive intelligence briefings?”— Host Dana Bash to Rep. Nancy Pelosi on CNN’s State of the Union, March 17, 2024.   Inflation “Looks Good,” Why Isn’t the Public Giving Biden Credit?      “I want to ask about the economy. Inflation, it looks good when you look at the numbers. Inflation is down to just 3 percent. The labor market is steadily adding jobs. Wages are up. Consumer sentiment is the highest since September of 2021. So there’s, a lot for President Biden to tout. So the question is about why Americans don’t seem to be giving him the credit. A Quinnipiac poll this week found nearly six in 10 Americans still disapprove of his handling of the economy. Why is that? And what does he have to do to turn that around?”— Host Dana Bash to Rep. Nancy Pelosi on CNN’s State of the Union, July 23, 2023.    Trying to Provoke a GOP Food Fight: Did Trump “Go Too Far?” “Governor Bush, Mr. Trump has suggested that your views on immigration are influenced by your Mexican born wife. He said that, quote, ‘If my wife were from Mexico, I think I would have a soft spot for people from Mexico.’ Did Mr. Trump go too far in invoking your wife?”— CNN debate moderator Dana Bash to Gov. Jeb Bush at GOP Primary Debate, September 16, 2015   Bash to Ramaswamy: How Dare You Point Out Democratic Racism?     “You took issue with comments from Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. She reportedly said, quote, ‘We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice.’ About that, you said, ‘These are the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK.’ You know, I’m sure, the KKK was responsible for more than a century’s worth of horrific lynchings, rapes, murders of black people. How in any way are the views you’re talking about comparable to the views and atrocities committed by the KKK?”— Host Dana Bash to GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on CNN’s State of the Union, September 10, 2023.   Praising “Badass” Pelosi “In many ways, Nancy Pelosi is the original Badass Woman of Washington.” — November 13, 2018 tweet (from CNN’s official Twitter account) promoting correspondent Dana Bash interview with Rep. Nancy Pelosi.   Adoring AOC     “Being Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez means being a celebrity and looking like one, red lips and all. She was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair in 2020 and even shot this tutorial for Vogue on her beauty routine....You sometimes take heat for your celebrity status, for being glamorous....You embrace the power?...How do you use that power, the power of femininity, as you describe it?”— Host Dana Bash on CNN’s Being...AOC, August 9, 2021.   JAKE TAPPER   Trump Era of  “Cruelty” and “Meanness” Is “Coming to an End”      “It has also been a time of extreme divisions. Many of the divisions caused and exacerbated by President Trump himself....It has been a time where truth and fact were treated with disdain. It is a time of cruelty where official inhumanities such as child separation became the official shameful policy of the United States. But now the Trump presidency is coming to an end, to an end, with so many squandered opportunities and ruined potential, but also an era of just plain meanness. It must be said to paraphrase President Ford, for tens of millions of our fellow Americans, their long national nightmare is over.”— Host Jake Tapper on CNN election coverage, November 7, 2020.   When Did Airing “Untrue Things” Stop CNN Before? “We’re not carrying his [Donald Trump] remarks live because frankly he says a lot of things that are not true and sometimes potentially dangerous.”— Host Jake Tapper on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, June 13, 2023.   Boffo Review for Biden Convention Speech     “I’ve heard Joe Biden give, I don’t know, dozens, hundreds of speeches over the years. I have to say this was one of the best, if not the best performance I’ve ever seen.”— Host Jake Tapper on CNN’s live coverage of the Democratic National Convention, August 20, 2020.   Hailing a Republican (Jeff Flake) For Standing Up to Trump “You know Joe McCarthy started in the late forties his crusade of indecency and smears and lies. And you know President Trump and Joe McCarthy are very different historical figures, but there is something similar....People are gonna look back at this era and say what were you doing with all – it’s not McCarthyism but it’s something else – all this indecency and all these lies, what did you do during that time?” — CNN host Jake Tapper discussing former Sen. Jeff Flake’s denunciations of Trump as aired on CBS’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert, October 24, 2017.   Tapper Questions Disabled Vet’s “Commitment” After No Impeachment Vote     “Congressman Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida, who lost his legs, by the way, fighting for democracy abroad, although I don’t know what his — I don’t know about his commitment to it here in the United States.”— CNN anchor Jake Tapper during live impeachment coverage, January 13, 2021.

Seven Blatant Biden LIES ABC, CBS, NBC Refuse to Report

It’s not just the gaffes that keep coming, it’s also the lies! President Joe Biden can barely open his mouth without a blatant falsehood falling out.  He dropped multiple fibs in just one Howard Stern Show appearance late last month. Did ABC, CBS or NBC fact check any of them? Of course not! From falsely claiming he was arrested during a desegregation protest to pretending he used to drive an “18-wheeler,” the following are seven Biden lies that ABC, CBS and NBC have refused to cover.  Here’s a brief montage via NewsBusters Media Editor Bill D’ Agostino:     1. Biden (Without Proof) Says He Was Arrested Standing on a Porch with Black Family During Desegregation Protest   On April 26, CNN.com reported:  President Joe Biden went on “The Howard Stern Show” on Friday and repeated his familiar story about the time he supposedly “got arrested” trying to defend the civil rights of Black Americans. As in the past, Biden told the story on Friday while recounting what his mother supposedly said while urging him to accept Barack Obama’s 2008 offer to be his running mate. His mom, he said, did not want him to turn down a man who was vying to become the first Black president. Biden told Stern: “She said, ‘Joey, let me — remember’ — true story, she said — ‘Remember when they were desegregating Lynnfield, the neighborhood…suburbia — and I told you — and there was a Black family moving in and there was — people were down there protesting; I told you not to go down there and you went down, remember that? And you got arrested standing on the porch with a Black family? And they brought you back, the police?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, Mom, I remember that.’” Facts First: There is no evidence Biden ever got arrested during a civil rights protest, as The Washington Post and PolitiFact found when they looked into this claim in 2022 — and Biden has at least twice told the story of his supposed presence at this particular Delaware protest without mentioning any arrest, instead claiming that the police merely took him home that day. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   2. Biden (Falsely) Boasts That He Made a Most Eligible Bachelors List       On May 2, the Washington Post reported:  Three times in recent weeks — at an April 16 campaign event in Scranton, Pa., to supporters in New York on April 25, and to Stern — Biden said he was on a list of 10 most eligible bachelors after his first wife was killed in a car accident in 1972. Biden has made this claim at least twice before, saying last year that he was on the list for five years. He married Jill Biden in 1977. No such list can be found. The closest thing is a reference in a 1974 Washingtonian profile that quoted a press aide as saying that reporters kept seeking an interview with Biden after the tragedy: “A few weeks after Neilia’s death we got a call from Sally Quinn of The Post. She wanted to do a story on the Senator as Washington’s most eligible bachelor. Naturally we said no but it wasn’t easy because she kept calling all the time.” ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   3. Biden Claims He Was Sent “Salacious” Pictures From Women, Forwarded to Secret Service  On April 24 the New York Post reported:  President Biden recalled Friday that “lovely women” mailed him “very salacious pictures” when he was a young and unmarried senator — and that he handed the images over to the Secret Service — in a bizarre interview with Howard Stern. “A lot of lovely women — but women would send very salacious pictures and I’d just give them to the Secret Service. I thought somebody would think I was…,” the 81-year-old president said before trailing off. It’s unclear why the Secret Service, whose role is to protect the president and investigate counterfeiting and fraud, would have any interest in amateur soft-core porn sent to Biden while he was an unmarried senator from 1973 to 1977. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   4. Biden Tells Wisconsin Crowd One of His Catholic School Teachers Was a Green Bay Packer – FALSE!      On May 8, the New York Post reported: President Biden blurted Wednesday that one of his childhood Catholic school teachers was drafted by the Green Bay Packers — an assertion disproven by a simple check of publicly available NFL records. The 81-year-old president shared the false claim as he boasted of his connection to Wisconsin sports fans during a trip to the swing state. “My theology professor at the Catholic school I went to was a guy named Reilly — last name — and he had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers,” Biden said in Racine, south of Milwaukee. “And he decided to become a priest before that, so he didn’t go. But every single solitary Monday that Green Bay won, we got the last period of the day off.” According to Pro Football Reference, the Packers have only drafted a single person with the last name “Riley,” “Reily,” or “Reilly” since the NFL began its annual college draft in 1936. University of Colorado quarterback Maurice “Tex” Reilly was selected with the 202nd overall pick in the 22nd round of the 1947 draft — after his education was interrupted by World Word II, during which he commanded bombing missions over the Pacific, according to a 2002 article in the Denver Post. Instead of playing professional football, the Bronze Star recipient rejoined the US Air Force in October 1947 as a civil engineer and was deployed to Japan and later Spain. Reilly also served as an instructor at bases in Ohio and Alabama before retiring as a major general, according to a military biography. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   5. Biden’s (Inaccurate) Memory of Him Being a Football Legend On May 2, the Washington Post reported:  Biden was a football player in high school, but he exaggerated his record when he appeared on [Howard] Stern’s show. “By the way, I don’t think a lot of people know that you were a star receiver in high school. Star receiver! You were like the first-string guy. You were the guy who caught the ball,” Stern said. “Runner-up in state scoring, you know,” Biden replied. “What the heck? But I was a runt.” Biden made the same boast during a campaign event in Michigan in February and twice on the same day in December. But Biden is exaggerating. The Wilmington News-Journal reported that in 1960, Biden placed fourth — with four touchdowns and 24 points — in a five-school conference for private schools in Delaware. His high school, Archmere Academy, did place first in the league and was the state’s only undefeated team, while Biden was the team’s leading scorer. A season preview in the News-Journal described Biden, who was nicknamed “Dash,” as “one of the best pass receivers on the team.” When nonconference games are included, Biden earned a total of 60 points. But that was good enough only for fifth place in the state, according to a season wrap-up in the News-Journal. The state’s top scorer earned 108 points. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   6. Biden Boasts About All the Lives He Saved as a Lifeguard  On April 26, The Daily Wire reported:  Speaking on Friday on “The Howard Stern Show,” Biden told the host he had “saved” a “half dozen” kids from drowning back when he was a lifeguard. When Stern followed up and asked him if he had saved any other lives and if he was still lifeguarding when he was “in law school,” the president said, “Yeah, people just need help sometime.” These are lies, as noted on X by one journalist, who included clips of Biden’s comments from the show. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   7. Biden Recalls the Time He “Used to Drive an 18-Wheeler,” It Never Happened On April 24, CNN.com reported:  President Joe Biden has revived a debunked tale about his past – his fictional claim that he used to drive an 18-wheeler truck. Biden has repeatedly embellished or invented biographical tidbits. In 2021, he claimed during a tour of a Mack Trucks facility: “I used to drive an 18-wheeler, man,” then added, “I got to.” At a separate 2021 event, he told college students studying truck technology, “I used to drive a tractor-trailer,” adding, “I only did it for part of a summer, but I got my license anyway.” Biden’s claims were fact-checked at the time as false. But on Tuesday, during a campaign event in Florida, Biden said it again. A supporter told him, “The only reason I have a pension is because of you.” (The supporter appeared to be referring to the Biden administration’s $36 billion in aid to prevent steep pension cuts for more than 350,000 union workers and retirees, including truck drivers.) Biden responded: “Well, we did get that done. Anyway. Besides, I used to drive an 18-wheeler.” Facts First: Biden’s claim remains untrue. There is no evidence he ever drove an 18-wheeler. When CNN inquired about the claim in 2021, the White House noted that Biden once had a part-time job driving a school bus (which is not an 18-wheeler or a tractor-trailer) and that, as a US senator in 1973, he spent a night riding in a cargo truck (not driving it). ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.

Leftist Journos and Hollywood Celebs Trash Trump But Praise Pro-Hamas Protests

It’s an odd state of affairs when a former President of the United States is called a threat to the “bedrock tenets of democracy,” the “rule of law itself” and is compared to Adolf Hitler but pro-Hamas/anti-Semitic protestors are praised for “singing prayers of peace.” Yet that is where the leftist press and their Hollywood friends are right now. Yikes! This past month saw ABC’s Good Morning America co-host and This Week moderator George Stephanopoulos warning his audience that Donald Trump was testing the “bedrock tenets of our democracy” in a way “we haven’t seen since the Civil War.”  MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace feared she would be out of a job after a Trump victory because of his “outward disdain” for a “free press.” Meanwhile Wallace’s MSNBC colleague Joy Reid came out spinning for the pro-Hamas protestors who took over college campuses as she claimed they weren’t hurling anti-Semitic slurs but rather “singing words of peace.”  Over on CNN, podcaster Kara Swisher waved her finger at the critics of the college kids: “Not to support them, is sort of anti-American.” Hollywood celebrities spouted crazy exaggerations about Trump too. ABC’s Black-ish actress Jenifer Lewis feared that “Hitler” Trump “will punish everybody that didn’t vote for him,” put “us in camps.” While actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore begged Vice President Kamala Harris to be the “Momala of the country.” The following are the most obnoxious outbursts by leftist journalists and celebrities during the month of April:  [LANGUAGE WARNING]   Trump Is Testing the “Bedrock Tenets” of “Democracy”     “Until now, no American presidential race has been more defined on what’s happening in courtrooms than what is happening on the campaign trail. Until now. The scale of the abnormality is so staggering that it can actually become numbing. It’s all too easy to fall into reflective habits — to treat this as a normal campaign where both sides embrace the rule of law, where both sides are dedicated to a debate based on facts and the peaceful transfer of power. But that is not what’s happening this election year. Those bedrock tenets of our democracy are being tested in a way we haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s a test for the candidates, for those of us in the media, and for all of us as citizens.”— Moderator George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, April 28.   A Trump Win Could Lead to the End of a “Free Press,” and “The Rule of Law Itself” “Depending what happens in November — seven months from right now — this time next year, I might not be sitting here. There might not be a White House Correspondents Dinner or a free press. While our democracy won’t exactly fall apart immediately without it, the real threat looms larger. A candidate with outward disdain not just for a free press but for all of our freedoms and the rule of law itself.” — Host Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, April 29.   Protesters Aren’t Hurling Anti-Semitic Insults, They’re “Singing Words of Peace”     “I saw….these students singing and singing about peace and singing salaam, singing words of peace. So, it just didn’t square with what I was even hearing on television and television commentators saying was shrieking anti-Semitism, I didn’t hear it.”— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, April 22.    “Anti-American” To Oppose Young Pro-Hamas Protesters “The question is, are you for order and against chaos, or for protests and the right to free speech?...All the free-speech warriors are suddenly like, order, order, we must have order. And so there are heinous things that are said, but there is a line where you have to support also young people, especially when they do things that they do badly. Not to support them, is sort of anti-American in a way.”— Podcast host/former New York Magazine contributing editor Kara Swisher on CNN’s The Chris Wallace Show, April 27.   Netanyahu = Stalin     “It is increasingly looking like Benjamin Netanyahu had a plan to force famine on the Palestinian people, on the Gazan people, to amp up the pressure on Hamas….You’re starving women and children in Gaza….They’re now having to grind up dog food and cat food and….drink salt water….It’s savage conditions, and it’s calculated….It’s calculated just like Stalin’s starvation of Ukrainians was calculated.”   — Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, April 5.    If You Vote for Trump, You Are Not a “Patriot” “There’s a patriotic duty to support President Biden against Donald Trump, for this reason: Patriotism is allegiance to an idea. It’s not just an allegiance to your own kind. That’s nationalism. Trump is a nationalist. President Biden is a patriot.”— MSNBC contributor/presidential historian Jon Meacham on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, April 19.   Fretting That Trump’s Trials May Hurt Biden      “These legal cases have only helped him fundraising….energized his base….He’s risen in the polls with every indictment….The problem for Joe Biden and the Democrats is….the trial is crowding out everything else. So Joe Biden goes out and does policy things….But everything else is crowded out….That’s what happened in 2016 to Hillary Clinton and that could be replicated this year.”— NBC chief foreign correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell on NBC’s Meet the Press, April 21.   “Wonderfully Poetic!” Joy Reid Cheers “My DEIs” for Prosecuting Trump     “The first person to actually criminally prosecute Donald Trump is a black Harvard grad....He came out and graduated and he’s prosecuting you, Donald. And a black woman is doing the same exact thing in Georgia. And a black woman forced you to pay a $175 million fine….Trump is being held to account by the very multicultural, multiracial democracy that he’s trying to dismantle. And for me, there’s something poetic and actually wonderful about that. It says something good about our country that we’re still capable of having that happen. Go, DEI! My DEIs are bringing it home.”— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, April 15.   Katie Couric’s Condescending Take on Trump Voters     “The socio-economic disparities are a lot and class resentment is a lot and anti-intellectualism and elitism is what is driving many of these anti-establishment  — which are Trump voters — so, I think that is a huge problem that we have to address.”— Former NBC Today co-host and CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric on HBO Real Time host Bill Maher’s podcast Club Random with Bill Maher, April 14.    Immediately Tying Trump to Man Who Set Himself on Fire “It seems then, that the gravitational pull of the Trump melodrama that has gripped the nation since he came down the escalator has now, it appears, resulted in someone coming to that where protesters have gathered and lit himself on fire.”— Correspondent Terry Moran during ABC’s live coverage of the Donald Trump trial, April 19.    Trump = Cult Leader Like David Koresh, Jim Jones or Charles Manson     “What Donald Trump is doing….it’s kind of David Koresh. It’s kind of Jim Jones. Because those two men started by saying, ‘You need to come to Jesus.’ They started as Christian evangelizers. But eventually, their evangelism said, ‘No, I get to have your wife. No actually, I get to tell you to kill these federal agents that are outside. I’m asking you to pick up a machine gun and shoot them because I don’t want to go to jail.’...It’s making me lose my mind to watch people who call themselves Christians fall down on their knees and worship this man. This is [Charles] Manson stuff.”— Co-host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, April 2.    It’s a Conspiracy! Blaming High Gas Prices on Donald’s Oil Business Buddies  “These prices are not the fault of President Biden….We’ve got the highest oil production in U.S. history and some overseas oil producers who would sure like to help DJT.”— Host Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, April 17.   NBC’s Brief Hiring of Former RNC Chair Was a Blow to “Democracy”     “It was an unpleasant few days at our network….In mainstream media, we need to include an array of voices. But there’s a line, and the line is truth….You have to be someone upholding our democracy.”— NBC’s Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, April 3.   America Ruled By a Bunch of “Grumpy Old Men” Like Afghanistan and Iran “[France] actually signed into law a constitutional amendment to guarantee a woman’s right to make choices about her own body….This was sort of a demonstration of will by….a country that’s very supportive of your revolution, to show that this is universal human rights and that women actually need to be treated like adults and whether it’s Afghanistan, Iran, or the United States, a bunch of grumpy old men shouldn't be making essential decisions.”— PBS/CNN host Christiane Amanpour on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, April 11.    “Handmaid’s Tale Come to Life” in Arizona “People say it may sound like a joke….A lot of people are saying, unfortunately, it is not a joke. And that is where we’re going to begin today….The [Arizona] Supreme Court reinstating a law from the 1800s — 1800s — that bans nearly all abortion in the state….I’ve heard people use the phrases like “Is this Handmaid’s Tale come to life, in real life?’”— Co-host Gayle King on CBS Mornings, April 10.   Republicans Are Making Women’s Lives “More Miserable”      “[Mike] Pence, Lindsey Graham, and [Donald] Trump are fighting to see who could make women’s lives more miserable. That’s like what they’re really fighting for. ‘How can we really destroy women in this country?’ That’s it.”— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, April 9.   “Hitler” Trump “Will Punish Everybody That Didn’t Vote For Him,” Put “Us In Camps” “If that man [Donald Trump] gets in, as soon as he takes the oath, he will have generals walk down the steps of the Capitol….He will take a hammer and break the glass where the Constitution is, and he will tear it up in our faces and say, ‘Now I’m the king of the fucking world. You will bow down, bitches.’ He will punish everybody that didn’t vote for him….I know what mental illness looks like! That mania is unstoppable! See, this motherfucker is Hitler. He didn’t come to play….That motherfucker will have us in camps.” — ABC’s Black-ish actress Jenifer Lewis on the Sirius/XM radio show Mornings with Zerlina, April 4.   Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Are the “Father” and “Momala” of “Our Country”     “I keep thinking in my head that we all need a mom. I’ve been thinking that we really all need a tremendous hug in the world right now, but in our country, we need you to be Momala of the country.”— Actress/talk show host Drew Barrymore to Vice President Kamala Harris on the syndicated The Drew Barrymore Show, April 29.  “You’re the kind of leader I love, because we’re lucky to have you in the Oval Office. And serving as the father of the country because if you’re a good father to your family — which you are — I know you’ll be a good father to the country.” — Host Howard Stern to President Joe Biden on Sirius/XM’s The Howard Stern Show, April 26.    Trump Actually Benefiting From “Two-Tiered System of Justice”  “[Trump] is part of a two-tiered system of justice but not in the way he thinks he is. He is getting way more concessions than the average criminal defendant would get. He’s getting delays, he’s got access to all kinds of lawyers that are filing this and filing that, delaying every trial, and most people don’t have access to that kind of lawyering, don’t have access to the kind of concessions that the justice system will provide to you if you can afford it.”— Musician/actor John Legend on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki, April 15. 

Seven Brand New Biden Gaffes ABC, CBS, NBC Are Hiding

The Biden gaffes keep coming and the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) keep ignoring them.  If Donald Trump or any Republican president was committing mistakes at the rate Biden is, you can bet network reporters and anchors would jam their broadcasts with their bloopers, but it’s not so for President Joe Biden.  In just the past week, he’s insulted Jews, middle-class Americans, and caused a minor international incident with his bumbling statements.  The following are seven brand new Biden blunders the networks have refused to cover:   Biden Reads Instructions Off Teleprompter: “Four More Years, Pause”          On April 24, FoxNews.com reported:  President Biden seemed to suffer a verbal slip-up during a speech at a trade union conference in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Biden, reading off a teleprompter, appeared to incorporate script instructions in the middle of his speech, resulting in an awkward applause line. The moment came during a section of his remarks straight out of a campaign stump speech. “I see an America where we defend democracy, not diminish it. I see an America, where we protect freedoms, not take them away,” Biden said. “I see an economy that grows a lot in the bottom up where the wealthy pay their fair share, so we can have child care, paid leave and so much more, and still reduce the federal deficit and increase economic folks. “Imagine what we could do next. Four more years, pause,” he said before laughing. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: PENDING   Biden Claims Uncle Was Eaten By “Cannibals” in New Guinea, Sparks International Incident         On April 22, the New York Times reported:  Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea has hit back at President Biden’s suggestion that his uncle, a U.S. serviceman whose plane went down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of New Guinea during World War II, had been eaten by cannibals there. “President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Mr. Marape said in a statement provided to news organizations including The Associated Press and Reuters. Twice last week, Mr. Biden suggested without evidence that his uncle had been eaten by cannibals. “He got shot down in New Guinea, and they never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea,” Mr. Biden said of his uncle during an address on steel and aluminum tariffs in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Papua New Guinea has become an important strategic partner of the United States in the region. Mr. Marape has twice visited the White House. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Mr. Biden’s description of his uncle’s death does not match military records. Ambrose Finnegan, a brother of Mr. Biden’s mother, was a passenger in an aircraft that “for unknown reasons” had to ditch in the Pacific Ocean off the northern coast of New Guinea on May 14, 1944, according to the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Both of the plane’s engines failed at low altitude. There is no indication the aircraft was shot down. Mr. Finnegan and two other men “failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash,” the Pentagon records state. “One crew member survived and was rescued by a passing barge. An aerial search the next day found no trace of the missing aircraft or the lost crew members.” Mr. Biden made a similar suggestion that his uncle had been cannibalized when he visited a war memorial bearing Mr. Finnegan’s name in his childhood hometown, Scranton, part of a three-day campaign swing through the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   Biden Urges Americans to “Choose Freedom Over Democracy”      On April 19, FoxNews.com reported:  Critics of President Biden slammed him on social media for making a puzzling statement encouraging voters to “choose freedom over democracy” by re-electing him to the presidency. Conservatives expressed confusion over Biden’s message, and others insisted it was yet another gaffe showing his cognitive decline.  Biden made the claim while accepting the formal presidential endorsement of the Kennedy family in Pennsylvania on Thursday. During the political rally, half a dozen Kennedy family members appeared alongside President Biden to publicly back him over Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an independent candidate for president in 2024. Kennedy Jr.’s own sister Kerry Kennedy spoke at the event, stating, “President Biden has been a champion for all the rights and freedoms that my father and uncles stood for.” After being introduced by the Kennedys, Biden addressed the crowd. Toward the end of his speech, he asked, “Are you ready to choose unity over division? Dignity over demolition? Truth over lies? Are you ready to choose freedom over democracy? Because that's America.” The last stanza turned heads with its seemingly contradictory message.  Author and Canary CEO Dan K. Eberhart commented, “He’s fine. Everything’s fine. Biden is definitely not in severe mental decline. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   Biden Mixes Up Israeli City With One in Gaza: “Don’t Move on Haifa”        On April 18, the New York Post reported:  President Biden on Tuesday confused the Israeli port city of Haifa with the last refuge for civilians in the Gaza Strip — Rafah — in a stunning blunder.  The 81-year-old president made the gaffe when asked in a one-on-one interview with Nexstar Media’s Reshad Hudson about his plan to win back pro-Palestinian voters in the wake of Israel’s war against Hamas.  “I’ve been meeting with them, number one,” Biden said. “Number two, I made it clear that we have to vastly increase the amount of food, water, healthcare going into Gaza.” “And I made it clear to Israelis – don’t move on Haifa,” he added, apparently meaning to say Rafah. … Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city and a popular tourist destination, is more than 100 miles north of Rafah.  Numerous social media users mocked Biden over the gaffe.  “I think Israel should accommodate Biden’s demand not to attack Haifa,” former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman wrote on X. “Think there’s strong likelihood Israel refrains from hitting Haifa,” former New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind similarly tweeted, calling the error, “seriously embarrassing.” ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   Biden Falsely Claims He Never Earned $400,000 In His Lifetime On April 19, CNN.com reported:  In Scranton, Biden repeated his regular promise that nobody making less than $400,000 per year will pay even a cent more in taxes under his proposals. He then added, “I hope you’re all able to make $400,000. I never did.” Facts First: Biden’s “I never did” claim is false. In fact, his presidential salary is $400,000 per year; the joint tax filings of President Biden and first lady Jill Biden showed $619,976 in income last year, $579,514 in 2022 and $610,702 in 2021. In addition, Biden earned millions in 2017 and 2018, when, during his time as a private citizen following his vice presidency, he and Jill Biden signed a lucrative book deal and he delivered paid speeches. The Bidens’ joint tax filings showed a total of about $11 million in 2017 income and about $4.6 million in 2018 income. Biden, who was a US senator for 36 years prior to his vice presidency, did regularly earn less than $400,000 per year before 2017. As PolitiFact has previously noted, the Bidens’ joint filings reported less than $400,000 in income in each year from 1998 through 2016 except for 2013, when they were just over $407,000. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   Biden Gets Basic Demographics Wrong On China  On April 19, CNN.com reported:  In a Wednesday speech in Pittsburgh that was focused on US steel competition with China, Biden said, “I always say to my colleagues — when I meet other world leaders, I say, ‘Would you trade places with China? Would you trade places with their problems?’ They’ve got a population that is more people in retirement than working.” Facts First: The claim that China has more retired people than working people is false. Fuxian Yi, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior scientist who is an expert on Chinese demographics, called Biden’s claim “overstated and premature.” China reported having more than 740 million employed people at the end of 2023, while it also reported having just shy of 297 million people age 60 or above that year. (Sixty is the normal retirement-benefits age for Chinese men; it’s 50 to 55 for women depending on the nature of their jobs.) And some of the 60-plus population is still working.  Yi noted that China’s ratio of working people to seniors is shrinking as the country’s population ages. But Biden’s claim that the number of retirees already exceeds the number of people working is clearly not correct, even if you apply the usual dose of skepticism to official Chinese data. “It’s certainly the direction they’re heading, but still an exaggeration,” Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank who is an expert on the Chinese economy, said of Biden’s claim. Biden made a similar claim in 2021, which CNN fact-checked as false at the time. ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.   Biden Has His “Very Fine People On Both Sides” Moment      On April 22, FoxNews.com reported:   President Biden’s latest comment on antisemitic protests on college campuses is being called his “very fine people on both sides” moment by some on social media. Following the president’s Earth Day comments at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, reporters caught up with Biden and asked for a comment on anti-Israel protests occurring across multiple universities at the time. “Do you condemn the antisemitic protests on college campuses?” Biden was asked. “I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians,” he said. Equating the antisemitic protests with people who “don’t understand” the Palestinians ignited several comments accusing Biden of echoing Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” Charlottesville comment from 2017. “This sure sounds like he’s ACTUALLY saying there are very fine people on both sides,” OutKick founder Clay Travis remarked. “Very fine people on both sides,” RedState writer Bonchie agreed. American Spectator writer Nate Hochman noted, “I’m old enough to remember when ‘good people on both sides’ was evil and racist.” The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway wrote, “President Biden says there are good people on both sides of October 7.” ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds. (It should be noted that CBS and NBC both briefly reported Biden’s comments, but NEVER indicated they represented any kind of miscue. ABC failed to even mention Biden’s remarks.) The following are the relevant transcripts: CBS  Evening News  April 22, 2024 [13 seconds] CORRESPONDENT MEG OLIVER: Late this afternoon president Biden denounced anti-semitism. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I condemn the anti-semitic protests, that’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on and the Palestinians. … CBS CBS Mornings April 23, 2024 [12 seconds] CORRESPONDENT MEG OLIVER: President Biden yesterday condemned the anti-semitic comments directed towards Jewish students but added that he also condemned anyone who doesn’t realize what Palestinians are going through. Gayle?  CO-HOST GAYLE KING: Meg, thank you. … NBC Nightly News April 22, 2024  [17 seconds] ANCHOR LESTER HOLT: And Erin tonight, the White House is weighing in on all this.  CORRESPONDENT ERIN MCLAUGHLIN: That’s right, Lester. Tonight President Biden saying he condemns both anti-semitic protests and those who, quote, “don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” Lester? HOLT: Erin McLaughlin tonight. Thank you.