Newsbusters

Saturday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Weekend absolutely tore into Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for rounding up a sufficient number of his fellow Dem senators to vote for the continuing resolution and avoid a government shutdown.

Co-host Michael Steele said Republicans had demonstrated their ability to “absolutely punk” Schumer.

Then it was Donna Edwards’ turn to dump on Schumer. The former Democrat congresswoman, now an MSNBC analyst, said Schumer’s actions were a “black mark, a stain,” on his leadership. She called support for the CR by 10 Democrat senators an “absolute disaster.”

And then there was the ever-emotive Symone Sanders. The co-host said she was “pissed” by Schumer, who “folded like a paper napkin.” Sanders declared that she is “going to change my registration to independent.” In becoming an independent, Symone follows in the footsteps of another Sanders — Bernie — for whom she served as press secretary in his 2016 presidential campaign.

When co-host Alicia Menendez shared the scuttlebutt that “members of the Democratic caucus [are] privately encouraging Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to primary Schumer,” Sanders muttered, “anyone, anyone.” Presumably meaning that any Democrat could and should primary Schumer. 

The thought has undoubtedly crossed Ocasio-Cortez’s mind. After all, she was first elected to Congress in 2018 after her stunning primary defeat of another long-time, prominent incumbent, Joseph Crowley, who had been tipped as a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi as Speaker.

The only panelist who supported Schumer’s move was Charlie Dent. But he did so for all the wrong reasons. 

Dent is a Never Trumper Republican congressman from Pennsylvania. After having incited Donald Trump’s ire for crossing him on various issues, Dent was facing almost certain defeat in a Republican primary, and chose instead not to seek re-election in 2018. Dent endorsed Biden in 2020.

Dent argued that if the CR vote failed and there were a shutdown, it would give Trump the opportunity to label countless federal employees “non-essential,” making it unlikely they’d ever be called back to work, thus adding to the fired-bureaucrat list already piled up by DOGE/Musk.

Bottom line: Looks like Democrats have learned nothing from their 2024 defeat. They appear determined to hew to their hard-left line. We can joke about AOC-Jasmine Crockett ’28, but with each passing day, that prospect becomes increasingly realistic.

Here’s the transcript.

MSNBC
The Weekend
8:02 am EDT

MICHAEL STEELE: What are Republicans thinking right now about their ability to absolute, absolutely punk Schumer into making this move the way he did when he knew that that’s not where his party was?

. . . 

DONNA EDWARDS: Look, I think that, you know, the reality here is there was no message, no strategy, and at the end of the day, no leadership. And this is really a black mark, I think, on Chuck Schumer . . . And I think this is a real black mark, a stain on Chuck Schumer’s leadership. 

. . . 

SYMONE SANDERS: And I’m pissed. Okay, so, you know, there’s actually little that the Senate Minority Leader can say, and the 10 Democrats that voted with the Republicans can say, to appease somebody like me. 

I’m going to change my registration to independent. 

. . . 

There’s not another option for Senate or Democratic or Senate Democrats or House Democrats to effectively push back. This was it. They blew it. The Democratic Tea Party was born the same day that Chuck Schumer took to that podium to read that very well-crafted statement that told us he folded like a paper napkin. 

. . . 

ALICIA MENENDEZ:  And that’s why you have members of the Democratic caucus privately encouraging Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to primary Schumer. 

SANDERS: Anyone can primary him. Anyone.

STEELE: So on that point [chuckles], which was very well stated, I might add.

. .  . 

EDWARDS: Well, I think this is an absolute disaster. One, because of what it signals to Republicans, that there’s a willingness to cave, that there’s a desire to cave when you’re not getting anything out of it. 

January 6.

Simply to say the two words will elicit, depending on the political views of the listener, everything from a head shaking to a roll of the eyes or more.

Which is to say the date of the events in Washington on January 6, 2021 is, thanks to a saturated media coverage that has never really gone away a full four years later, immutable. 

And here’s where the always left-wing bias of the so-called “mainstream media” shows itself.

This very week left-wing, Trump-hating protestors swarmed New York’s Trump Tower, home to you know who. They were there to protest the arrest of pro-Hamas agitator Mahmoud Khalil. 

NBC headlined the story this way: 

Nearly 100 protesters arrested after sit-in at Trump Tower in NYC to demand release of Mahmoud Khalil 

Some protesters held signs that read “Fight Nazis not students,” “Free Mahmoud free Palestine” and “You can’t deport a movement.”

Headlines like that one were salted throughout the media. NBC quoted a “Jewish Voice for Peace” protester suggesting Trump could unleash another Holocaust.

Question? How long will the coverage of this event, let alone the media memory of it, last?

Let’s go back in time. Beginning on May 26, 2020, there were a series of riots in various urban centers around the country. The cause: the death of one George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer while under arrest. 

The episode caught on video and spread almost instantly across the media. According to Axios, “the arson, vandalism and looting that did occur will result in at least $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims — eclipsing the record set in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers who brutalized Rodney King.”

Safe to say, most Americans go about their daily business today and could not give the date of the 19 deaths associated with the Floyd riots and the damage inflicted at that time. But the media spin remains positive: the word “riots” is not used. They “inspired a global reckoning with racism.”

Notice anything?

The coverage of the events of January 6th, a full four years ago, is to this day commonly used by those in the leftist media to make this, that or another political point in the media. In fact, reference to January 6 can be found this very week. As here:

From CNN: 

Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans are at odds over January 6 investigation 

From the New York Times: 

Judge Pushes Back on Justice Dept.’s Broad View of Jan. 6 Pardons

The judge, Dabney L. Friedrich, chided the department for the way in which it had “abruptly reversed its position” on the issue “with virtually no explanation.” 

Does anyone seriously believe that four years from now – for that matter four days from now – the media will still be talking about this week’s invasion of Trump Tower? Of course not. And the reason is plain.

Any violent civil disturbance in which the perpetrators are seen as right-wingers is going to receive considerable negative coverage from the liberal media.

But if the perpetrators are seen as left wingers? Launching those massive, violent and destructive riots in cities across America after the George Floyd situation? Fairly quickly mum’s the media word. The House January 6 Committee was created with the express intention of memory-holing the 2020 riots. There is no automatic reference out there in the media to the Floyd riots as an “insurrection”, as is still true of references to January 6. 

Which is to say, the standard for massive, ongoing “don’t ever forget” media coverage of a protest or riot all depends on who launched the events in question. 

January 6th? Never forget. 

The Floyd riots? What riots? When? Who is George Floyd?

The protest invaders of Trump Tower? Huh? 

All of which is to say, the lefty bias of media coverage of even civil disturbances in America are going to receive very, very different treatment. Different treatment that relies completely on just which side is seen as being involved in the event. Which in turn easily contributes to the perception that those darn right-wingers are prone to violence or just civic disruption. But the Left? What BLM riots? What Trump Tower invasion? 

All of which is, yet again, one reason for the very existence of conservative media. To keep the record straight.

MSNBC’s Sam Stein traveled over to HBO and Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday to express his disappointment in conservatives for not defending Mahmoud Khalil as he faces deportation for his role in pro-Hamas demonstrations at Columbia University. As Stein tells it, people who made such a big deal about cancel culture on campus need to stand up and claim, “This is chilling.”

Stein began by declaring, “I will say, I find this one not even close. This is such an easy call. And in fact, I’m—I find it chilling what’s going on. Of course, what Mahmoud Khalil represents to me, as a Jew, I find abhorrent, I don’t have any sympathy for Hamas, and I don’t know if he necessarily does, but he’s certainly advocating for things that are closely associated with what they are trying to achieve.”

 

 

However, Stein claimed, “The fact is the government of the United States went into a college campus and policed protest and policed speech, and if you don’t see a problem with that, that’s a problem.”

Stein also claimed that “Secondarily, I think it’s stupid what they did because the goal here is for them to try to suppress these viewpoints, ultimately that’s what they are trying to do, right? They want to win these arguments. What they’ve done is effectively turn this guy into a martyr and they’ve made him a cause.”

Finally, Stein turned to conservatives, “I can’t fathom that people who—especially with respect to college culture, there is always canceled culture on college campuses and they made that a huge cause for free speech. I’m deeply disappointed that those voices have not stood up and said this is wrong, this is chilling, and it should stop.”

What Stein failed to see is that in both cases conservatives are against the mob. When a conservative speaker uses a classroom or a lecture hall and is shouted down by people hoping to use the hecklers’ veto or is disinvited after a pressure campaign, that is cancel culture. That is not the same thing as there being consequences for illegal behavior, such as the occupation of school property or harassing others.

Here is a transcript for the March 14 show:

HBO Real Time with Bill Maher

3/14/2025

10:37 PM ET

SAM STEIN: I will say, I find this one not even close. This is such an easy call. And in fact, I’m—I find it chilling what’s going on. Of course, what Mahmoud Khalil represents to me, as a Jew, I find abhorrent, I don’t have any sympathy for Hamas, and I don’t know if he necessarily does, but he’s certainly advocating for things that are closely associated with what they are trying to achieve. 

The fact is the government of the United States went into a college campus and policed protest and policed speech, and if you don’t see a problem with that, that’s a problem.

Secondarily, I think it’s stupid what they did because the goal here is for them to try to suppress these viewpoints, ultimately that’s what they are trying to do, right? They want to win these arguments. What they’ve done is effectively turn this guy into a martyr and they’ve made him a cause and I can’t fathom that people who — especially with respect to college culture, there is always canceled culture on college campuses and they made that a huge cause for free speech. I’m deeply disappointed that those voices have not stood up and said this is wrong, this is chilling, and it should stop.

Bill Burr seems immune to Trump Derangement Syndrome.

The stand-up avoids overtly political narratives, focusing on life’s little hypocrisies. Or big ones.

He’s no Colbert, Kimmel or Oliver, and he hasn’t spent the past eight-plus years laser-focused on the “Apprentice” star’s every move.

He’s also not afraid to poke the woke bear. He did just that via Netflix’s “Paper Tiger” special.

 

 

Lately, though, Burr has been taking a hard turn to the Left. He dismissed the notion that California Democrats were to blame for some of the wildfires’ damage, for example. The facts scream otherwise.

Burr cheered on Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing a health care CEO in cold blood.

Now, Burr is channeling his rage against X owner Elon Musk. The comic insists Musk’s awkward hand gestures at the President Donald Trump inauguration gala showed his support for Adolf Hitler.

It’s the kind of partisan idiocy embraced only by extremists like “The View” hosts. Burr insists there’s no other explanation. Never mind the endless clips of Democratic leaders doing similar gestures, or the complete lack of Nazi-esque behaviors by the world’s richest man.

It’s beneath a comic of Burr’s stature to embrace that line of thinking. Or is it?

Burr just doubled down on the Musk/Nazi comparison on hard-Left NPR.

“That idiot Elon Musk … That guy, who evidently is a Nazi. Like, I just refuse to believe that it was an accidental, two-times Sieg heil, and he does it at a presidential inauguration. This is why I hate liberals. It’s like liberals have no teeth, whatsoever.”

He hates liberals because too many won’t jump to his insane conclusion.

“They just go, ’Oh my God! Can you believe it? I’m getting out of the country!′ You’re going to leave the country ’cause of one guy with dyed hair plugs and a laminated face who makes a bad car and has an obsolete social media platform?

“You’re going to leave? Why doesn’t he leave? Why isn’t he stopped?”

Stopped? How? Luigi Mangione style? What is Musk’s crime, beyond creating electric vehicles via his Tesla corporation?

Has Burr read the headlines about terrorist-style attacks on Tesla dealerships? Did he miss the images of people hoping to take out Musk … permanently?

 

Troll arrested for threatening to ‘gut’ Elon Musk and ‘parade his corpse through the streets’ https://t.co/kCHsFW3XRO pic.twitter.com/kBeLdg4a1u
— New York Post (@nypost) February 26, 2025
 

Politics aside, doesn’t Burr realize how influential Musk has been in the fight for free speech?

Perhaps Burr prefers Twitter 1.0 when conservative voices were silenced and the platform did the government’s censorial bidding. Is that what a stand-up comedian who relies on free speech to make a living craves? Really?

Or is he making a concerted push to the Left to snag a talk show or other progressive gig?

There’s only one firm explanation here. Burr is gorging on Legacy Media’s spin regarding Musk. And, sadly, he’s become the most public face of Musk Derangement Syndrome. And he won’t be the last.

The three broadcast networks of ABC, NBC, and CBS took different approaches to the news that more Columbia University students have been arrested, but none of them were good. NBC portrayed visa enforcement as a “crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests,” while CBS ignored the reason for the arrest, and ABC ignored her previous protest-related arrest and, like the others, that this is not the first time she has had visa issues.

Friday’s edition of NBC Nightly News was also the most in-depth as Emilie Ikeda began, “Tonight President Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests ramping up, immigration agents taking a second student involved in the Columbia university demonstrations into custody. The Department of Homeland Security says, “Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from West Bank was arrested for overstaying her expired F-1 student visa.’”

 

 

In an important detail that was simply tacked on, Ikeda also noted how “she had also been arrested last spring ‘for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests.’”

None of the three networks noted how, according to the New York Post, Kordia had her visa terminated in 2021 for failing to attend classes. Making it worse for the broadcast trio, Kordia’s visa was reinstated only to be cancelled again in 2022 for the same reason.

Ikeda also reported on “another student” who “had her visa revoked and used ‘the CBP home app to self deport.’ Today’s announcement further fueling protests calling for the release of recent Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil. His legal team today releasing the blurred video of his arrest filmed by his wife from the weekend and describing in new court documents how ‘Khalil felt as though he was kidnapped.’”

After dueling soundbites from a Khalil supporter and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ikeda mourned, “While protestors line its gates, Columbia University is among dozens of schools facing mounting financial pressure to follow demands of the Trump Administration. Earlier this week, the National Institutes of Health said it’s ‘terminating more than $250 million in funding’ to Columbia ‘in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.’  Dr. Uma Reddy’s clinical trial examining maternal mortality has been halted as a result.”

Reddy added, “You know, that’s it. We can’t study it and we can’t do anything about improving deaths during the postpartum period. That’s when the majority of deaths are occurring now in the U.S.”

Perhaps Reddy should take her concerns to her colleagues who put her in this situation.

Meanwhile, over on CBS Evening News, co-host John Dickerson provided zero information on Kordia’s history of arrest, visa cancellations, or even her name, “We learned today that another Columbia University protester has been arrested, as well, and that a third has chosen to leave the country.”

 

 

On Saturday morning’s Good Morning America, ABC’s Janai Norman likewise omitted Kordia’s name and previous arrest, “The Department of Homeland Security has arrested a second student who was involved in the protests at Columbia University. A Palestinian woman was taken into custody in New York for allegedly overstaying her visa.”

This country gave Kordia a great opportunity to study here, and she responded by not even going to class. When we gave her a second chance, she still refused to go to class. Meanwhile, she helped spread hate and broke the law. She’s not a free speech martyr who is the victim of a “crackdown” on speech the administration doesn’t like.

Here are transcripts for the March 14 and 15 shows:

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt

3/14/2025

6:40 PM ET

LESTER HOLT: More protests erupting at Columbia University as federal officials arrest another student days after activist and protest leader Mahmoud Khalil was detained and set to face deportation. Here is Emilie Ikeda.

EMILIE IKEDA: Tonight President Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests ramping up, immigration agents taking a second student involved in the Columbia university demonstrations into custody. The Department of Homeland Security says “Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from West Bank was arrested for overstaying her expired F-1 student visa.”

Adding that she had also been arrested last spring “for her involvement in pro-Hamas protests.”

Another student had her visa revoked and used “the CBP home app to self deport.” Today’s announcement further fueling protests calling for the release of recent Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil. His legal team today releasing the blurred video of his arrest filmed by his wife from the weekend and describing in new court documents how “Khalil felt as though he was kidnapped.”

WOMAN: I mean it’s the McCarthy era ten times over. It’s just horrible.

IKEDA: The DHS says the 30-year old green card holder “led activities aligned to Hamas.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning today

MARCO RUBIO: We will continue to look for people we would never have allowed into this country on student visas had we known they were going to do what they have done, but now that they’ve done it, we’re going to get rid of them.

IKEDA: While protestors line its gates, Columbia University is among dozens of schools facing mounting financial pressure to follow demands of the Trump Administration. 

Earlier this week, the National Institutes of Health said it’s “terminating more than $250 million in funding” to Columbia “in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”  Dr. Uma Reddy’s clinical trial examining maternal mortality has been halted as a result.

UMA REDDY: You know, that’s it. We can’t study it and we can’t do anything about improving deaths during the postpartum period. That’s when the majority of deaths are occurring now in the U.S.

***

CBS Evening News

3/14/2025

6:35 PM ET

JOHN DICKERSON: Now some of the top stories from around the world in tonight’s Evening News roundup. Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil released video of his arrest last weekend at the New York apartment he shares with his pregnant wife. The former Columbia grad student is facing deportation for his role in campus protests against the war in Gaza. His lawyers say he was arrested by federal agents who said they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card. We learned today that another Columbia University protester has been arrested, as well, and that a third has chosen to leave the country.

***

ABC Good Morning America

3/15/2025

7:16 AM ET

JANAI NORMAN: The Department of Homeland Security has arrested a second student who was involved in the protests at Columbia University. A Palestinian woman was taken into custody in New York for allegedly overstaying her visa and now we’re seeing new video that first arrest released by lawyers for Palestinian activist and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil, who shared video of his arrest, allegedly taken by his eight-month pregnant wife, you see handcuffed and walked out of the lobby of his Columbia University-owned apartment building.

Joe Scarborough knows his MSNBC audience. He knows Democrats are depressed at their status in the minority and need some “Up With People” encouragement.

His opening of Friday’s Morning Joe was one long, self-indulgent spurt of schadenfreude over Republican struggles with liberals at town halls and rocky stock-market rides. 

Scarborough opened with an extended clip of Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards being booed and jeered at a townhall meeting in Asheville — the North Carolina equivalent of Berkeley/Portland. Bet on a lot of MSNBC fans in that crowd.

Scarborough delighted in the Edwards distress. He should have praised Edwards for it. The Republican didn’t need to hold a town hall in Asheville. Despite the uber-liberal city being in his district, Edwards won his latest election by a comfortable 13+ points. Edwards let the audience know he would be taking and answering their questions as they came out of the box, advising them that they wouldn’t like many of his answers. Edwards was even-tempered throughout, never responding in kind to the jeers and taunts.

So Scarborough could have hailed Edwards for venturing into the liberal lion’s den and maintaining his cool and good manners. But instead, he gloated over Edwards telling the crowd that they will have the right “at the next election to cast your vote based on what you hear coming from me now.”

“Yes, they will,” said a smirking Scarborough [see screencap.] He seemed to be suggesting that Edwards would lose once the libs of Asheville get the chance to vote their wrath in 2026. Wanna bet, Joe? 

Scarborough said that Republican town halls have turned contentious “over the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal force, to Elon Musk, to DOGE.” Wait a second, Joe. Aren’t you the oft self-described “small-government conservative?” Shouldn’t you be applauding these efforts? Did you imagine that shrinking the massive deep state would come without pushback from the entrenched forces?

Scarborough proceeded to revel over the stock market’s woes, saying that Trump’s threat of high tariffs on goods from the European Union “sent stocks even lower yesterday.” Imagine Joe’s joy if the market suffered a 1929-style crash!

Finally, Scarborough noted that “Vladimir Putin has said ‘no’ to a ceasefire proposal from the US and Ukraine.”

Such a happy day for the Trump-hating Scarborough. You don’t have to believe in karma to envision that before long, Scarborough will be obliged to grin out of the other side of his gob.

Note: At the end of his spiel, explaining Mika’s absence, Scarborough trotted out his tired line about Mika being “in the south of France.” As if she’s the elitist in the couple. Hang in there, Joe. Before long, you’ll recommence your summering on Nantucket.

Here’s the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
3/14/25
6:00 am ET

REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN CHUCK EDWARDS: I have supported, even as a state senator, the fact that we should abolish the U.S. Department of Education [audience boos.] The decisions need to be made back on the state level. 

And I believe that the president is very supportive of Ukraine [loud boos.]

Like him or not, Elon Musk has brought a lot of really smart people to DOGE [boos.]

You should also know that those employees and folks that serve with DOGE have gone through the same exact security screens as everyone else [jeers.]

The questions are coming out of the box one at a time. I’m answering those for you. You’re not going to like a lot of them. 

And you, and you certainly will have the right in the next election to cast your vote based off of what you hear coming from me now. 

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yes, they will, and that’s how democracy works [grinning] every two years. And right now, fascinating dynamics. 

That was another Republican town hall meeting that turned contentious over the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal force, to Elon Musk, to DOGE. This time, it happened in Asheville, North Carolina, where Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards found himself on the receiving end of fury from constituents. It’s happening whenever Republicans dare to hold town hall meetings. 

Meanwhile, the president continues what’s been an erratic trade policy, threatening sky-high tariffs on goods from the European Union, a threat that sent stocks even lower yesterday. 

Also, Vladimir Putin has said no to a cease-fire proposal from the U.S. and Ukraine. Now, some Senate Republicans want President Trump to get tougher on the dictator. 

Good morning. It’s Friday, this Morning Joe. It’s March the 14th, we have, of course, Mika, as she often does on weekends. She’s in the south of France. I think Willie’s windsurfing in Mozambique. 

Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart and New York Times columnist David Brooks had an actual debate on Friday’s PBS News Hour. However, it was more of an inside-the-family argument about the best way for Democrats to stand up to President Donald Trump. Capehart argued that, after Senate Democrats declined to shut down the government, the party needs to grow “a spine,” while Brooks argued Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did the right thing by not making a bad situation worse by allowing Trump to further “decimate” the country.

Host Amna Nawaz began with Capehart, “Democrats who previously said shutdowns are dangerous and they are harmful now saying they’d rather have a shutdown than vote for this bill. What’s going on in the party?”

 

 

Capehart began by not answering the question:

The Republicans took control of — maintained the control of the House. Republicans took control and gained seats in the Senate. The Republicans took control of the White House. They crowed for months after the election that the American people gave them a mandate to govern. They then kicked Democrats out of the negotiations away from the table over this continuing resolution. And then, when they discover that they don’t have the votes to get this through, suddenly, the narrative, it’s the Democrats want to shut down the government?

He then longed for a Democratic version of Trump, “And I think one of the things I learned in 2016, the reason why people liked Donald Trump, the people who support him and voted for him, they loved him because he fights. I kept hearing that. He fights for them for what they believe in, and they know he won’t win every fight.”

Capehart added, “This was an opportunity for Democrats, elected Democrats, to show the base and people who voted for them and people who are upset with Donald Trump that they are willing to fight. If you’re not going to fight over this, then what are you going to do when the fight becomes even more terrible, the Trump tax cuts, or even the full faith and credit of the United States by raising the debt ceiling? I think that’s why people are so upset.”

After Nawaz asked if Democrats made the right decision in not shutting down the government, Capehart answered, “I think that voting no on the continuing resolution was the right thing to do because it’s two terrible choices, but at some point Democrats are going to have to show that they have a spine, they have a backbone to push back against what’s happening.”

Brooks, on the other hand, joked, “I’m on team Schumer. So, never thought I’d say those words.”

 

 

After noting that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a similar argument to the one Capehart did, Brooks added, “The problem with the AOC side is they never answered Chuck Schumer’s core argument, is that if we shut down the government, Donald Trump will have expanded power to furlough all these nonessential workers, and he will never bring them back.”

Brooks then praised Schumer:

And so, by shutting the government, you’re expanding Trump’s power to decimate the government. And so that was Chuck Schumer’s argument, and he was like, this is a terrible choice, and it is a terrible choice. Everybody wants to stand up against Donald Trump in the Democratic Party. You’re offended by the way you’re being steamrolled. The country’s being decimated on every front. Of course you want to fight back. But what AOC is offering is a really nice TikTok video. And what Chuck is offering, Chuck Schumer is offering, is, like, saving some jobs.”

Lost in this family feud was that the bill both men decried as horrible simply cut $13 billion in non-defense discretionary spending, reverting back to pre-2024 totals.

Here is a transcript for the March 14 show:

PBS News Hour

3/14/2025

7:31 PM ET

AMNA NAWAZ: Democrats who previously said shutdowns are dangerous and they are harmful now saying they’d rather have a shutdown than vote for this bill. What’s going on in the party?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Here’s what’s going on, and it’s not so much what’s happening in the Democratic Party. It’s what’s happening in the Republican Party.

The Republicans took control of — maintained the control of the House. Republicans took control and gained seats in the Senate. The Republicans took control of the White House. They crowed for months after the election that the American people gave them a mandate to govern.

They then kicked Democrats out of the negotiations away from the table over this continuing resolution. And then, when they discover that they don’t have the votes to get this through, suddenly, the narrative, it’s the Democrats want to shut down the government?

If you have a mandate, then use the mandate and pass your Republican-only negotiated bill. And I think one of the things I learned in 2016, the reason why people liked Donald Trump, the people who support him and voted for him, they loved him because he fights. I kept hearing that. He fights for them for what they believe in, and they know he won’t win every fight.

This was an opportunity for Democrats, elected Democrats, to show the base and people who voted for them and people who are upset with Donald Trump that they are willing to fight. If you’re not going to fight over this, then what are you going to do when the fight becomes even more terrible, the Trump tax cuts, or even the full faith and credit of the United States by raising the debt ceiling?

I think that’s why people are so upset.

NAWAZ: So should Senate Democrats not have voted for this?

CAPEHART: They — I think that voting no on the continuing resolution was the right thing to do because it’s two terrible choices, but at some point Democrats are going to have to show that they have a spine, they have a backbone to push back against what’s happening.

NAWAZ: David, what do you take away from how this all unfolds?

BROOKS: I’m on team Schumer. So, never thought I’d say those words.

NAWAZ: Spoken by David Brooks. Okay.

BROOKS: So, you got Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who sort of made a similar point that we need to fight, we need to say no, we can’t pass this thing, we can’t assent to the Republican bill.

And Chuck Schumer — but the problem with the AOC side is they never answered Chuck Schumer’s core argument, is that if we shut down the government, Donald Trump will have expanded power to furlough all these nonessential workers, and he will never bring them back.

And so, by shutting the government, you’re expanding Trump’s power to decimate the government. And so that was Chuck Schumer’s argument, and he was like, this is a terrible choice, and it is a terrible choice. Everybody wants to stand up against Donald Trump in the Democratic Party. You’re offended by the way you’re being steamrolled. The country’s being decimated on every front. Of course you want to fight back.

But what AOC is offering is a really nice TikTok video. And what Chuck is offering, Chuck Schumer is offering, is, like, saving some jobs.

We’ve reached the five-year anniversary of when the U.S. government locked down the country to curb the Covid pandemic. It lasted much longer than “Two weeks to stop the spread.” CBS and PBS explored the anniversary, but there were no apologies for getting so much of the “science” wrong and using the pandemic so mercilessly against Trump and Republican governors in an election year. 

This wasn’t a time for the networks to reflect on everything they exaggerated or simply got wrong, from the “science” of mask mandates and six-foot separations to refusing to grant any credence to the idea that the virus came from a lab in China. Most importantly, it’s downright weird that the Left can warn of “authoritarianism” under Trump when most Americans never had their freedoms more squashed than in 2020.

Curtis Houck found only CBS explored the anniversary among the Big Three. Like CBS, the PBS News Hour interviewed Dr. Ashish Jha, President Biden’s Covid coordinator. PBS anchor Geoff Bennett cited a Pew poll showing just 35 percent of Republicans thought public health officials did a good job, “and then 55 percent of all adults felt the media exaggerated the risks.”

That means 55 percent of adults were scientifically correct. They exaggerated the risks, and suggested any Republican who was skeptical of lockdowns (starting with Trump) should be considered responsible for thousands of deaths.

So the funniest part on PBS came when Bennett asked how trust in public health could be rebuilt, and Biden’s Covid czar said, “first of all, I hate the fact that it is has become partisan. Public health has actually largely not been particularly partisan throughout American history. So this is a this is an unwelcome change.”

The first thing we should all remember is the media-Democrat complex made the pandemic a partisan issue from the first weeks, and no one is apologizing for that. Reporters at press conferences and briefings suggested every Covid death was Trump’s fault, and then when Biden came in, no one thought any deaths could be blamed on him.

Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

During the “By the Way” segment on Friday’s CBS Mornings Plus, CBS environmental correspondent David Schechter decried the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Administrator Lee Zeldin by giving away the game on the climate alarmists by reupping a line that’s been deployed for at least five decades, which is we have “less than ten years” to save Earth from climate change.

Co-host Adriana Diaz twice teased his appearance and spelled doom about what deregulation at the EPA would mean, ominously wondering “what” the “big changes at the EPA” “could cost you” as the “administration…mak[es] good on the President’s campaign promise to roll back climate protections.”

 

 

With the liberal media, any and all regulations are nearly always seen as a benefit and for our own good, not a hassle.

“[O]ne of the things the EPA will now, ‘reconsider’ is what its press release calls a burdensome greenhouse gas reporting program where thousands of companies have to submit their emissions levels. Zeldin said the agency would try to undo a total of 31 environmental regulations from rules governing wastewater to emission standards. The Trump administration has also…revealed plans to shut down the EPA’s Environmental Justice Division,” she added.

Schechter came out swinging with the apocalyptic analysis that Zeldin has changed “the way we interface with the environment” as the EPA has decided it has “nothing” to do with “the environment or ensuring “we have clean air and…clean water.”

He continued with the claim Zeldin doesn’t want to “talk about the environment and why we need to keep it clean and why climate change has become such an existential threat with increased floods and fires and droughts and how the EPA has a role in trying to make sure that we control that and contain that.”

Moments later, he dropped the tiresome claim about having less than a decade or we’re goners:

I think the biggest risk is that we have a small window to deal with climate change, really. It’s getting smaller and smaller, less than 10 years, to sort of level out and reduce our emissions and we had and have currently a lot of rules that deal with that. To throw those all out would undo a lot of progress that’s been made to try to reach these new standards for our country and for the world. And we will lose our opportunity to really get ahead of this problem or even stay current with the problem.

Co-host Tony Dokoupil next summarized Zeldin’s view of the EPA as “if companies save money by not having to report a bunch of things that are a waste of time, they can take that saved money and make the energy process cleaner.”

Schechter was obviously not having it because, you can’t trust non-governmental parties to behave (click “expand”):

SCHECHTER: I don’t know if, I guess if that’s your reading of that claim, I think that’s an interesting way to look at it. You know, companies, corporations, many of them do, do the right thing and do spend a lot of time on their environmental issues and reporting and things like that, but, you know, the government’s job is to set a level playing field, if that’s how you view the government’s job, to set a level playing field with regulations so that everyone is following the same rules. Some companies do get in trouble when they get ahead of their competitors and they have rules that are maybe more stringent than what their competitors have. And then the market kind of catches up to them and they take a lot of criticism for being too far ahead of the pack. So, you know, having stoplights and roads and, you know, rules of the road, is what keeps everybody sort of moving in the same direction. That’s the idea of the EPA. That’s the power of the EPA. And to say we care about the earth and we care about clean water, that’s what we’re going to do, is one thing, but to look at what they did and want to cut 31 important regulations is really what you should be looking at.

DOKOUPIL: It’s interesting. Yeah, but this is the claim from the EPA press release. Hundreds of millions of dollars saved could better be used, “to improve and upgrade environmental controls to have a noticeable impact and improvement on the environment.” We’ll see what happens.

DIAZ: Yeah.

SCHECHTER: Yeah.

DIAZ: And if companies take it upon themselves to try to make that environmental improvement without the regulations.

This Friday segment actually capped three days of rage at CBS.

Rolling back to Thursday, senior White House and campaign correspondent Ed O’Keefe appeared on both CBS Mornings and the Plus editions to say the EPA will now be “rolling back…regulations” that said “greenhouse gasses are bad for public health[.]”

And, on Tuesday, CBS Evening News co-anchor Maurice DuBois said the agency was doing away with red tape “aimed at protecting public health and fighting climate change.”

Co-anchor John Dickerson commiserated with former Obama EPA official Matthew Tejada a half-hour later on CBS Evening Plus.

Tejada went full doomsday and fearmongerer by saying Zeldin’s announcement was “taking us back to the 1960s, from before the times when we had regulations that actually cleaned up our water, protect people from across our country, from cancer-causing agents in our air, actually cleaning up legacy contamination sites that people had been living on top of for generations.”

 

 

Tejada further vented the Trump administration will “tak[e] us back to that time when we didn’t have regulation” in which Americans won’t be “healthier” as they’re purposefully “allowing polluting industries” to “hav[e] absolutely unfettered ability to pour their pollution into our communities[.]”

Always a pompous partisan, Dickerson invited Tejada to go further (click “expand”):

DICKERSON: And Matthew, one of the announcements today said the agency is, quote, “reconsidering the 2009 engagement finding.” Help us understand what that means.

TEJADA: Yeah, that was the endangerment finding. That was the finding that basically unlocked the authorities of the Environmental Protection Agency and our federal government to start combating climate change. We have seen repeatedly how our climate is changing on a regular basis and having devastating consequences, not just in our country, but across the world, how it is causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damages every single year. They’re taking us back to not even square one, to the one decision that allowed us to start to make the slightest progress that was then supercharged during the last administration through the Inflation Reduction Act, another regulatory progress that we made recently. It is taking us back in time, just like all these other decisions are taking us way back to an era when we were suffering from pollution in every part of this country.

DICKERSON: And let me ask you now, finally, Matthew, about the environmental justice offices. Remind us about — define environmental justice for us and what you think will now happen as a result of these policies.

TEJADA: So environmental justice has worked for decades to make sure that every part of our country, especially those parts of our country that have not had the power to keep pollution out of their community and to bring in the positives of a clean environment, of green space, of natural resources. Those are black and brown communities. Those are indigenous communities. Those are low-income white communities. Those communities that have not had a power to actually be protected from environmental pollution. The environmental justice program at EPA worked every single day to make sure that those communities felt heard by their government and to bring their voices back into government to make it respond and serve those people too. And they are gutting that program today as we speak.

To see the relevant CBS transcripts, click here (for March 12’s CBS Evening News Plus) and here (for March 14’s CBS Mornings Plus).

Last November, Dennis Prager, the longtime nationally syndicated radio host, author, lecturer and founder of PragerU, fell and suffered a serious spinal injury. He underwent an operation and, as of several weeks ago, was unable to move his arms and legs and unable to speak and breathe without a ventilator.

He can now breathe without assistance. He can now speak, and with practically the same commanding baritone voice as before the accident. He promises his millions of fans and listeners he will return to the airwaves — and soon.

I met Dennis over 30 years ago when I was working in Cleveland. I moved there to work for a big law firm. I appeared as a guest on a popular live show called “Morning Exchange.” One day, I came to the studio, and a tall, white-haired man named Dennis Prager was sitting in for the primary host. He interviewed me for the segment, and we talked during the commercial break.

I learned he was a radio host based in Los Angeles, my hometown and where my parents live. We briefly discussed politics and discovered we were both political anomalies — Dennis a Jewish conservative and I a black conservative. Dennis suggested I come on his show the next time I come to Los Angeles.

That night, I phoned my mother and told her about meeting Dennis. I knew she would likely know about him. My mother loved talk radio.

Let me digress. A couple of years before meeting Dennis, I wrote a column published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I insisted that racism is no longer a serious obstacle for any black person willing to work hard and who refuses to think of himself or herself as a victim to whom something is owed. It created quite a reaction. A local radio show host invited me on his show to discuss it. Most of the callers were black and attacked me for what they considered my naivete.

The next day, the station manager called and said: “You were magnificent yesterday. You took difficult positions and defended them without losing your temper or your sense of humor. Have you ever thought about doing talk radio? I have a host on vacation next week, and I’d like you to substitute.”

I did the week, thoroughly enjoyed it and decided to pursue this as a career. I made a cassette tape with excerpts from that week of shows and mailed it to two Los Angeles talk radio stations. There was no interest.

Back to Dennis. The station where he worked became the first 24/7 political talk station in America. The day the station switched its format to all talk all the time, my mother tuned into it on the house radio and never turned it off.

“You met Dennis!” she shrieked. “And he invited you on his show?! He almost never has guests!” It was as if I had met Elvis.

Months later, I was in Los Angeles, and I called Dennis. I left a message. The next day, my mother grabbed the phone and slammed it down. “Call him again! If he said he’ll have you on, he’ll have you on! Call him again right now!”

Dennis answered, apologized for not getting back to me and invited me on the show. The interview lasted nearly two hours. Before every break, Dennis asked if I could stay longer. He gushed about my appearance. I told him about my interest in talk radio and asked if he would recommend me to management. He said, “I’ve been asked many times to do that and have always refused. But in your case, I’d be honored.”

Thanks to Dennis, I’m now past the 30-year mark in my nationally syndicated radio career, a journey that has led to so many other wonderful opportunities. Dennis and I are great friends and have enjoyed many deep conversations about religion, politics and life. The man is an international treasure and deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Dennis and I broadcast from the same studio for Salem Communications. Expect him to have a thing or two to say when he comes back.