The legacy media appear to be stuck in this doom loop where they deliberately omit covering certain stories after embarrassing themselves fawning over the latest immigration poster boy du jour whether it’s “Maryland Dad” or pro-Hamas Columbia activist Mohsen Mahdawi. The latest omission proves all the more embarrassing for the legacies.

NBC Nightly News was the only legacy newscast to cover the latest attack against NYPD officers in Times Square, carried out by a splinter group of the infamous Tren de Aragua:

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS

5/6/25

7:22 PM

LESTER HOLT: The NYPD has arrested five men they say are members of a Tren de Aragua gang for an attack against their officers in Times Square on Friday. The officers engaged the group and were ambushed, pelted with scooters, basketballs and other makeshift weapons. The NYPD also called this a targeted attack by repeat offenders.

There is a lot missing from this teeny-tiny brief, as is often the case with teeny-tiny briefs, but it bears noting that both ABC World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News reported absolutely nothing on this attack.

The missing details, via Fox News:

Eleven teen members of the ultra-violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were allegedly involved in an attack against two NYPD officers on Friday night in Times Square, police sources told Fox News. 

Five of the suspects, all illegal aliens from Venezuela, have been arrested in connection with the alleged attack, which involved the migrant crew throwing glass bottles, basketballs and rocks at NYPD officers who were responding to a robbery.

The youngest suspect in the attack is 12 years old, and the police sources said that two of the children were picked up by their migrant parents, and one is being charged as an adult with riot and assault, according to police.

This isn’t some new phenomenon, either. The “little devils” have been a thing for some time now. Consider this New York Post report from last October:

The troublesome teen — identified by sources as a member of “Los Diablos de la 42,” a pint-size offshoot of the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — had been cuffed in the latest bust on Tuesday, just as The Post was revealing the baby-faced bandit’s shocking exploits.

He’s accused of pulling a knife on a 34-year-old man at Ninth Avenue and West 35th Street around 7 p.m. Sept. 30, along with a pal, according to the sources.

Keep the “Little Devils” in mind next time you hear legacy media caterwauling about due process in the context of deportations. Tonight we heard barely a peep.

 

Trump’s State Department condemned an anti-free speech government pressuring X to censor.

The State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor went after Australia in a May 1 post on X after the country “required X to remove a post criticizing an individual for promoting gender ideology.” Removing this post would have cut off not merely an Australian audience from hearing the speech of a silenced user, but also the rest of the world. “The Department of State is deeply concerned about efforts by governments to coerce American tech companies into targeting individuals for censorship. Freedom of expression must be protected – online and offline,” The State Department wrote. 

[Story Continues on MRC Free Speech America] 

President Donald Trump has fought plenty of political heavyweights, but now he’s up against a foe far tougher than Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris: Big Bird.

The president is ordering federal agencies and the taxpayer-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop supporting National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.

His May 1 executive order is titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media.”

How biased are NPR and PBS?

They mostly appeal to members of one political party, according to Pew Research.

Thirty-two percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents surveyed say they regularly get news from NPR, and a similar number — 31% — say the same about PBS.

Only 11% of Republicans and GOP-leaners report they get news from PBS, and the figure for NPR — 9% — is even worse.

Something about NPR is three times more agreeable to Democrats than Republicans.

Should everyone be taxed to pay for radio and TV programming that caters primarily to Democrats?

Public radio and TV executives hide behind yellow feathers whenever they’re criticized.

“Big Bird Taken Off Death Row,” announced a Washington Post headline in June 1995 when Newt Gingrich, the first Republican speaker of the House of Representatives in 40 years, backed down from attempts to defund CPB.

“Sesame Street” was just too popular with parents.

Today’s face of public broadcasting, however, isn’t Big Bird or Elmo — it’s Katherine Maher, NPR’s outspokenly progressive CEO.

“America is addicted to white supremacy,” Maher — who is white — claimed on Twitter in 2020.

But she didn’t make NPR woke — just the opposite: Maher’s in charge because she perfectly represents NPR’s preexisting institutional bias.

Before Maher, NPR was already appending “trigger warnings” to readings from the Declaration of Independence, with disclaimers appearing not only on items newly published on its website after the 2020 George Floyd riots but applied retroactively as well.

“The audio of this story quotes the U.S. Declaration of Independence — a document that contains offensive language about Native Americans, including a racial slur,” warns the note prefixed to “The Declaration: What Does It Mean to You?” a “Morning Edition” story from July 4, 2013.

Maher recently testified to Congress that “much of my thinking has evolved over the last half decade” since she characterized other Americans as white-supremacy addicts.

Before her evolution, Maher also called President Trump a “deranged racist sociopath” and “fascist.”

She was executive director and CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, publisher of Wikipedia, at the time. Before that, she was the foundation’s chief communications officer.

If Maher has “evolved” only in the past five years, she’s hardly cut out to run any media organization, let alone a taxpayer-funded one.

But if she really does think the president’s fascist and America’s racist, and is now lying about these inconvenient convictions, what does that say about her character?

Whatever the answer, she has no business leading any organization that claims to be nonpartisan. (Maher’s mother, as it happens, is a Connecticut state senator — a Democrat.)

She can’t have it both ways, insisting America is in the grip of fascism one moment, then soliciting government support the next — who’d want to be funded by a fascist’s government?

Shouldn’t it be a point of pride for people like Maher to accept no money from fascists or racists?

NPR’s leader is an ideologue but also an opportunist, and her public statements reveal not just her animosity toward the Republican president but her nihilistically relativist worldview.

“Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that is getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done,” she mused in a 2022 TED Talk, adding, “We all have different truths. They are based on things like where we come from, how we were raised, and how other people perceive us.”

This might sound like mush, but it means that objective truth— truthful truth, one might say — is too divisive a standard and instead “truth” must derive from identity, and identity politics.

NPR’s programming and practices reflect that philosophy as much as its choice of CEO.

When someone does speak up for a true truth at NPR, he can expect to be punished.

That was the experience of Uri Berliner, a senior editor with 25 years’ experience at NPR, who was suspended without pay after he wrote an essay for The Free Press last year exposing the “lack of viewpoint diversity” inside the broadcaster.

PBS isn’t as egregiously slanted as NPR, but that’s not saying much.

“Public broadcasting” is simply a misnomer: these corporations are “public-private partnerships,” which means in practice they take public money to promote private beliefs that align with one party’s left wing.

Big Bird’s popular enough to thrive without subsidies.

NPR and PBS have become megaphones for messages like Maher’s, and it’s high time taxpayers stopped being forced to pay for them.

Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review. To read more by Daniel McCarthy, visit www.creators.com.

Nobody should trust Joe Scarborough when it comes to measuring someone’s ideology. He called Liz Cheney a “real conservative” when she endorsed Kamala for President. 

Actual Trump supporters he called “MAGA freaks,” and he even claimed: “These people are, if I can quote Aristotle, here, crazy as a sh–house rat.”

This same Scarborough announced on today’s Morning Joe that far-left Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents “meritocracy,” and yes, she’s “more progressive,” but she’s fabulous: 

“One of the most articulate, exciting people in the Democratic field.” 
“Democrats don’t need people past retirement age being their voice. They need somebody young like AOC.” 
“She can carry the message forward for a Democratic Party that really needs to reach out to younger Americans . . . What a great message to have.” 
“Democrats need her more than she needs the Democrats.”
Just record a campaign advertisement and be done with it! 

Scarborough claimed socialist firebrand AOC “can carry the message forward for a Democratic party . . . What a great message to have.”

And just what is Ocasio-Cortez’s message? Turning to the Issues page on her campaign website, we find that AOC, among other radical positions, wants to:

Abolish ICE.
Consider illegal immigrants “full members” of the US, entitled to all major welfare benefits.
End cash bail. 
Ban law enforcement’s use of tear gas and rubber bullets.
Interestingly, Mika Brzezinski was considerably less keen on Ocasio-Cortez. While acknowledging that AOC is very talented, Mika said that there’s room to look at “a lot of other people,” and that young people, AOC’s base, are not the most dependable voters. When Scarborough continued to express his AOC excitement, Mika’s facial expressions made her doubts about AOC unmistakably clear. See the last part of the video clip.

 

 

Many observers feel that the Trump campaign’s ad exposing Kamala Harris support for taxpayer-funded sex change operations for inmates, including illegal immigrants, was devastating to her campaign. AOC gave an impassioned speech on the House floor proclaiming that “trans girls are girls.” And she criticized the Biden administration for suggesting that there could be any limitations on the right of biological males to participate in women’s sports.

That Scarborough apparently thinks those are winning messages for the Democrats reveals just how much he has transitioned from his days as a conservative Republican congressman from the Florida Panhandle.

PS: Self-described simple country lawyer Scarborough once again exposed what Freud—whose birthday is today—might have diagnosed as Ivy-envy, repeatedly railing against the “Ivy League boys” in the Trump administration.

Here’s the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/6/25
6:12 am EDT

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is passing on the chance to seek the top Democratic position on the Oversight Committee. The New York Democrat ran for the job last year but lost to Congressman Gerry Connolly, who’s now stepping back from the role for health reasons. 

She cited her party’s preference to select more senior Members of Congress for leadership roles as an obstacle to a potential run. 

. . . 

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Rev, nobody ever said that Congress was a meritocracy. I understand that AOC may be more progressive than a lot of people. I also understand that she’s one of the most articulate, exciting people in the Democratic field. 

I just, uh, listen: Democrats—and we’re going to talk to Dave Weigel about this in a second—their approval rating is just absolutely disastrous. They don’t need to keep getting people in, like, retirement. You know, past retirement age, being their voice. They need somebody young like AOC. 

And again, it’s not about ideology. You know, she can carry the message forward for a Democratic Party that really needs to reach out to younger Americans . . . What a great message to have. 

You’ve got all these Ivy League boys, you know, that are in the Trump administration, that went all the — no offense to Ivy League boys here or anywhere. But all these guys, billionaire Ivy Leaguers, right, attacking her, going, oh, she’s an elitist. And it’s like, she was a bartender, or a barista. Whatever she was. She’s like: what are you talking about? 

. . . 

Democrats need her more than she needs the Democrats. 

JONATHAN LEMIRE: Yes. 

SCARBOROUGH: It’s that simple. 

MIKA: I think she’s incredibly talented, but there’s a lot of room to look at a lot of people over the coming months. And you know, yes, of course, it’s always good to appeal to young people, but they are not the most dependable voters. 
You need someone who appeals to all people, including Republicans. 

SCARBOROUGH: Well, I mean, and she and Bernie do. We talked about the fact that you have none other than Steve Bannon, who talks about AOC all the time and says, yeah, she’s right on a lot of populist issues. 

Eli Tan, a young San Francisco-based tech reporter for the New York Times, devoted 2,500 words in the paper’s Sunday edition decrying the spread of right-wing conspiracy theories, now that no one subscribes to the Times or local newspapers anymore: “How Misinformation and Partisan ‘New Media’ Changed a California Town.” The story was heavily based on a “militia” incidence that occurred five years ago.

Tan opened this photo-heavy feature by harking back to the good old days of newspapers and only a few news broadcasts to choose from.

Nightly news broadcasts played on living room televisions. Copies of local newspapers lined doorsteps on Sunday mornings. The town even had two media outlets dedicated to rodeo and horse roping news.

But that version of Oakdale is a thing of the past.

First the nearby newspapers shrank, and hundreds of local reporters in the region became handfuls. Then came the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020, and the pandemic; suddenly cable networks long deemed trustworthy were peddlers of fake news, on the right and the left.

By the 2024 election, when its county, Stanislaus, was among the 10 in California that President Trump flipped red, it wasn’t just trust in traditional media that had vanished from Oakdale — it was the media itself.

Information “professionals” are absolutely necessary. Or so they say. Who’s letting amateurs cook the news? 

Now, in place of longtime TV pundits and radio hosts, residents turn to a new sphere of podcasters and online influencers to get their political news. Facebook groups for local events run by residents have replaced the role of local newspapers, elevating the county’s “keyboard warriors” to roles akin to editors in chief.

Of the 80 Oakdale residents The New York Times spoke to for this article, not a single one subscribed to a regional news site, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post….

But seeking truth in a post-journalism world of Facebook groups and online influencers has left some Oakdale residents feeling less informed than before. And efforts to manage misinformation that culminated in an armed militia storming the town in 2020 have changed the very nature of the community.

Tan only saw harmful coverage on Facebook, not in the censorious behavior of the left, bolstered by a compliant mainstream press, in the summer of 2020, when Black Lives Matters protests became violent rampages and the media’s stern Covid lectures were cheerfully tossed aside.

As local news outlets shrank throughout the Central Valley in the 2010s, Facebook groups dedicated to local events started popping up in their place. And for years, they were harmless. But that changed in 2020.

With residents stuck at home during the pandemic, the groups thrived. But as new members joined by the thousands, conspiracy theories and political debates overtook posts about school board meetings and local elections.

Tan went back to a damp squib of a supposed threat that happened five years ago to defend the seething liberal press of today.

Then, the militia incident happened.

Julie Logan, an in-home health care worker in Oakdale, can still remember the scene: It was a weekend morning in June, and the downtown farmers’ market had been replaced by a scene resembling a military operation.

Gunmen patrolled the sidewalks dressed head to toe in brown camouflage; store windows were boarded up; some of the men perched from the rooftops in tactical gear, brandishing rifles.

The militia was prepared to defend against an imminent threat: Black Lives Matter protesters, they believed, were plotting to invade the town and would be arriving on buses from the Bay Area at any moment.

They waited and waited. But the protesters never came.

Left unsaid was that BLM protests indeed often descended into vandalism and violence, though the Times itself did it best to downplay, euphemize, or simply avoid those truths in 2020.

There’s a lesson here about the blowback from social media censorship that ends up empowering so-called misinformation, but one doubts The Times, which spent years cheering on leftist censorship, is ready for it.

But the new focus on moderation had an unintended effect: Frustrated residents whose comments were removed began to create their own groups in protest….

The Times took its latest strange shot at an anti-Chinese Communist Party newspaper, The Epoch Times, “known to include right-wing misinformation with an anti-China slant,” before comparing and contrasting the news diet of a husband and wife.

The Ortegas’ news habits couldn’t be more different. Ms. Ortega keeps up with current events exclusively through La Mesa Caliente, a Spanish-language talk show on Telemundo hosted by four women. Mr. Ortega gets his news from an orbit of right-wing male YouTube personalities like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk and Dan Bongino….

La Mesa Caliente is a safely liberal, if less crazed, Latina version of The View, but did not receive an ideological label.

Tan dipped only briefly into a concrete reason why people no longer trust the mainstream press — the cover up of President Biden’s mental decline.

Watching President Biden struggle to string together complete sentences, he couldn’t help but think that the press corps in Washington that was supposed to keep the country informed — including Oakdale — had let him down.

“It felt like a failure,” Mr. Freeman said. “How could the media not tell us what we were seeing?”

Meanwhile, MSNBC came off as left-leaning but basically reliable, unlike those who “embrace conspiracy theories” and “right-wing misinformation” (As if MSNBC has never embraced conspiracy theories.) (Click “Expand.)

Liberal residents in Oakdale say their news diets haven’t changed as much as their conservative counterparts. Harvey Melgoza, 67, still listens to MSNBC on the radio while working at his shoe repair store downtown, like he has for as long as he can remember. And he will sometimes read The Oakdale Leader on the occasion that his neighbor, Doug, drops off extra copies at his doorstep.

Since the start of the pandemic, he has watched some of his neighbors embrace conspiracy theories, or grow suddenly fearful of Mexican immigrants coming across the border.

MSNBC “might sometimes have a bias,” he said, “but at least it gives me a good sense of what’s happening in the world.”

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi gave an ode to public broadcasting on his Sunday show, where he tried to claim that the existence of public media is correlated with democratic health. In order to make such a claim, Velshi had to ignore one major detail from the study he cited.

Velshi, who is also an NPR contributor, gushed, “During the most important stories of the last half century, PBS and NPR were there. PBS broadcast the Watergate Committee’s hearings in full and brought us some of the most acclaimed documentaries of our time from Ken Burns. NPR’s voice has brought us moment-to-moment updates from the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Gulf War.”

 

 

One of the strangest things about President Trump’s executive order forbidding tax dollars from going to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is that it has caused PBS and NPR’s competitors to sing their praises for doing things they also do. In 2025, any network can broadcast a Congressional hearing, provide news updates, or have reporters in war zones.  

Nevertheless, Velshi rolled on, “And every day, these broadcasters bring us essential coverage of the things that matter most on a global, national, and on a hyperlocal level. Let me just remind you, most democratic nations, places like the U.K., Canada, Germany, and over 60 other nations globally, have editorially-independent, government-funded media outlets.”

Yes, and those outlets have problems too. Still, Velshi tried to bring in some more evidence to bolster his claim, “A 2021 study published in the International Journal of Press and Politics found that countries with well-funded public media tend to have healthier democracies. It’s very normal. These publicly funded journalism institutions are not government mouthpieces. Public broadcasters like NPR and PBS are often less partisan than most private or cable media outlets. But of course, that doesn’t matter to Donald Trump. In a culture war mindset, everything that’s not in lockstep with you is a target.”

What Velshi did not mention was that on page five of a 27-page study full of academic technobabble is the admission, “We also acknowledge that our comparative analysis of public media systems and democracies cannot show clear causal relationships.”

Additionally, being less biased than MSNBC isn’t the standard although, if it were, PBS and NPR certainly try their best to meet it.

Later, Velshi welcomed former NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, who was compelled to resign in scandal, and wondered, “Why is there this sense that it’s either a government mouthpiece? And let’s just clear that up, because I think people associate that sort of stuff all over the world, or that it’s weirdly partisan and left-wing. Where does that come from and what was—what has your answer been to people who say that?”

Schiller tried to paint public broadcasting as centrist, “Well. Why do people attack it for being, first of all, people attack it for being too right-wing people attack it for being too left-wing. This is just part of the culture wars that we’re in right now. There is, as we know, the—as you have well reported and many others have, people have separated or divided into camps.”

As for conservative critics, “And they—only many people, unfortunately, only want to listen or read media that agrees with the point of view they already came in with. So, if you were someone that has a specific point of view that, say, everything Trump is doing is right and legal, you may not like challenges to that whether it’s coming from your show, Ali, or whether it’s coming from NPR or whether it’s coming from PBS News Hour. So this is just, unfortunately, part and parcel of the times that we live in.”

Criticism of Trump is everywhere and despite Schiller’s culture war lamentations and praise for him, Velshi himself is an active progressive culture warrior. The people truly opposed to breaking out of their intellectual bubbles would be the people Schiller referred to who think PBS and NPR are right-wing. Their advertised right-wingers aren’t even right-wing.

Here is a transcript for the May 4 show:

MSNBC Velshi

5/4/2025

12:26 PM ET

ALI VELSHI: During the most important stories of the last half century, PBS and NPR were there. PBS broadcast the Watergate Committee’s hearings in full and brought us some of the most acclaimed documentaries of our time from Ken Burns. NPR’s voice has brought us moment-to-moment updates from the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Gulf War. 

And every day, these broadcasters bring us essential coverage of the things that matter most on a global, national, and on a hyperlocal level. Let me just remind you, most democratic nations, places like the U.K., Canada, Germany, and over 60 other nations globally, have editorially-independent, government-funded media outlets. 

A 2021 study published in the International Journal of Press and Politics found that countries with well-funded public media tend to have healthier democracies. It’s very normal. These publicly funded journalism institutions are not government mouthpieces. Public broadcasters like NPR and PBS are often less partisan than most private or cable media outlets. But of course, that doesn’t matter to Donald Trump. In a culture war mindset, everything that’s not in lockstep with you is a target.

…

Why is there this sense that it’s either a government mouthpiece? And let’s just clear that up, because I think people associate that sort of stuff all over the world, or that it’s weirdly partisan and left-wing. Where does that come from and what was—what has your answer been to people who say that?

VIVIAN SCHILLER: Well. Why do people attack it for being, first of all, people attack it for being too right-wing people attack it for being too left-wing. This is just part of the culture wars that we’re in right now. There is, as we know, the—as you have well reported and many others have, people have separated or divided into camps.

And they—only many people, unfortunately, only want to listen or read media that agrees with the point of view they already came in with. So, if you were someone that has a specific point of view that, say, everything Trump is doing is right and legal, you may not like challenges to that whether it’s coming from your show, Ali, or whether it’s coming from NPR or whether it’s coming from PBS News Hour. So this is, just unfortunately, part and parcel of the times that we live in.

Overnight, a group of far-left pro-Hamas terrorists staged a siege at the University of Washington as they illegally occupied a building, set stuff on fire, and battled the police. But during the morning newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC, they all downplayed the story as just a “protest” against the Israel-Hamas War. They collectively gave the violence less than a minute of airtime.

On top of that, they completely ignored far-left aggressors attempting to break into a speaking event featuring conservative activist Riley Gaines, who was speaking out against men competing in women’s sports.

In all, the Big Three broadcast networks gave the far-left violence at UW just 48 seconds of combined airtime. ABC’s Good Morning America gave story just 14 seconds with his skimpy news brief from co-anchor George Stephanopoulos:

Also, students clashing with police at pro-Palestinian protests overnight at the University of Washington. A university spokesman tells us about 30 individuals who occupied the building were arrested. Some charged with trespassing, property destruction, and disorderly conduct, and conspiracy to commit all three.

 

 

CBS Mornings had the more substantial reporting, but not by much. Here’s the 29-second news brief delivered by co-anchor Nate Burleson:

All right. We have breaking news coming out of Seattle where dozens of demonstrators against the war in Gaza took over a building at the University of Washington last night. They also blocked streets and set fire to dumpsters.

Now, this is the most visible protest of its kind so far this spring, following dozens of protests on campuses a year ago. Police arrested more than two dozen people. Among other things, demonstrators demanded the school break its ties to the Boeing corporation because of its military contracts.

The reporting from NBCs’ Today was the most embarrassing as correspondent Raf Sanchez crammed the violence into a larger report on the war, which resulting in a measly 5 seconds on this sentence: “While overnight in the U.S., protesters occupied a building at the University of Washington in Seattle.”

Additionally, those same broadcast networks ignored the far-left violence that was recorded at Portland State University where Gaines was speaking.

 

Breaking exclusive: Violent Trantifa, Antifa and far-left extremists are trying to break inside the building where @Riley_Gaines_ is speaking at Portland State. They’re assaulting police and are trying to smash the glass.
The violent extremists believe that those who advocate… https://t.co/HGiPVaLufB pic.twitter.com/aX1wJwaANO
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) May 6, 2025
 

“Violent Trantifa, Antifa and far-left extremists are trying to break inside the building where @Riley_Gaines_ is speaking at Portland State. They’re assaulting police and are trying to smash the glass,” reported Post Millennial senior editor Andy Ngo reported on X with accompanying video.

Adding this on the motives of the far-left extremists: “The violent extremists believe that those who advocate for sex-based sports policy are advocating genocide and should be met with violence, even murder.”

Five people were arrested.

“They really are such a joyful, tolerant bunch,” Gaines responded to the video of the far-left violence. Later adding: “Your tax dollars fund this degeneracy.”

Last week, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from seeking to deport anti-Israel, pro-Hamas Columbia University student protester Moshen Mahdawi and ordered his release from prison. His arrest sparked a slew of liberal media attention, particularly on CBS’s lead shows, CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News.

On the latter’s Monday edition (and then the former on Tuesday), correspondent Lila Luciano reunited with this kindred spirt on the far-left for another sympathetic sit-down.

 

 

CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson solemnly set the table:

A Palestinian activist at Columbia University who was detained and ordered deported by the Trump administration tells us he plans to continue to speak out against the war in Gaza. Our Lilia Luciano spoke with Mohsen Mahdawi, hours before he was taken into custody in Vermont last month. Now she has his first TV interview since his release.

Of course, Luciano never said a word about how, along with saying he felt sympathy for Hamas’s animalistic attacks on October 7, 2023, he’s previously said he “used to build…submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine.”

Mahdawi said his “freedom signals a light of hope” and, after being asked what he “felt” when he learned he’d be released, added he “was reassured in my heart of the belief that justice will prevail and the justice system is functioning.”

Give him the Nobel Peace Prize must have been Luciano’s implicit argument with this framing (click “expand”):

LUCIANO: After 16 days in detention, he walked out of the courthouse and spoke to a group of supporters. He had a message for President Trump.

MAHDAWI: I am not afraid of you.

LUCIANO: Why was it important for you to speak directly to Donald Trump as you were walking out free?

MAHDAWI: There is this philosophy of intimidation, of punitive justice. So, I wanted to share to them that you can do whatever you want. You will not silence me. We stand tall.

She gave the failing newscast’s paltry viewership a brief recap, lamenting he “led student protests against the war in Gaza” and “was arrested last month while attending his final citizenship test.”

“Masked agents, loaded with guns, separated me, isolated me from my lawyer, did not allow for any conversation of like — let me see the order that you have or what’s happening – and I said, I am a peaceful man,” he complained.

Luciano left aside other rhetoric such as a letter by the group he led at Columbia that seemed to endorse the October 7 atrocities: “If every political avenue available to Palestinians is blocked, we should not be surprised when resistance and violence breaks out.”

Having left things like that on the cutting room floor, Luciano allowed Mahdawi to combat a strawman and insist he himself is the person “advocating for justice and peace” (click “expand”):

LUCIANO: We were there as federal agents took him away on orders by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alleging the Columbia University protests were anti-Semitic. [TO MAHDAWI] He accuses you of potentially undermining the peace process underway in the Middle East.

MAHDAWI: It’s laughable. A person who has been vocally advocating for justice and peace is undermining U.S. policy?

LUCIANO: Despite his imprisonment, Mahdawi says he will continue to protest.

MAHDAWI: I wasn’t afraid when they detained me. I was not afraid when I get out of detention, and I am not afraid to share my voice.

It made sense in further validating the prediction by our Jorge Bonilla that Mahdawi was seen by some in the liberal media as a far-more-compelling hero/victim of mass deportations compared to the man they’ve tried to paint as father of the year, El Salvador’s Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

With more establishment sites like Axios and USA Today opening the door to Garcia being a bad hombre, it was time they flocked to someone else.

To see the relevant CBS transcript from May 5, click “expand.”

CBS Evening News
May 5, 2025
6:33 p.m. Eastern

JOHN DICKERSON: A Palestinian activist at Columbia University who was detained and ordered deported by the Trump administration tells us he plans to continue to speak out against the war in Gaza. Our Lilia Luciano spoke with Mohsen Mahdawi, hours before he was taken into custody in Vermont last month. Now she has his first TV interview since his release.

MOHSEN MAHDAWI: My freedom signals a light of hope.

LILIA LUCIANO: Mohsen Mahdawi says he was hopeful but surprised when a federal judge ordered his release last week. [TO MAHDAWI] Do you remember what you felt at that moment?

MAHDAWI: I was reassured in my heart of the belief that justice will prevail and the justice system is functioning.

LUCIANO: After 16 days in detention, he walked out of the courthouse and spoke to a group of supporters. He had a message for President Trump.

MAHDAWI: I am not afraid of you.

LUCIANO: Why was it important for you to speak directly to Donald Trump as you were walking out free?

MAHDAWI: There is this philosophy of intimidation, of punitive justice. So, I wanted to share to them that you can do whatever you want. You will not silence me. We stand tall.

 LUCIANO: Mahdawi, a Palestinian green card holder, led student protests against the war in Gaza. He was arrested last month while attending his final citizenship test.

MAHDAWI: Masked agents, loaded with guns, separated me, isolated me from my lawyer, did not allow for any conversation of like – let me see the order that you have or what’s happening – and I said, I am a peaceful man.

LUCIANO: We were there as federal agents took him away on orders by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alleging the Columbia University protests were anti-Semitic. [TO MAHDAWI] He accuses you of potentially undermining the peace process underway in the Middle East.

MAHDAWI: It’s laughable. A person who has been vocally advocating for justice and peace is undermining U.S. policy?

LUCIANO: Despite his imprisonment, Mahdawi says he will continue to protest.

MAHDAWI: I wasn’t afraid when they detained me. I was not afraid when I get out of detention, and I am not afraid to share my voice.

DICKERSON: That was Lilia Luciano reporting from Vermont.

With our fourth annual Bulldog Awards in six categories announced today, the Media Research Center is honoring conservatives in the media who truly deserve accolades yet will never receive them from the news media establishment.

The winners of the MRC’s 2025 Bulldog Awards: Thomas Sowell, Elon Musk, Megyn Kelly, Scott Jennings, Kimberley Strassel, Erick Erickson, Gabe Kaminsky and Spencer Lindquist.

The biggest journalism awards, the Pulitzer Prizes, were announced on Monday, May 5. As usual, they honored journalists who pushed liberal agenda topics. (See the bottom of this post for some examples.)

“As trust in left-wing media continues to collapse, independent news sources featuring fearless truth-tellers are on the rise,” said Brent Baker, MRC Vice President for Research and Publications. “This year’s MRC Bulldog winners are replacing discredited leftists who claim to report the news, yet failed the American people when it came to stories like the Russiagate scandal and Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. Congratulations to this year’s winners!”

Previous: 2022, 2023 and 2024 Bulldog winners.

Details on the eight winners of the MRC’s 2025 Bulldog Awards announced Tuesday, May 6:

♦ 2025 MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement: Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell’s decades of work distinguish him as one of the most important and influential figures in the conservative movement, a brilliant intellectual who for decades led the charge against the worst ideas of liberal orthodoxy and the media establishment.

Sowell biographer Jason Riley hailed his “intellectual integrity, analytical rigor, respect for evidence, skepticism toward the kind of fashionable thinking that comes and goes. And then there’s the clarity. Column after column, book after book, written in plain English for general public consumption.”

His invincible analysis has, as the Manhattan Institute noted, “enraged fellow intellectuals, the civil-rights establishment, and much of the mainstream media. The result has been a lack of acknowledgment of his scholarship among critics who prioritize political correctness.”

His credentials, which include an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a PhD in economics, easily could have earned him a comfortable spot among America’s intellectual elite. But instead, he chose to dedicate much of his career to exposing the awful ideas of academia.

He is currently the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution, where he has worked since 1977.

♦ 2025 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Social Media Personality: Elon Musk

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk completely changed the battle for free speech by purchasing the censorship-obsessed Twitter in October 2022, soon cleaning house by re-engineering its staff and platform into the phenomenal digital town square it is today.

Since then, Musk has been an outspoken champion for freedom of speech, completely unfazed by his numerous censorial critics in the liberal media and world leaders that have sought to silence him. His social media presence has since exploded to over 219 million followers as he continues to share his unvarnished opinions to the world, becoming arguably the most powerful voice in the free speech movement. As Musk himself stated during an X Space interview in January 2025, “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy.”

Musk’s leadership, innumerable posts and direct interactions with X users have shifted the global political dynamic. He has become a voice for the multitudes who have been censored for expressing their views by his tyrannical Silicon Valley competitors like Meta, Google and TikTok.

♦ 2025 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Podcast: Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly has become an independent podcast powerhouse resisting the liberal media after her career at Fox News and a brief stop with NBC News. She has a daily show the SiriusXM satellite radio service and The Megyn Kelly Show has become one of the top ten podcasts in America. Her YouTube channel alone has more than 3.5 million subscribers.

She describes The Megyn Kelly Show as “your home for open, honest and provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal and cultural figures. No BS. No agenda. And no fear.” Her show regularly features prominent experts, as her audience can count on her to deliver pointed and informed takes on the news of the day, almost always providing a fresh perspective not addressed by the legacy media.

On the 2024 campaign, Kelly mocked the media for acting in sync “like a school of salmon, to support the Democratic candidate, whoever it might be.”

Kelly has recently expanded her reach. In February, she started AM Update with Megyn Kelly, a “15-minute dive into the biggest stories of the day” for SiriusXM. She’s also recently become a major player in the podcast space, launching MK Media, a network of podcasts.

♦ 2025 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Achievement Behind Enemy Lines:Scott Jennings

As a CNN senior political commentator, Scott Jennings has become a household name for his clear-sighted analysis and jovial attitude amid often multiple ferocious debates in segments in which he’s most often in the ideological minority. His viral moments drive the conversation on social media as he defends conservative principles, the Trump agenda, and Western civilization with facts and disarming humor.

Jennings’s appearances — which range from early-morning to primetime, and overnight on convention, debate, and election nights — have become appointment viewing, particularly on CNN’s NewsNight With Abby Phillip where he’s always outnumbered by fellow panelists and the hostile host. Whether it’s standing up for conservatives on the border and the economy, delivering fact-checks of liberal falsehoods, demanding honest debate in the public sphere, or lambasting the left’s collective cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, few have so quickly captured the attention of conservatives and the ire of angered liberals.

In addition to serving as co-founder of RunSwitch Public Relations and past roles on Capitol Hill and the George W. Bush administration, Jennings is also the host of the Flyover Country podcast and a columnist with the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Mail.

♦ 2025 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Columnist: Kimberley Strassel

Kimberley Strassel is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. Since 2007 she has written the weekly “Potomac Watch” column, printed on Fridays, and has worked for the Journal in Brussels, London, and New York. She lives in Alaska, giving her a wider view of the world not so centered on the liberal coasts and the DC beltway.

Strassel’s columns combine reporting with incisive analysis to give her readers the big picture takeaways on major political players and trends. Her columns during the fall campaign in 2024 explored how Democrats “trash-talked” the voters, and Kamala Harris borrowed Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” as Harris contended Trump was “harmful” and easily “manipulated” and stands for fascism “to his core.” She observed that “Mrs. Clinton battered Mr. Trump in 2016 as more toxic than botulism, utterly unfit for the Oval Office,” but that message didn’t lead to victory.

In addition to her column, she’s a regular on the Fox News Channel’s The Journal Editorial Report. She also offers her opinions in the Potomac Watch podcast and the All Things with Kim Strassel newsletter. She has also authored books, most recently “The Biden Malaise: How America Bounces Back from Joe Biden’s Dismal Repeat of the Jimmy Carter Years.”

♦ 2025 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Radio Talk Show Host: Erick Erickson

A former guest-host for Rush Limbaugh, the Atlanta-based Erick Erickson proudly calls the late-great conservative talk show host a “mentor.” Erickson has done his best to follow in the footsteps of the revered Limbaugh by blending humor with hard-hitting and sometimes unpredictable political analysis.

Erickson got his start in radio when Herman Cain left his timeslot to run for president in 2010. Cox Media offered Erickson the spot. While initially reluctant to turn his back on his political and legal career, Erickson was pushed into the radio gig by Limbaugh: “Rush insisted he’d never talk to me again if I didn’t get on the radio. So I did.”

Erickson holds down the old Limbaugh timeslot (12-3pm ET) where he’s tops in the Atlanta radio ratings at 95.5 WSB. His show is nationally syndicated on about 60 stations. In addition to his weekly radio show, Erickson has a popular podcast and Substack site/email newsletter.

Previously, Erickson had been a political contributor for CNN (three years) and Fox News (five years). Erickson also wrote for The Resurgent and was Editor-in-Chief and CEO of the RedState blog. On a personal note, Erickson has inspired his audience with heroic tales of the battle with cancer by his wife Christy.

♦ 2025 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalist: Gabe Kaminsky

Gabe Kaminsky, who joined The Free Press in February this year, had spent the previous two years as an investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner as an indispensable expert on liberal dark money groups, particularly the behemoth Arabella Advisors.

Kaminsky was the lead reporter behind the exposure of the Global Disinformation Index, a State Department-funded entity tasked with creating a blacklist of conservative websites to then share with advertisers in an attempt to censor them. By December 2024, the Biden administration notified Congress it would be shutting down.

In 2024, Kaminsky hit the ground running by exposing the far-left groups trying to remove Donald Trump from the ballot as funded by dark money groups and quantifying the millions wasted (over $16 million) on DEI trainings. Another report torpedoed Cori Bush’s career in Congress by revealing that three-quarters of a million dollars was spent on her private security.

Kaminsky showed his versatility with revealing reports, from a major Biden donor’s ties to an investment group linked to the Chinese Communist Party to George Soros pledging six figures to Hamas propaganda groups and fraudulent local news operations to Kamala Harris encouraging donations to 2020 Black Lives Matter rioters.

Kaminsky is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Young America’s Foundation’s National Journalism Center.

♦ 2025 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Blogger: Spencer Lindquist

Spencer Lindquist is a blogger for The Daily Wire Web site whose impeccable reporting has provided a national spotlight on Colony Ridge, Texas, a new town north of Houston that Lindquist described, in his first investigation in September 2023, as a plot of land the size of Washington, D.C. “where thousands of illegal immigrants are believed to have settled, raising concerns among experts and elected officials.”

Since then, he’s documented rising crime in the greater Colony Ridge area, including a child abduction, drug overdoses, drug trafficking, drunk driving, murders, and hideouts for criminal illegal immigrants. Despite that, Lindquist reported that developers view mass immigration as a business opportunity, including the systematic targeting of illegal immigrants by allowing them to purchase land without a Social Security number.

Lindquist’s reporting in 2024 showed that, in addition to two illegal immigrant murder suspects having been found within Colony Ridge, a Guatemalan national and Colony Ridge property owner was arrested as part of a “mass casualty smuggling event.”

Thanks to Lindquist’s reporting, Colony Ridge has been put squarely in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, including immigration operations that have nabbed over 100 illegal aliens and MS-13 gang members.

Formerly a reporter with Breitbart News and contributor to The Federalist, Spencer is a 2022 graduate of Pepperdine University.

2025 Pulitzer Prizes. As noted above, the biggest journalism awards were announced on May 5. Inevitably, they honored journalists who pushed liberal agenda topics, but not any conservative outlet or agenda topic.

Pulitzer Prizes administrator Marjorie Miller set the left-wing tone by claiming criticism of the news media is “an attempt to erode the First Amendment of our Constitution.” She championed how the finalists and winners displayed “courageous reporting and impactful storytelling from unbowed newsrooms.” (X video of her introductory comments.)

Examples of winners awarded for advancing liberal causes:

> ProPublica got the “Public Service” prize for “urgent reporting…about pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgently needed care for fear of violating vague ‘life of the mother’ exceptions in states with strict abortion laws.”

> Mosab Abu Toha of The New Yorker earned the “Commentary” prize “for essays on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience of more than a year and a half of war with Israel.”

> Former Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who quit the paper when it decided to not print her repetitive cartoon ridiculing tech and media billionaires for their subservience to President Trump, garnered the “Illustrated Reporting and Commentary” prize “for delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.”

> 2024 MRC Bulldog Award winners (Lifetime Achievement: Victor Davis Hanson)

> 2023 MRC Bulldog Award winners

> 2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement: Brit Hume

> 2022 MRC Bulldog Award winners

> 2022 MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement: Cal Thomas

Which way is it? On the one hand leftist journalists complain that Donald Trump is violating the Constitution with his attacks on the media, judges, universities and his deportation of illegal immigrants.  

On the other hand, why should they care? Since some of them think the Constitution is worthless anyway? 

This past month The Nation justice correspondent and frequent MSNBC contributor Elie Mystal called our founding document a “piece of crap.” 

Yet the likes of New York Times columnist and PBS contributor David Brooks have bemoaned Trump’s “destruction of our institutions” like the “universities” and “the media.” This as Brooks and his ilk cheered on the “heroic” judge who helped an illegal immigrant escape. 

Former MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews compared the administration’s deportation plans to the “Holocaust.” 

Loony celebrities chimed in too. Comedian/actress Rosie O’Donnell fled to Ireland because she couldn’t bear to watch Trump’s destruction of “the country and the Constitution.” 

The following are just a few of the awful outbursts from leftist journalists and celebrities over the last month:

 

Elie Mystal: U.S. Constitution Is a “Piece of Crap”

 

 

“When South Africa got over apartheid, did they just go back to their Afrikaner racist constitution…No! They threw the whole thing out and started again….and they came up with a new constitution. It’s one of the reasons why the South African constitution is generally thought of as one of the best constitutions in the world and ours continues to be a piece of crap.”— The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal on the syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club, April 3.

 

Judge Who Allegedly Helped An Illegal Immigrant Escape is “Heroic” 

 

 

“On the issue of immigration, there are a lot of people who are appalled by what the administration is doing. And there will be times for civil disobedience….Let’s say she [Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan] did escort this guy out the door. If federal enforcement agencies come to your courtroom and you help a guy escape, that is two things. One, it strikes me as maybe something illegal, but it also strikes me as something heroic.”— New York Times columnist/PBS contributor David Brooks on PBS’s News Hour, April 29.

 

Chris Matthews: Trump’s Deportation Plan Reminds Me of the “Holocaust” 

 

 

“The fact that Trump is willing to say American citizens should be allowed to be sent overseas for punishment does something that rhymes very much with what happened in the Holocaust. That Germany was able to take people in France, Jewish people, and deport them to the east, and even the word deport was similar. So why would Trump personally say I’m going to take regular American citizens and deport them? It sounds like he wants to be seen as an autocrat.”— Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews on his Substack show Hardball, April 21.

 

Symone Sanders: “People of Color” Are “Next In Line” to Be Snatched Off the Street

 

 

“If they [Trump administration] could snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse, they will do it to any of us. To be very clear, it’s going to be the people of color and vulnerable communities that are next in line.”— Host Symone Sanders on MSNBC’s The Weekend, April 19.

 

Don Lemon: “Hatred and Bigotry” Is What Makes the “MAGA Wheel Spin”

 

 

“There’s a reason that there’s so much hate going around. There’s a reason that there’s so much anti-Semitism and so much racism going around….You can place it at the feet of one person [Donald Trump] who didn’t start this but certainly exacerbates it and foments hate and bigotry…. The racism. The bigotry. The anti-Semitism. The transphobia. The homophobia. It certainly does happen on one side more than the other….That’s the thing that makes the MAGA wheel spin. That’s the motor. That’s the axle. Is hatred and bigotry.”— Former CNN anchor Don Lemon discussing the arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor’s mansion as aired on his podcast The Don Lemon Show podcast, April 14.

 

Lemon Defends His Fellow “Fascism” Fighters Against Racists Like Megyn Kelly and Trump

“She [Joy Reid] was a strong opposition to the fascism that she, as a smart woman, saw coming. It made people uncomfortable, it made the media bosses uncomfortable, and they said, ‘you gotta get rid of her.’…Tiffany Cross, who used to call Megyn Kelly out for what she was, a racist, bigoted you-know-what. And instead, what happened? She got fired because someone said, ‘you gotta get rid of that because we don’t want you saying that about someone like that.’…Megyn Kelly, as offensive as she is, they’re comfortable with her. Number one, because of what she looks like, she’s a blonde white lady. She’s racist, she spouts racist things, she says things that they think and they would not dare say for themselves.”— Former CNN host Don Lemon on The Don Lemon Show podcast, April 17.

 

“77 Million White Supremacists” Elected Trump

 

 

“I’m focused not on the 77 million white supremacists that voted for Donald Trump….I can’t help them, right? That is between them and their God. I’m worried about the 90 million people who sat on their couch – the 90 million eligible voters who sat on their couch and didn’t take a stand on ‘fascism or no.’”— The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal on MSNBC’s The Katie Phang Show, April 5.

 

Trump Voters Threw the “Republic Into the Trash”

 

 

“The choice that they’ve [Trump voters] made — we have to just be honest — is to literally throw the republic into the trash bin….We chose a felon who is more interested in loyalty, who’s more interested in retribution, who’s more interested in grift than in democracy. And we chose a felon because we didn’t want to elect a black woman….We would rather destroy the republic than for that to have happened.” — MSNBC contributor/Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, April 7.

 

David Brooks: Must Stop Trump’s “Destruction” of “Institutions of Civilization”

“Trump is really about amassing power. And anything that might potentially restrain his power, he will destroy. And that includes the court systems and anything part of that livens humanity. It includes the universities, the scientific community, the truth, the media….All these different sectors have to get together and form one big civic movement. And it can’t be political. It’s not Democrats versus Republicans. It’s not left versus right. It’s institutions versus the destruction of our institutions of civilization.”— New York Times columnist/PBS contributor David Brooks on PBS’s News Hour, April 18.

 

Democrats Should be “Shouting from the Mountain Tops” About Trump “Autocracy”

“I know Democrats get a lot of heat from Republicans about being too alarmist and talk about democracy being in peril too much. If we are in the position like we were in the 1930s, do you think talking about that too much is a problem? A collapsed economy is an open door to autocracy and that is what Democrats should be shouting from the mountain tops.”— Boston Globe opinion editor Kimberly Atkins Stohr on NBC’s Meet the Press, April 13.

 

Chuck Todd: Media Didn’t Cover for Biden, That’s a “Manufactured Right Wing Premise”

 

 

“This is not a media failure. This was a failure of the Democratic Party. And I just sort of, sort of the virtue signaling that some people have done to try to say that the media missed this story [Joe Biden’s decline]. They didn’t miss this story….I just refuse to accept this, this stupid premise because it’s a right-wing manufactured, right-wing premise in order to, to stain in the media.”— Former NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd on Chris Cillizza’s Substack podcast, April 28.

 

Overly Defensive Eugene Daniels: “We Care Deeply About Accuracy”

 

 

“We [journalists] care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public’s trust. What we are not is the opposition. What we are not is the enemy of the people. And what we are not is the enemy of the state.”— White House Correspondents’ Association President and MSNBC correspondent Eugene Daniels at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, April 26.

 

Thanks to Trump “We No Longer Live In” In a “Democracy”

 

 

“Trump is treating the justice system the way the head — the father of this patrimonialistic system would treat it. And he’s going after things that are just personal. And so that’s the erosion of democracy, which is supposed to be about clear laws that apply to everybody. And we no longer live in that system.”— New York Times columnist David Brooks on PBS’s News Hour, April 11.

 

Women Love CEO Killer Because a “Morally Good Man” is “Hard to Find”

 

 

“So you’re going to see women, especially that feel like, ‘Oh, my god, right. Like, here’s this man [CEO killer Luigi Menagione] who’s a revolutionary, who’s famous, who’s handsome, who’s young, who’s smart. He’s a person that seems this like this morally good man,’ which is hard to find.”— Former Washington Post columnist/New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz to correspondent Donie O’Sullivan on CNN’s Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, April 13.

 

CNNer In Denial About Harvard’s Leftism

“There’s plenty of conservatives that have come from Harvard: Tom Cotton, Neil Gorsuch, Ted Cruz, you know, over the years, Harvard has produced a lot of conservatives. So, the idea that Harvard is some cesspool of leftist thinking….certainly what the President believes is, not quite what we know is true.”— CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez on CNN’s The Situation Room, April 17.

 

Ana Navarro: Comatose Joe Biden Better Than Donald Trump

“I always said I would prefer – you know – Joe Biden in a coma, over Trump, and I maintain that.”— Co-host Ana Navarro on ABC’s The View, April 4. 

 

“Some Are Going to Die” Under “Trump Slump”

 

 

Co-host Sunny Hostin: “Some people will become unhoused. Some people will not be able to feed their children. Some people will not be able to educate.”Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “Some are going to die. Let’s not get away from that.”…Hostin: “We need to name what it is. Because we had someone saying this is Trump’s economy. This is Trump’s economy. We should call this the Trump slump.”— ABC’s The View, April 8. 

 

Comedian: We’ll Stop Calling Trump “Hitler,” When He Stops Doing “Hitler Things”

“The right often gets mad when Trump is compared to Hitler. Then I would say, ‘Have him stop doing Hitler things.’ If you don’t want him to be compared to Hitler, maybe he should stop doing Hitler things. Maybe Elon Musk — his friend — should stop doing Hitler things if they don’t want to be compared to Hitler. And, of course, I’m referring to the Nazi salute he did — the two of them.”— Comedian/former CNN host W. Kamau Bell on MSNBC’s Ayman, April 27.

 

Rosie O’Donnell Was So Scared of Trump Destroying the Country, She Fled to Ireland

 

 

“I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country….I knew that if I was in the United States and watched him destroy the country and the Constitution and really pay no mind to any of the laws that the Founders stood by and that our country stands for as a beacon of shining light and freedom for the rest of the world, that should he do what the Heritage Foundation said he was going to do in that Project 2025, that we were going to be in big trouble.”— Comedian Rosie O’Donnell discussing why she moved to Ireland on CNN’s The Situation Room, April 22.

 

Actor Bradley Whitford: “Christian Faith” Has Been “Weaponized” 

 

 

“During the time of this show [Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale], things — women’s health has been politicized in a way that I never could have imagined ten years ago. There are 64,000 pregnant rape victims in the country now without access to health care. We’ve seen, you know, Christian faith sort of weaponized in the service of fascism, so it’s terribly relevant.”— Actor Bradley Whitford on NBC’s Today, April 8.

 

After Trump, America Doing the “Right Thing” Is “In the Past”

“When O.J. was found not guilty, I was just absolutely shocked. I had that same feeling [when Donald Trump was elected in 2016]. I had this faith in America that was shaken, and I still am not over it. I thought that when it comes down to it, this country, we do the right thing. That’s obviously in the past.”— Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in April 15 Rolling Stone interview. 

 

Amber Ruffin: I Couldn’t Be Fair to a White House That “Rolled Back” Civil Rights and Disappeared People

“I lost the [White House Correspondents Association Dinner] gig because I was out here talking shit, and I think it’s a good thing that I lost the gig because I was going to show up there and act all the way out….It’s not anyone’s fault because when I was hired, we were like, ‘Oh yeah, and we’ll give it to everybody.’ And I was like, bet! Then they started fucking disappearing people to a prison in El Salvador. They rolled back fucking civil rights. So I was like, if I make this equal, then I’m also a piece of shit. I can’t fucking do that.”— Comedian Amber Ruffin on CNN’s Have I Got News For You, April 5.