Think Progress

DeMint Appeases Beck On McCain, Threatens To Be His ‘Biggest Opponent’ - Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Fox News host Glenn Beck’s arch-nemesis is progressivism. He calls the movement the “poison in our Republic” and has accused it of genocide. In addition to attacking Democrats, Beck often condemns of Republicans he deems to be “progressive,” including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
On his radio show today, Beck hosted Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) — [...]

Bachmann’s Plan: To Deal With Debt, We Must ‘Wean Everybody’ Off Social Security, Medicare - Monday, February 8th, 2010

This past weekend, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) addressed the right-wing Constitutional Coalition’s annual conference in St. Louis. She had dropped out of the Tea Party Convention occurring on the same day in Nashville to make the appearance.
Speaking to a small group of conference attendees and ThinkProgress during lunch on Saturday, Bachmann outlined how the [...]

After Calling The Stimulus ‘Fiscal Child Abuse,’ Sanford Flies To DC To Demand Stimulus Money - Friday, February 5th, 2010

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) waged a high-profile war against the economic stimulus package last spring, claiming that accepting the $700 million for which his state was eligible would lead to “a thing called slavery.” Even as his state’s unemployment rate climbed above the national average, Sanford maintained his partisan and politically motivated [...]

Tea Party Profiteers: How Republican Operatives Are Exploiting Economic Anxiety For Power, Cash - Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Republican partisans — aided by lobbyists and corporate front groups — are exploiting the legitimate feelings of anger and distrust among many struggling Americans. These operatives and profiteers, many of them experienced public relations professionals, have set up sophisticated social networking portals and online solutions to control the flow of information within tea party organizations. [...]

Joe Klein Tells O’Reilly: ‘Glenn Beck Is Peddling A Lot Of Hateful Crap’ - Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Last night on Fox News’ The Factor, host Bill O’Reilly asked Time Magazine’s Joe Klein to comment on a recent poll showing that Americans trust Fox News more than all other television news networks. “I don’t place all that much faith in many polls,” Klein said. After O’Reilly boasted about Fox’s ratings, Klein noted that [...]

Ailes Defends Beck’s Incendiary Rhetoric: ‘He’s Talking About Hitler And Stalin’ Killing People, So It’s ‘Accurate’ - Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Shortly after President Obama’s inauguration, Fox News anchors and media personalities began attacking his administration and its policies. The White House fired back, calling Fox the “communications arm of the Republican Party.” Today on ABC’s This Week, host Barbera Walters asked Fox News CEO Roger Ailes if the White House and his network have “kissed [...]

Beck condemns O’Keefe’s operation: ‘If they were doing that — that’s Watergate. Insanely stupid and illegal.’ - Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

On his radio show today, Fox News host Glenn Beck condemned James O’Keefe — the young conservative activist who posed as a pimp in undercover stings targeted at ACORN — for trying to bug the phones in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) office:
BECK: If they were doing that — that’s Watergate. Insanely stupid and illegal. … [...]

Right-Wing Fringe Rebels Against Palin Over Her Endorsement Of ‘RINO’ McCain - Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Since she was picked as Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) running mate, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has been one of the right’s most beloved political figures. But when Palin announced last week that she would campaign for McCain in his reelection primary battle against ultra-conservative former congressman J.D. Hayworth, some of her most vocal supporters [...]

Glenn Beck welcomes Scott Brown to Washington: ‘This one could end with a dead intern.’ - Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

On his radio show today, Fox News host Glenn Beck praised the victory of Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-MA), complaining that the media called the race too early because he wanted to better “savor” the moment. But Beck quickly pivoted to attacking Brown for an awkward joke he made during his acceptance speech last night. After [...]

Exit Survey Of Massachusetts Voters Confirms Lack Of Enthusiasm Among Progressives Hurt Coakley - Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

An exit survey of Massachusetts voters confirms that “decreased turnout among constituencies that historically have voted for progressive candidates,” combined with a strong Republican performance among independents, delivered Scott Brown the margins he needed to win.
The poll, which was commissioned by “Women’s Voices, Women Vote” and conducted by Lake Research Partners (a firm headed [...]

Kerry: ‘The only thing Republicans say yes to are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, tea partiers, and Fox News.’ - Monday, January 18th, 2010

Campaigning for Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley on Friday, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) took a shot the “party of no.” Kerry argued that while Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration focused on governing for the past year, “the Republicans did nothing but say no.” After ticking off a list of items the Republicans [...]

Bush repudiates criticisms that Obama is ‘politicizing’ Haiti: ‘I don’t know what they’re talking about.’ - Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Last week following the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh controversially said that President Obama was politicizing the disaster by trying to boost his credibility with the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.” Fox News host Glenn Beck also said that Obama was “dividing the nation” by reacting “so [...]

Beck: Obama is ‘dividing the nation’ by reacting ‘so rapidly to Haiti.’ - Friday, January 15th, 2010

Right wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh has received considerable criticism for politicizing the earthquake in Haiti this week with a series of inflammatory remarks attacking President Obama. Limbaugh said the White House thinks it can use the disaster to boost its credibility with the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community” in the U.S. Defending his comments, [...]

Paranoid Beck would embarrass her, Palin focused on googling NYC landmarks right before their interview. - Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Yesterday, Fox News host Glenn Beck interviewed newly minted Fox analyst Sarah Palin from a spot in Lower Manhattan overlooking the Statue of Liberty. On his radio show this morning, Beck revealed that Palin was “preparing” for the interview by using her BlackBerry to look up trivial facts about the monument, like what various architectural [...]

Scott Brown Touts Beck-Like Conspiracy Theory That He Wouldn’t Be Seated Until Health Reform Is Passed - Thursday, January 14th, 2010

State Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), the Republican candidate running for the special election in Massachusetts next week, has been campaigning for the last several days telling crowds an odd conspiracy theory. Brown is alleging that state officials, including the Secretary of State’s office, are devising a plot to deny Brown’s election certification, if he wins, [...]

Palin says her favorite founding father is ‘all of them.’ - Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Yesterday Fox News’ Glenn Beck interviewed newly minted Fox “analyst” Sarah Palin for his entire show. During the interview, Beck asked Palin who her favorite Founding Father is. “You know, well, all of them because they came collectively together with…so much diversity in terms of belief but collectively they came together to form this union.” [...]

Liberty University Withdraws From CPAC Because Of Gay Rights Group’s Co-Sponsorship - Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

The right wing has been outraged over the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) decision to allow conservative gay rights group GOProud to be a co-sponsor of the event. GOProud says it “represents gay conservatives and their allies” and is “committed to a traditional conservative agenda.” While it has eschewed many “traditional” gay rights issues [...]

Beck: ‘African-American is a bogus, PC, made-up term. I mean, that’s not a race.’ - Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Today on his radio show, Glenn Beck wanted to discuss the census. “Apparently the census has come out,” he said. Beck’s co-host then chimed in, “Yeah and there’s a little confusion because there’s three boxes you can check if you’re a certain race. … I don’t know what the race is because there’s three different [...]

RedState’s Erickson Stands By Assertion That Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Was An ‘Affirmative Action’ Award - Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

When it was announced last year that President Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, RedState editor Erick Erickson tweeted that Obama only won the award because “the Nobel Committee had affirmative action quotas it had to meet.” During an appearance on the Colbert Report last night, Stephen Colbert asked Erickson if he would [...]

World Net Daily attacks Glenn Beck for lampooning its birther smear. - Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

On his radio show yesterday, Fox News personality Glenn Beck lampooned the birther movement, saying its claim that Obama is not an American citizen is the “dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Beck argued that the birthers’ agitation is actually a “dream come true” for Obama because they are constantly “discrediting themselves” and making all conservatives [...]