Category Archives: Meet The Press

May 12, 2013 · 3:32 PM

Things go Badly for Darrell Issa When David Gregory Fails to Be a GOP Shill

Darell Issa

PoliticusUSA

Darrell Issa (R-CA) made a fool of himself on “Meet the Press” Sunday as he tried to defend his Benghazi conspiracy. David Gregory (R-TV) pushed back hard, even bringing up the GOP’s defending of security.

Issa even accused General David Petraeus of lying for the administration. As soon as Gregory would call Issa on one thing, he’d say he was investigating something else. Issa accused Tom Pickering of refusing to testify when in fact, Issa had not invited him to speak and Pickering was told that the Republican majority did not want him there. Issa ended up backtracking on that one, too, and it was super awkward when it came out that Issa never asked for him to appear. Turns out, Issa was just making inaccurate, unfounded accusations so as to falsely infuse his Benghazi hearings with nefarious dark secrets, because that is what Issa does for a living.

The worst news for Issa was that Gregory refused to be his usual GOP shill, which is an alarming indication that Republicans have pushed their Benghazi conspiracy one wingnut too far.

Watch here via NBC…

Related articles

 

1 Comment

Filed under Meet The Press, Rep. Darrell Issa

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

December 29, 2012 · 2:22 AM

Obama To Appear Sunday On ‘Meet The Press’

Obama Meet The Press

This will be a rare occasion for the POTUS…

The Huffington Post

President Barack Obama will appear Sunday for an exclusive interview on “Meet the Press,” as fiscal cliff negotiations come down to the wire before the Dec. 31 deadline.

Obama didn’t sit for interviews on any of the Sunday public affairs shows while running for reelection in 2012. He last made the Sunday show rounds when pushing for health care reform in Sept. 2009.

“Meet the Press” host David Gregory, who sparked controversy and prompted a D.C. police investigation after holding up an empty gun magazine during last Sunday’s interview with National Rifle Association executive Wayne LaPierre, will return from vacation to conduct the interview with the president. NBC News has not commented on the police investigation.

Obama’s Sunday appearance will be his 11th on “Meet the Press” and second as president.

Related articles

1 Comment

Filed under Meet The Press, President Barack Obama

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

March 10, 2011 · 1:30 AM

Michele Bachmann’s ‘bombshell’ on a ‘hidden’ $105 billion

Michele Bachmann gets FOUR Pinocchios for this whopper!

The Washington Post’s Fact Checker

NBC – Meet The Press

“There was a Congressional Research Service report that just was issued in February, and we discovered that secretly, unbeknownst to members of Congress, over $105 billion was hidden in the ‘Obamacare’ legislation to fund the implementation of ’Obamacare’. This is something that wasn’t known. This money was broken up, hidden in various parts of the bill.”
–Rep. Michele Bachmann, March 6, 2011

“This is a crime against democracy. No one knew that Harry Reid, [Nancy] Pelosi and Obama put $105 billion in spending in the bill. … This is a bombshell.”
–Bachmann, March 8, 2011

You have to give Rep. Michele Bachmann credit. The Minnesota Republican certainly knows how to command attention — and how to liven up a dreary discussion of the federal budget on the Sunday morning talk shows by holding up a sign that declares: “$105,464,000,000.”

Even in Washington, $105 billion is real money.

But her assertion raises questions. Is it possible for a major piece of legislation, carefully analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office before final passage, to “secretly” contain so much spending? Let’s find out.

The Facts

Bachmann is correct that there was a Congressional Research Service report issued in February, titled “Appropriations and Fund Transfers in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” It is actually an update of an earlier report first issued in October.

In January, former Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) wrote an analysis of the October report for the Heritage Foundation, decrying what he saw as “an attempt to handcuff the current Congress” with directives on spending in future years. “Obamacare was designed to be the governmental equivalent of kudzu — growing everywhere, propagating by multiple means, and sinking in its roots and becoming impossible to control,” Istook wrote.

Here’s where it gets complicated. There is a total of $105 billion identified over 10 years in the CRS report, though only three programs, worth a little more than $25 billion, are funded the full 10 years.  Most of the other programs listed in the report are funded for just a year or two, or perhaps five years. If Congress wants to alter this spending, it will need to pass a new law.   Continued…

Related Articles

Comments Off

Filed under Meet The Press

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 7, 2011 · 3:34 AM

Days After Voting For Government Shutdown, Bachmann Says ‘Nobody Wants A Shutdown’

Does anyone notice how Republicans lie with impunity?  They know that they will only be called out by Dems and their base simply won’t accept anything that Dems say, so hey, they continue to lie about the current administration and all things “progressive” with no fear of being exposed.  They just don’t care.  The message gets out to the millions they are targeting, so what’s a half-assed retraction or an apology a few days later?  It doesn’t bother them at all.

Also, facilitaors like David Gregory and others allow them to continue with their lies because they never call them out…

Think Progress

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” this morning, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) — chair of the House Tea Party Caucus and potential 2012 presidential candidate — said that she opposes a government shutdown. Gridlock during upcoming votes on federal budgets and the debt ceiling could lead to a shutdown, and host David Gregory asked Bachmann if she agreed with White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, who said earlier in the program he was “hopeful” a shutdown could be avoided. “Well, I’m hopeful,” Bachmann said. “I don’t think anyone wants to see the government shutdown.” Watch it:

This stance is consistent with Bachmann’s earlier public record on a government shutdown, which she has warned would be undesirable. “To me a shutdown is an admission of failure that we have not been able to come together and get our work done,” Bachmann told The Hill last month.

However, one obvious fact — that Gregory failed to mention — undercuts Bachmann’s anti-shutdown message. Only days ago, she opposed continued funding of the government because the funding bill did not completely remove federal funding for Planned Parenthood.   More…

Related Articles

Comments Off

Filed under Meet The Press, Michele Bachmann

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

October 25, 2010 · 2:18 AM

Michael Steele On Christine O’Donnell: ‘I’m Familiar With Foot In Mouth Disease’

Mediaite

RNC chair Michael Steele has been, unlike some members of his party, a supporter (albeit a tepid one) of Christine O’Donnell. This morning on Meet the Press David Gregory asked Steele about all the questionable attention some Tea Party candidates have been generating with some of their more flammable and/or mockable remarks.

Gregory: There’s been a lot of attention towards some of the Tea Party-backed candidates: Sharron Angle, speaking to Latinos in Nevada, or Ken Buck’s statement about gays on this program last week, or Christine O’Donnell, who has gotten so much attention, except for the fact that she’s so far behind in that senate race. She’s had misstatements or gaffes in her statements with Chris Coons.

Steele: Folks make mistakes. Lord knows. I’m familiar with foot in mouth disease. I understand how that is sometimes. You get in the heat of the battle and you have the passion and fire in your belly and you really want to get out there and speak to the issues, speak to the people. you say things that don’t come out correctly. You create misperceptions. That happens a lot in campaigns on both sides. What really matters is how the voters receive that, how voters look at those candidates. Despite those flaws, if you will, of the misspoken word, people understand where their heart is. People understand these folks are going to go out there and fight for them. As I said a little bit earlier, David, this reality right now for people is that we want a leadership that’s going to listen to us. we want someone that’s going to take the fight to congress and not fight against us. whether it’s Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, whoever it happens to be, who has this ground swell of energy behind them, that’s what matters to the people right now.

The “reality” of this is also that O’Donnell is 11 points behind in the polls and Jerry Brown has doubled his lead over Whitman. Harry Reid, meanwhile, is reportedly already preparing for a possible recount with Sharron Angle.

Watch:

 

Related Articles

Comments Off

Filed under Harry Reid, Meet The Press, Michael Steele

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

May 22, 2010 · 12:05 AM

Rand Paul Cancels His Meet The Press Interview

I suppose one could say that after a harrowing week, Rand Paul is pulling a “palin”.

Think Progress

Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul has been lampooned in recent days for his radical anti-government views. First, he expressed opposition to parts of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Today, he attacked President Obama’s criticism of BP as “un-American,” and refused to say whether or not the minimum wage is legal. MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell joked that Paul is the “gift that keeps on giving.”

But he is giving no more. He “simply does not want to answer direct questions about the proper role of the Federal government in regulating the private sector,” the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted. “He visibly bristles when asked to clarify his views on these matters,” Sargent added.

After his upset victory Tuesday night, Paul agreed to appear on NBC’s Meet The Press Sunday for what would surely be wide ranging interview that would delve into these issues.

 The Washington Post reports that Paul has indeed canceled because “he’s had a long week.” A Paul spokesperson explained, “Rand did Good Morning America today, set the record straight, and now we are done talking about it. … No more national interviews on the topic.” Paul joins Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar as the only guests to cancel a Meet the Press interview in recent history.

As MSNBC host Joe Scarborough told ThinkProgress today, referring to Paul’s embarrassing interview with fellow host Rachel Maddow, “if a politician can’t handle an interview, they can’t handle the Senate.”

Comments Off

Filed under Meet The Press, Rand Paul

Tagged as ,