NBC "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd called out U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for
doing migrants “a tremendous disservice” by comparing U.S. detention
camps at the U.S.-Mexico border to Nazi concentration camps.
Todd
said Wednesday that Nazi death and concentration camps are “not
comparable in the slightest” to what’s going on at the border.
“You
can call our government’s detention of migrants at our southern border
many things depending on how you see it. It’s a stain on our nation,
maybe. A necessary evil to others,” Todd said. “But do you know what you
can’t call it?” he asked, before airing a clip of Ocasio-Cortez’s
controversial remarks.
Todd said the New York Democrat's use of
the term “concentration camps” only distracts from the debate on how to
resolve the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.
Todd also
criticized other Democrats, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Jerry Nadler of New York, who were reluctant to condemn Ocasio-Cortez’s
remarks.
“One of the lessons of the Holocaust is ‘Never Again,’
Nadler tweeted Tuesday. “We fail to learn that lesson when we don’t
callout such inhumanity right in front of us.”
“Why are we so
sheepish calling out people we agree with politically these days?” Todd
asked viewers. He claimed the issue exists on both sides of the aisle —
among both Republicans and Democrats.
"Are
we really so ensconced in our political bubbles, liberal versus
conservative, that we cannot talk about right versus wrong anymore? Some
things are bigger than partisanship, or at least they used to be."
When President Trump kicked off his reelection campaign in Orlando, two of the three cable news networks chose to blow it off.
MSNBC
didn't air any of the speech, and CNN dumped out of it after a few
brief minutes (just as Trump started bashing the press and the crowd
chanted "CNN sucks"). Instead, they had their own pundits and
prognosticators talk throughout the event and spent yesterday critiquing
the speech that they decided not to share with viewers.
This is an important moment.
In
passing up the speech (which was carried in its entirety by Fox), the
networks were, intentionally or otherwise, making a statement. They were
saying that what we have to say is more important than letting you hear
from the leader of the free world as he makes his case for a second
term.
That, in my view, plays into the old Steve Bannon charge about the media acting as the opposition party.
I'm
not saying that the cable news channels need to air every Trump rally,
even though Fox carries many of them. And the Orlando speech did turn
out to be highly partisan, with the president ripping not just the media
but the Mueller "witch hunt," "18 angry Democrats," "Crooked
Hillary," and "radical" Democrats "driven by hatred, prejudice and
rage." That's how he chose to frame his launch, with little about what
he'd do in a second term.
So run the speech and then your anchors,
reporters, commentators, and analysts can rip it any way they want. If
it's important enough to cover on program after program, why isn't it
important enough to air?
Can anyone imagine CNN and MSNBC not
carrying Barack Obama's reelection launch? When he held his first
official 2012 campaign rally in Columbus, they covered it, along with
Fox.
When
Hillary Clinton gave her 2015 kickoff speech on New York's Roosevelt
Island — I was there and part of the coverage — Fox carried it live
along with the other news channels.
(In a mirror-image move, South
Carolina Democrats have barred CNN, Fox and even C-SPAN from covering
this weekend's party convention, giving exclusive rights to MSNBC. This
is a dumb move that will limit the exposure of the 21 presidential
candidates who are slated to speak.)
The
whole question of air time and balance is going to be a tricky one for
television networks and the press as this campaign unfolds. That's
because Trump's mighty media megaphone is such a powerful force — and a
dilemma for the Democrats.
The Washington Post has just documented Trump's dominance:
"Through
the first five months of the year, Trump has received about three times
as much Google search interest in the United States, on average, as all
his Democratic rivals put together.
"He has been having about
75 percent more social media interactions on Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram than his rivals combined since February.
"And when it
comes to CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel, Trump was mentioned nearly
twice as often as the 23 Democrats last month."
The Democrats, the paper says, are trying to figure out how to get higher ratings, even if they're not at Trumpian levels.
The
highest-rated town hall — Bernie Sanders on Fox — drew over 2.5 million
viewers. But that pales next to the 24 million who tuned into the first
debate between Trump and other Republicans, also on Fox, back in August
2015.
During that campaign, according to a Harvard study cited by
the Post, Trump drew 63 percent of the primary coverage in a field of
17 candidates, and 15 percent more than Hillary Clinton that fall. I
said over and over during that campaign that even negative coverage
benefits Trump because it means he's dominating the agenda.
Guy
Cecil, chairman of an anti-Trump super PAC, is quoted as saying: "We
have a culture that rewards the clown show at the expense of real
issues." But that's been true for decades, and successful politicians
adapt to the culture.
The current crop of 2020 Dems is doing plenty of interviews, but these are diluted by the sheer size of the field.
They
will have one advantage in the coming months: the Democrats will be
engaged in a race, with no contest on the GOP side. But they'll still be
competing for ink and air time with an incumbent president who can make
news at will. Footnote:
Donald Trump has called much of the media fake, dishonest and
treasonous, but he was outdone in Orlando by his "spiritual adviser."
Paula
White said, during an opening prayer no less: "Let every demonic
network that has aligned itself against the purpose, against the calling
of President Trump, let it be broken, let it be torn down in the name
of Jesus."
Do we really need this kind of demonizing, literally, in the name of religion?
Fox News' Sean Hannity
unloaded on the mainstream media Wednesday night for their coverage of
President Trump's Florida campaign rally warning them that they are
underestimating the concerns of the president's supporters.
"The
Americans who showed up last night in flip-flops and cargo shorts, they
will be the people who choose the next president, they are the ones who
were right in 2016 and all of you were wrong," Hannity said.
He
was reacting to a montage of media clips from CNN and MSNBC that showed
hosts and their guests mocking those who attended the Orlando rally.
Hannity
accused the media of ignoring the impact of the Obama administration's
policies and noted that the president's supporters did not "buy into"
the Russia investigation.
"The forgotten men and women in this
country, the one that suffered the most under Biden-Obama, the people
who make this country great every day. They didn't buy into your lies,
your conspiracy theories," Hannity said.
Hannity also blasted CNN's Don Lemon for comparing Trump and Adolf Hitler Tuesday night while arguing that such "bad people" shouldn't be given a platform.
"You let your 'journalist' Don Lemon say this on your network last night? You should be ashamed of yourself," Hannity told CNN boss Jeff Zucker.
The Fox News' host accused CNN of being unable to take the criticism responding to Lemon's comments.
"What
really happened was this. When the president was 6 minutes into the
speech last night, said all of those fake news people in the back and
the crowd started... telling the truth about fake news CNN, that CNN
sucks, CNN couldn't take the criticism and they turned it off," Hannity
said.
A U.S. high-altitude drone was shot down Thursday by an Iranian surface-to-air missile over the Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions in the region after last week’s attacks on two oil tankers, a source told Fox News.
A
commander for Iran's Revolutionary Guard said the shooting sends `a
clear message' to the U.S. He said while Iran has no intention of war
with anyone, it's "ready for war."
The U.S. Navy’s MQ-4C drone, ,
which has the same wingspan as a Boeing 737, was over international
airspace at the time and about 17 miles from Iran, the source said.
Capt.
Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, declined to comment on
the reported attack when reached by the AP, but he said no drone was
over Iranian territory.
IRNA news agency, the country’s state-run
news arm, identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk. Iran’s
Revolutionary Guard confirmed the shooting and said it occurred when the
drone entered into its airspace in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province.
The U.S. said Iran fired a missile at another drone last week that responded to the attack on two oil tankers near the Gulf.
Another senior U.S. official told Fox News last week that an MQ9 Reaper drone was fired on by the Iranians shortly after it arrived at the scene where the MV Altair tanker sent out a distress signal.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the "blatant assault" on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
After
the tanker incident, Pompeo said his assessment was based on
"intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to
execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and
the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and
proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication.” Fox News' Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report
President
Trump formally launched his 2020 re-election campaign Tuesday night
before a jam-packed crowd in Orlando's Amway Center arena, and quickly
unloaded on the media organizations and government actors he said tried
their hardest with "everything they had" to bring down both his
candidacy and presidency.
To chants of "USA," Trump took the stage
after brief remarks by Vice President Mike Pence and first lady Melania
Trump, and recalled his unlikely rise to power.
"We stared down
the unholy alliance of lobbyists and donors and special interests who
made a living bleeding our country dry," Trump said. "The swamp is
fighting back so viciously and violently. For the last two and a half
years, we have been under siege.”
And after polling the boisterous crowd, Trump appeared to settle on a new campaign slogan: "Keep America Great."
He
went on to tout the economy and the planned Space Force, celebrate the
"obliteration" of ISIS, and declare that "Republicans believe that every
life is a sacred gift from God" amid a newly energized national
pro-life movement.
Just over four years ago, Trump descended
through the pink marble and brass atrium of Trump Tower to announce his
candidacy for president, the first step on a journey few analysts
believed would take him all the way to the White House.
This time, thousands of Trump supporters arrived more than 40 hours in advance to secure a spot in the Amway Center, despite sweltering heat. Some had been camped in chairs for several nights.
Trump
told attendees he had begun not only a "great political campaign but a
great movement" committed to the idea that a government must "care for
its own citizens first."
He called his election that year as a
"defining moment in American history" -- and then directed the crowd to
"ask them, right there," referring to the media assembled in the back,
which many in the crowd jeered.
In one of the most dramatic
moments of the rally, Trump charged that Democrats want a "do-over" of
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report -- and then, his voice
approaching a shout, Trump blasted Democrats' apparent lack of interest
in misconduct within their party.
Supporters of President Trump waiting in line hours before the
arena doors opened Tuesday in Orlando. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
"Our patriotic movement has been under assault from the very first day," Trump said. He specifically called out the "phony" dossier used by the FBI to secure a secret surveillance warrant to surveil one of his former aides, Carter Page.
After
Trump noted that the dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign
and Democratic National Committee (DNC), the crowd again broke into a
chant, this time cheering, "Lock her up."
"If you want to know how
the system is rigged, just look at how they came at us for three years
with everything they had, versus the free pass they gave to Hillary and
her aides after they set up an illegal server, destroyed evidence,
deleted and acid-washed 33,000 emails, exposed classified information,
and turned the State Department into a pay-for-play cash machine," Trump
said, his voice rising with the crowd's.
"Lock her up," the crowd responded again.
"33,000
emails deleted, think of it!" Trump said. "You know, there was a lot of
corruption on the other side. But, you know, they get a subpoena from
the United States Congress, and they decide they're not gonna give it,
so, Lindsey Graham, they delete and they acid wash -- which is very expensive, nobody does it -- those emails, never to be seen again!
"But
we may find them again somewhere deep in the State Department," Trump
mused. "Can you imagine if I got a subpoena? Think of this -- if I
deleted one email, like a love note to Melania, it's the electric chair
for Trump."
For
the most part, the rally focused on Trump's policy successes, on a
range of matters including criminal justice reform and the economy.
"Our
country is soaring to incredible new heights," Trump asserted, to loud
applause. "Our economy is the envy of the world, perhaps the greatest
economy we've had in the history of our country, and as long as you keep
this team in place -- we have a tremendous way to go -- our future has
never, ever looked brighter or sharper."
Trump continued: "The fact is, the American Dream is back. It's bigger, and better, and stronger than ever before."
The
president emphasized his success in appointing federal judges,
and lamented Democrats' treatment of now-Justice Brett Kavanuagh,
telling the crowd, "They didnt just try to win, they tried to destroy
him with false and malicious accusations" in the name of "political
dominance and control."
Trump called Kavanaugh a "great gentleman"
who is "highly respected" throughout the judiciary, and said Democrats
also targeted his family. Kavanuagh, speaking to Fox News last year,
said his wife had received numerous death threats.
"Just imagine what this angry left-wing mob would do if they were in charge of this country," Trump said.
"We
just finished [confirming judge] number 107, already approved, sitting
on the bench -- how about that?" Trump then asked. "By the time we're
finished with the rest, we will have record percentages [of judges
appointed] -- our percentage will be a record, except for one person.
One person has a higher percentage ... George Washington."
At one point, outgoing Press Secretary Sarah Sanders took the stage, bringing the crowd to its feet.
"We
want people to come into our country based on merit," Trump said, after
praising Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials as
underappreciated heroes securing the border.
He went on to condemn "crazy" Bernie Sanders, and vowed again that America would "never" become a socialist country.
The
festive and lively environment was evident both outside and inside the
arena. Caps and shirts and mugs and ponchos were being hawked in corners
far and wide in Orlando, with slogans ranging from "God, Guns and
Trump" to "Trump’s Deplorables" to "Working to Defeat Liberals since
1854."
"Think of this -- if I deleted one email, like a love note to Melania, it's the electric chair for Trump." — President Trump
"Bikers
For Trump" volunteer security members managed traffic in and out of the
rally areas as jubilant Trump devotees partied to a band while in line,
occasionally breaking into "USA, USA" chants.
Others wandered the blocks around the venue urging people to sign a petition to "prevent voter fraud."
"Only U.S. citizens should be able to vote," explained Donny, a Jacksonville native. "That’s what we want in Florida."
Joe
Biden, the frontrunner among Democrats in both polling and fundraising,
sought to blunt the momentum from the Tuesday launch shortly before
Trump took the stage.
"Donald
Trump is launching his campaign for re-election tonight and the
American people face a choice -- we can make Trump an aberration or let
him fundamentally and forever alter the character of this nation," Biden
Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.
Hats and other merchandise were flying off the racks Tuesday
afternoon in Orlando, ahead of Trump's rally. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
"Our country cannot afford four more years of Trump
diminishing America's role on the world stage, cutting access to health
care, ignoring the climate emergency that is an unprecedented threat to
our national security, tearing children from their parents at the
border, giving enormous new tax breaks to big corporations and the
wealthy at the expense of working families, and dividing our country by
embracing toxic bigotry and racism that's antithetical to who we are,"
Bedingfield added.
Sanders, meanwhile, hosted an "Ask Me Anything" open forum
on Reddit on Tuesday. The self-described democratic socialist condemned
what he called Trump's "rejection of science," and lamented the
"incredible attacks against working families that have taken place under
unfettered capitalism."
Sanders, in a video response to Trump's address later in the day, issued a series of personal insults. He called Trump a "racist" and "sexist," among other attacks.
"The
working class of this country has been decimated for decades by a
coordinated attack from corporate America," Sanders told one Reddit
user. "Bad trade deals have allowed corporations to ship millions of
jobs abroad, companies have bitterly resisted unionization and the
minimum wage has not been raised for almost 10 years."
Not all of
the participants in Sanders' Reddit event gave him a warm welcome,
however, with some pointing out Sanders' recent, dramatic rise to
wealth.
"People
like you have destroyed the working class by taking more of their taxes
to fund a corporate-run utopia that never can exist," one user replied.
"Wealth is decided by the rarity of your skill set, not how hard you
work, Mr. 3 mansions and an Audi R8." Trump is ahead of his Democrat rivals in key battleground states and "voters overall" support re-electing him, a Republican National Committee (RNC) memo
obtained by Fox News claimed. The memo came amid reports of the
president struggling in polls putting him up against potential 2020
opponents, including Biden. A Fox News poll showed similar numbers.
But, according to the RNC, its own massive data operation told
a different story. According to the committee's numbers, Trump has a
higher approval than disapproval rating in the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania while a majority of Florida voters (53 percent) supported re-electing him.
Trump
has an unprecedented $40.8 million in cash-on-hand, as of the start of
the second quarter of fundraising on April 1. While that would be a
massive war chest on its own, the Trump campaign, the Republican
National Committee and their joint fundraising committees had a combined
$82 million cash-on-hand going into the second quarter. Fox News' Mike Emanuel, Hollie McKay, Sam Dorman, Paul Steinhauser, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
CNN anchor Don Lemon made what he himself described as a "extreme" comparison between President Trump and Adolf Hitler while arguing that such "bad people" shouldn't be given a platform.
During
their nightly hand-off, his primetime colleague Chris Cuomo began by
describing 2020 as the most "definitional" election in his lifetime.
Lemon appeared to attempt to shame Trump supporters, and asked them if
they will "continue to fall for the o-ke-doke." But then he questioned
the media's responsibilities in covering Trump's candidacy.
The
"CNN Tonight" anchor urged Cuomo to "think about the most despicable
people in history" and warned him that he was going to use an "extreme
example."
"Think about Hitler. Think about any of those people...
if you could look back in history, would you say, 'Well, I'm so glad
that person was allowed a platform so that they could spread their hate
and propaganda and lies,' or would you say, 'That probably wasn't the
right thing to do to spread that because you knew in that moment that
was a bad person and they were doing bad things. And not only were they
hurting people, they were killing people."
"I think that the example matters," Cuomo responded. "And that's a very extreme example."
"Listen,
for people like me, how this the president feels about the Central Park
Five, that could be a life or death issue for people like me," Lemon
doubled down. "He took a big part of their life away... and demonizing
immigrants and talking about 'sh**hole countries' and saying that 'there
were very fine people on both sides.' For people of color in this
country, it is a life or death issue... so I'm just saying we just need
to be careful about having 'these are standard rules.' This is not
standard. This is not normal."
"Comparing
anything to an extreme like a Hitler- it weakens the argument," Cuomo
pushed back, "because you are now taking a guy who says things you don't
like and comparing him to a genocidal maniac."
"I'm not comparing
him to that," Lemon attempted to clarify. "I'm comparing the way you
would cover someone who is a bad person who does bad things."
Don't let a reporter from the Gray Lady catch you smiling at a Trump rally.
Senator Marco Rubio
hit back at a New York Times reporter after the writer tweeted that it
was “very strange” to see the Florida senator “smiling and chuckling” at
the president’s re-election rally in Orlando Tuesday evening.
“BREAKING,”
Rubio tweeted mockingly in response to Michael Barbaro. “In an
unprecedented move a Republican Senator attended a rally in his home
state in support of the re-election of a Republican President.”
In
another tweet directed at Barbaro, he aligned himself with several of
the president’s policies. “As opposed to smiling & chuckling at a
rally for a radical liberal candidate for President who will undo
policies to confront China, reduce regulations & taxes, defend
liberty in Venezuela & protect the unborn?” he asked rhetorically.
Rubio
also called out Barbaro, writing that after weeks of covering him in
2015, the reporter “uncovered that my wife had traffic tickets, I had a
fishing boat & my home has big windows.”
Tensions between
Rubio and Trump were high in the midst of the 2016 Republican primary
when Rubio called Trump the man “with the worst spray tan in America”
and joked with a rally crowd that then-candidate Trump may have wet his
pants during a debate and had small hands.
Trump dubbed him “Little Marco,”
said the senator “choked like a dog" during a debate and “couldn’t get
elected dog catcher" in Florida. Rubio dropped out of the race after he
lost his home state to Trump by double digits.
President Trump's
campaign is an inclusive venture that seeks to unite Americans in favor
of economic prosperity, according to Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
Gaetz'
home state was "electric" Wednesday night during the president's
raucous rally in Orlando, the congressman from Pensacola said on Fox
News' "Hannity" after the event.
"What's
different about Donald Trump - and so special - is that it's an
inclusive movement that invites people in if they want better jobs,
better opportunity, and if they want America respected again," Gaetz
said.
"There's an electricity here in Florida that we think is going to pulse all around America with an enthusiasm for the Trump campaign," he added.
The House Judiciary Committee member said people at the rally, which he too attended, were invited to be part of the campaign.
"What
was so special today is that people really felt part of this movement,"
he said. "It was great to see the president reinforce those themes."
Gaetz added Trump will "excite the vibrance of this great country through his reelection campaign."
During
the rally, which served as an official kickoff event for Trump's 2020
re-election effort, the president told the Amway Center crowd he was
christening a new campaign slogan to replace "Make America Great Again."
"We've
made America great again, but how do you give up the number one -- call
it theme, logo, statement, in the history of politics -- for a new
one?" the president asked the crowd.
"You know there is a new one that really works, and that's called 'Keep America Great.' Right? 'Keep America Great.'"
Supporters of President Trump waiting in line hours before the
arena doors opened Tuesday in Orlando. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Hats and other merchandise were flying off the racks Tuesday
afternoon in Orlando, ahead of Trump's rally. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
CNN’s Scott Jennings once again took liberals to the cleaners on the Abrego Garcia case, the ‘Maryland man...
