THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNERS:
CBS News White House Reporters
Fin Gómez and Kathryn Watson

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are scheduled to visit President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday afternoon, the first time the three countries' heads of state will meet in person since 2016, before the election of Donald Trump

This "Three Amigos" trilateral meeting will be missing the traditional joint press conference featuring all three leaders, and CBS News White House reporters Fin Gómez and Kathryn Watson called out Biden for skipping it.

Biden had "pitched himself as the return of normalcy and tradition when running for office against Mr. Trump," Gómez and Watson noted, "so skipping the press conference came as something of a surprise to White House reporters this week.”

A free press plays a vital role in holding elected officials accountable, and Biden avoiding questions on the always-hot topic of immigration is not a good look. Gómez and Watson's critique was fair, well-researched, and got results -- a Thursday morning update said that after their article was originally published, Biden "told reporters he would be happy to take questions after meeting with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts."

MEDIA LOSER:
Laura Ingraham

It was Wednesday, so Fox News' Laura Ingraham really should have worn pink if she was going to act like she was auditioning for a Mean Girls reboot. That was our reaction to comments she made mocking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) reaction to an anime video tweeted by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) that portrayed her getting killed by a character representing Gosar (see A Block below for a full rundown).

AOC spoke on the House floor during the debate for the vote to censure Gosar, and -- quelle surprise! -- she wasn't thrilled with one of her colleagues posting a video celebrating the idea of killing her, she wasn't thrilled with House Republican leadership for shrugging the whole thing off, and she just seemed to not be thrilled in general with getting death threats. 

All pretty reasonable reactions, but not to Ingraham. The Fox News host played the clip of Ocasio-Cortez's remarks and then -- far more theatrically than any moment of Ocasio-Cortez's speech, Ingraham declared, “Best actress in an ongoing drama is AOC!

It was just plain petty. And, as Mediaite's Colby Hall pointed out, "One might wonder how [Ingraham] would react to a video in which she was depicted as being killed, particularly in this bitterly divided political climate."

The A-Block

Gosar gets censured, remains unrepentant 

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) for a video he tweeted with a spoof of anime film Attack on Titan, in which his face was photoshopped onto a character shown killing another character depicted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D- NY) and attacking another character depicted by President Joe Biden. After a loud outcry over the content of the video, Gosar took it down, but continued to defend it and insisted he was not apologizing for it.

The resolution passed 223-207 with only two Republican votes: Rep. Liz Cheney (R- WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R- IL), both of whom serve on the January 6 select committee. In addition to the public statement of censure, Gosar was also removed from his committee assignments

Of course, before the vote, there were speeches both supporting and opposing the censure vote. Can't expect members of Congress to pass up a golden opportunity for some television time. 

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blasted Gosar for trying to shrug off his critics and calling it unacceptable to have a member of Congress joking about killing another member.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who has been heavily criticized for refusing to discipline Gosar, essentially threatened to strip Democrats of their committee assignments if the GOP retakes the House in the 2022 midterms. 

Ocasio-Cortez ripped McCarthy, openly asking why it was so hard for him to say that what Gosar did was wrong. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) defended Gosar by absurdly claiming Wile E. Coyote would be indicted next. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) talked about anime and how he spoke Japanese in his floor speech. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) may have been the most unhinged, literally screaming her criticism of several House Democrats. 

Gosar remained unrepentant, defending the video as somehow informative for young people and expressing indignation as he compared himself to Alexander Hamilton. He merrily retweeted various memes from supporters cheering him on, and even retweeting the video clip that got him in trouble in the first place -- just an hour after the House vote to censure him. 


Congratulations to Geoff Bennett, who just announced that he will join PBS News Hour as their Chief Washington Correspondent in January and will anchor their weekend broadcast starting in April. Bennett is currently the White House correspondent for NBC News and a substitute anchor for MSNBC. He will remain a contributor for both NBC and MSNBC.
In Other News...

Matt Gaetz Says ‘Kyle Rittenhouse Would Probably Make a Pretty Good Congressional Intern' and 'May Reach Out To Him'

Matt Walsh Calls Big Bird a 'Drug Dealer' with the Voice of a 'Child Molester' for Doing CNN Town Hall on Vaccines for Kids

‘Who in the Hell Are You?!’ Fox News Contributor Goes OFF on Men Who Killed Ahmaud Arbery: He Was 'A Young Black Kid Just Running Down the Street!'

OUCH: Liz Cheney Recalls Trump Insulting Ted Cruz’s Wife to Argue He’s Not a ‘Real Man’

Must See Clip

Inspiring

Former United States Army Green Beret Nate Boyer described his incredibly unique path to the NFL during an interview on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football.

It wasn’t until after he already served in the US Army and was accepted into the Green Berets that Boyer tried out as a 29-year-old walk-on for the University of Texas, despite never having played organized football in his life. 

“I prepared myself in Iraq starting out, watching YouTube videos and trying to teach myself how to backpedal or run routes,” said Boyer.

After his tenure as a Longhorn, Boyer reenlisted in the Texas National Guard, where he had the “opportunity” to go to Afghanistan. 

Watch the rest of his story here.

Links We Like

The QAnon Shaman Gets 41 Months in Prison. Good
- Dan McLaughlin, National Review
Why prosecutors get away with misconduct
- Radley Balko, Washington Post
To Fight Climate Change, Los Angeles Bans Restaurants From Giving Out Unsolicited Ketchup Packets
-  Christian Britschgi, Reason
Apple will finally let you fix your own devices — sort of
- Rebecca Heilweil, Recode
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