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On Meet the Press Sunday morning, host David Gregory challenged former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to defend his and former President George W Bush’s decision to switch focus from the war in Afghanistan to the one in Iraq, asking if that simultaneously diverted resources from fighting the Taliban while radicalizing terrorist groups in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. “Isn’t the legacy of your leadership and that of President Bush in part responsible for the reality today?” Gregory asked. “Did the west fail to deal with the extremism you talk about today appropriately in Afghanistan in a...

The Sunday morning shows once occupied a sacred space in American politics. Today, many influential Washington players can’t even remember the last time they watched. The public affairs shows — “Meet The Press,” “Face The Nation,” and “This Week” — used to set the agenda for the nation’s capital with their news-making interviews and immensely influential audience. Now the buzz around the shows is more likely to center on gossipy criticism about the hosts, notably Meet The Press’s David Gregory, whose fate has become an incessant subject of conversation, most recently in a Washington Post story on Monday. Meanwhile, fans...

NBC’s “Meet the Press” has fallen to such ratings lows that network brass ordered psychological research of the host David Gregory and his family, in a bid to make him more likable. Friends of Gregory and even his wife were interviewed by a psychologist commissioned by NBC to find out how the host of the flagship Sunday morning show might relate to audiences better. The Washington Post reported, “Last year, the network undertook an unusual assessment of the 43-year-old journalist, commissioning a psychological consultant to interview his friends and even his wife. “The idea, according to a network spokeswoman, Meghan...

NBC has been so alarmed at Meet the Press's decline, the network hired a "psychological consultant" to assess the host, David Gregory. The Washington Post reports: Last year, the network undertook an unusual assessment of the 43-year-old journalist, commissioning a psychological consultant to interview his friends and even his wife. The idea, according to a network spokeswoman, Meghan Pianta, was “to get perspective and insight from people who know him best.”

Boston Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis allegedly walked out of the set of Meet the Press with David Gregory. A survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing stormed off the set of NBC’s Meet the Press in tears on Friday after being asked to comment on Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev — after she was allegedly promised their names would not be mentioned. Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a dancer who lost part of one leg during the attack, tweeted after the taping: I feel so disrespected @meetthepress I asked politely yesterday and you said yes. Now you choose to use the name instead.

How bad are things for Meet The Press? The once-dominant Sunday show has fallen into a distant third place. And now Mika Brzezinski has resorted to an embarrassing attempt to promote her network's failing patient. On today's Morning Joe, Mika managed to mention Meet The Press by name no fewer than eight times in one segment. Her argument was that MTP is the go-to place for politicians wanting to make news, and that Chris Christie had blown it by not appearing yesterday, sending two surrogates instead. View the video here.

WASHINGTON -- National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday and said that when she had appeared on several news outlets back in September 2012 to state that the attack on an American diplomatic installation in Benghazi was a "spontaneous reaction" to an American-made film that appeared on YouTube she had used "the best information we [the White House] had at the time." Senator John McCain responded to her statement Sunday that it left him "almost speechless." The Arizona Republican said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "I'm almost speechless, because it's patently obvious, first of...

February 25, 2014 Gowdy Slams Rice Benghazi Interview: ‘I Get Tougher Questions in the Bojangles Drive-Thru’ Bridget Johnson Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) blasted Meet the Press host David Gregory for throwing softball questions at National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Benghazi, saying: “I get tougher questions in the Bojangles drive-thru than he asked her.”Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press for the first time since her 2012 post-Benghazi round on the Sunday shows, Rice was asked by Gregory if she had any regrets about that appearance and whether she felt that it cost her the secretary of State job.Rice was also...

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says Edward Snowden likely received help stealing information from the National Security Agency — and that help may have come from Russian intelligence officials. In a pre-recorded interview for NBC’s “Meet the Press” with David Gregory, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) questioned how the former NSA contractor arranged travel out of the United States before leaking the trove of secret documents and eventually making his way to Russia. “Let me just say this. I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms, of an FSB agent in Moscow,” Rogers...

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election to President Barack Obama, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he believed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could “easily” become the GOP presidential nominee in 2016 and “save our party.” Christie most recently made national news when he decided to drop a legal challenge to rulings in New Jersey state courts that declared same-sex marriage legal there. And not long before that, he changed his position on the question of whether illegal aliens should get in-state tuition rates at New Jersey state colleges. Now he backs legislation...

November 03, 2013, 05:13 pm Pelosi: Obama president of 'great vision' By Mario Trujillo House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday dismissed Mitt Romney’s statement that President Obama’s second term is rotting away. Pelosi said she missed Romney’s appearance on “Meet the Press,” during which the former GOP presidential candidate said Obama’s broken promise that everyone who liked their healthcare plan could keep it has undermined Obama’s presidency. “I don’t even know why Romney was on that show myself,” she said in an interview on MSNBC. “I want to know what about the future —what about the future. But...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday dismissed Mitt Romney’s statement that President Obama’s second term is rotting away. Pelosi said she missed Romney’s appearance on “Meet the Press,” during which the former GOP presidential candidate said Obama’s broken promise that everyone who liked their healthcare plan could keep it has undermined Obama’s presidency. “I don’t even know why Romney was on that show myself,” she said in an interview on MSNBC. “I want to know what about the future —what about the future. But the fact is that President Obama is a president of great vision, of great...

NARAL Pro-Choice America, formerly known as the National Abortion Rights Action League, appears concerned it may be losing the battle to depict a 20-week abortion ban as "extreme." The group expressed outrage that a host on NBC, a network usually sympathetic to abortion rights advocates, implied the 20-week ban is "reasonable." "Is it not reasonable to put late-term restrictions on abortion ... ?" David Gregory of "Meet the Press" asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on July 14. Gregory pressed Reid twice more, repeatedly using the word "reasonable," after Reid continued to dodge the question. Reid promised to "look at"...

Have you ever wished that errant journalists could get their noses rubbed in their own absurdities and outright falsehoods like puppy dogs who make a mess? Well, if you had been watching Meet The Press today then you would have seen Congressman Raul Labrador of Idaho do just that to the New York Times house "conservative" David Brooks who was slapped down not once but twice.  As you can see in this video and below the fold, Brooks didn't learn his lesson after being slapped down by Labrador for uttering absurdities about the Senate immigration bill. Labrador was forced to...

Pelosi: Snowden in Moscow airport 'he can stay there' By GINGER GIBSON | 6/30/13 8:58 AM EDT House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi defended her criticism of leaker Edward Snowden and suggested he may not have any more substantive information about the surveillance program. “We have to know what is it that he has. And I don't know that he has that much substance,” Pelosi said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “He may know something about the machinery. I don't know that he knows that much about the content. But I think that anybody thought he was a hero to begin...

The ice seems to be cracking beneath Attorney General Eric Holder's feet. When asked by NBC Meet the Press host David Gregory Sunday if Holder is going to "stay in the job" given the leaks investigation scandal, former NBC Night News host Tom Brokaw replied, "Boy, I think it’s tough to see how he does" (video follows with transcript and commentary): Brokaw: 'It’s Tough to See How' Holder Keeps His Job TOM BROKAW, FORMER NBC NIGHTLY NEWS ANCHOR: I talked over the weekend to a very, very senior ex-intelligence official from United States government, and he laughed. He said, "Look,...

NBC's Chuck Todd made some stunning statements Sunday about recent revelations concerning Syria's use of chemical weapons on its people. Appearing on Meet the Press, Todd first said the Administration regrets President Obama's claim that this would be a "red line" adding "They didn't want to go public last week that they had this early evidence" and only did so because "they knew Congress was going to get this briefing and it was all going to get out" (video follows with transcript and commentary): Chuck Todd: Obama Didn't Want To Go Public With Syrian Chemical Weapons Evidence CHUCK TODD: I...

Video at link - 3:20 minutes The extent to which GOP lawmakers are ridiculed by the MSM for trying to get to the bottom of Benghazi is unbelievable. If you missed Sen. McCain on Meet the Press today with David Gregory, it’s well worth watching now. After explaining to Gregory that there are still a number of unanswered questions regarding Benghazi, McCain concludes by saying there’ s been a massive cover-up. Gregory is confused: “A massive cover-up of what?” The crux of the interview, however, came when McCain asked Gregory whether he even cared that four Americans died (transcript via...

Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has been a United States senator for only 34 days, but already he is making his mark on national politics. His conspicuous presence and aggressive tone have thrilled his conservative cheerleaders, while inducing fits of rage in liberal detractors and Joe Scarborough. In the past week alone, Cruz has tangled with veteran Democratic spin-master Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) on Meet the Press, sent a tongue-in-cheek letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, introduced legislation to fully repeal Obamacare, and recorded “no” votes on major items, including Hurricane Sandy relief, raising the debt ceiling, filibuster reform, and...