June 26, 2016

On June 26, 2016 the first show I watched was Meet the Press on NBC. The host was Chuck Todd. The guest for this week’s show were David Miliband, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Paul Manafort, and Tom Kaine. The pundits were Doris Goodwin, Helene Cooper, Kimberly Strassel, and Chris Cillizza.

The first guest to be interviewed was Britain’s former Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs David Miliband. David Miliband was brought in to discuss Brexit. His opinion about Brexit is that Britain should stay. He thinks that Britain should have not left due to relations to other countries will most likely take a turn for the worst. After David’s interview the pundits came on for a brief discussion. During this discussion the talked about  Brexit and how it relates to the US. Kimberly expressed an opinion of which she believes President Obama overstepped his boundaries and shouldn’t have been involved. They all seemed to lean towards Hillary Clinton and said when Trump was in Scotland he should have been in Britain like Hillary Clinton. They started talking about how Trump cares more about his businesses than the country. Chuck proceeded to cut the discussion short and move on to his next interview with Paul Manafort. Paul Manafort’s interview was focused on Trump. However he never answered questions about Trump directly. Instead he ironically tried to divert the attention by claiming Clinton’s whole campaign Ads were diverting attention to Trump’s mistakes. It’s ironic due to him moving the conversation to this, and the fact that Trump’s campaign Ads do the same thing. After Paul’s interview Chuck interviewed Tim Kaine. Chuck started the interview by asking about the ammo clip limitation. He replied that he completely agrees with the limitation. Chuck then asked if he was qualified for his upcoming position, and he replied that he believes no one is prepared until they’re in the position. In my opinion Chuck Todd is a great  host due to him asking questions constantly and ability to keep to conversation to continue. David Miliband was a good guest and was respectful during the whole interview. Paul Manafort wasn’t a good guest due to him dodging questions by declining to answer them or bringing up Hillary Clinton. For Tim Kaine I had to disagree with a lot of the points he brought up, but throughout the interview he was polite. For example when he claimed limiting ammunition clips will help the gun issues, but all it is going to cause is have someone buy to magazines. For the pundits they were all average except Doris Goodwin. She was optimistic and enthusiastic throughout the show, and did a great job participating in the discussion.

Overall the show demonstrated how events like Brexit in Britain can affect the whole world.

For the second show I watched State of the Union on CNN. The host is Jake Tapper.

This week’s guest were Bernie Sanders and Bob Corker. The pundits were Jan Brewer, Martin O' Malley, Ken Cuccinelli, and Nina Turner.

The first interview was with Bernie Sanders. It began with the question of who he planned on voting for during the election. He hesitated and then replied Hillary Clinton. When asked about the hesitation he stated all he wants is for Donald Trump to lose. After some more discussion about his voters and who they may vote for; Jake cut the interview and moved on to Bob Corker. Jake started it off by asking him what he thought about his thoughts on all of the Republicans not supporting Trump. He never answered the question and instead replied I hope we can turn this situation to benefit the public. The pundits were unproductive. Instead of discussing orderly they were just arguing among themselves. Martin and Jan argued between themselves, and Ken and Nina argued between themselves. The only good that came out of the pundits was seeing the outcome of both parties anger for the other party. Now in my opinion Jake Tapper was a bad host during this show due to his inability to keep the guest on the topic at hand. Bernie Sanders was a good guest and provided an insight on the Democrats situation. Bob Corker was a terrible guest due to him not answering a single question during the whole show. The pundits personally need to get a hold of themselves due to their inability to sit and wait for their turn to give their opinion.

This week’s show elaborated on the rift between the two parties and how the opposing party will do anything to justify the opposite party from gaining power. After seeing the pundits reactions on this show I’m in doubt about if the parties will ever be able to coexist peacefully.

June 19, 2016

On June 19, 2016 I watched State of the Union on CNN as my first show. John Dickerson is the host. The guests were Donald Trump, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and NRA CEO Wayne Pierre. This week’s pundits were Fran Townsend, Michael Morell, Ruth Marcus, and Michael Gerson.

The main topic was about the shooting in Florida and what we can do about it. Donald Trump was the first person interviewed and believes we should start checking Mosques and maybe start profiling any Muslims in or coming into our country. However I’m not sure if it would be beneficial to check the mosques due to the chance of cooperation will be lowered due to it. The second guest was Attorney General Loretta Lynch, She believes the Florida shooter was not a part of ISIS and was a lone wolf. She does however believe he read ISIS information and was influenced by their beliefs. She believes the government should have the power to deny any gun sales that they suspect the customer to be affiliated any way to terrorism. The second guest was Senator Dianne. She agrees that the government should be allowed to deny the selling of guns to people the suspect that are related to terrorism. The next guest was NRA Ceo Wayne Pierre. Wayne agrees completely with Donald Trump on the situation with ISIS. The pundits discussion was focused on the shooting, but transitioned into how the presidential candidate’s beliefs would have affected the shooting. Fran Townsend was the first to comment. She believes that the shooter is mentally ill, and that is the reason why he killed everyone in the club. She claims that banning assault rifles and large ammo clips will help in the future to limit these events. Michael Morell was the next one and believes that the shooter is alone. He claims these events are happening due to ISIS knowing they can’t win through war, and therefore sends terrorist into our country as retaliation. Ruth Marcus transitioned the discussion into the presidential candidates by claiming Clinton is better suited for president due to her knowing what to say about the shooting. He also claims there will never be a perfect solution to the gun violence but we can limit it down immensely. The final pundit claims Trump failed to show what is needed to be president and will cause an uprising in the Republican party in the next two weeks. My personal opinion on the host is he never really asked the guests any outstanding questions and let the guests lead the conversation, and personally I don’t think that’s what a host is meant to do. Donald Trump, in his brief moment of time, claimed we should start checking mosques and start profiling Muslims. For me I believe that checking the mosques is not a good decision because if we do how can we expect them to warn us if there is someone wanting to commit an act of terrorism. Attorney General Loretta seemed to be on the ball and never hesitated when answering questions. Wayne LaPierre was very blunt when answering questions except when he was asked about Donald Trump and gun control. Senator Dianne was an adequate guest in my opinion. She never fully grabbed my attention or agreement with anything she claimed. The pundits were adequate they didn’t show a lot of opinion. They were almost unanimous in their thoughts and opinions.

In the end the show essentially was deciding whether or not no profile any Muslims that come in or are in our country, and trying to decide how to prevent another shooting.

The second show I watched on June 19, 2016 was Fox News, It is hosted by Chris Wallace. The guests were Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Senator Jeff Sessions. This week’s pundits were Brit Hume, Amy Walter, George Will, and Juan Williams.

The main topic during this week’s show was the Florida shooting and how to deal with ISIS. The first interview was with Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Loretta was discussing a plan that would give the government the power to stop a person from being able to buy a gun even if they don’t fall into the 10 situations that are already in place. Jeff Session was the next person to be interviewed. He claimed Obama needs to step down from presidency if he doesn’t want to try to defeat ISIS, people on the terrorist watch list can’t buy guns, and he implied U.S soldiers stole money that was supposed to be used to fix Iraq. The pundits agreed on the matter that Trump isn’t suited as well for presidency as Clinton, and debated on how to beat ISIS. Brit Hume claims we need to beat ISIS through war to get rid of them. Juan Williams then argued with him that war will not stop ISIS, and that the government will need to take a different approach to solve this problem. Chris asked about the plan to allow the government to deny a gun sale to a person suspected to be a terrorist. George Will replied that he believes it is taking their rights away. At the end of the show Amy emphasizes why she doesn’t want Trump to win presidency, To me the host was average he never really asked any spectacular questions. Loretta seemed to be honest and believed what she said, and she never hesitated when answering. Jeff Sessions seemed to be a less charismatic version of Donald Trump due to his responses being very similar to Trumps. The pundits were good and discussed their topics well.

At the end this show showed me that when there are problems or threats in the world; there will always be powerful people arguing over what to do.

June 12, 2016

This week’s political show was This Week on ABC. It aired on June 12, 2016 and has George Stephanopoulos as the host. This week’s guests were Secretary Hillary Clinton and Senator Bob Corker. The pundits were Paul Krugman, Grover Norquist. E.J. Dionne, Matt Dowd, Sara Fagen, and Roland Martin.

The main topics were the presidential candidates and the economy. Hillary Clinton was the first to be interviewed. When Clinton was asked about the problem with her email usage during her term as Secretary of State. she froze up and started going on about how the rules on the topic weren’t clear. During Hillary Clinton’s interview George asked what she thought about raising gun sales tax by 25%. She then proceeded to dodge a direct answer, and claimed we should use “sensibility” with gun rights. The next interview was Senator Bob Corker. When asked about Trump being racist Bob Corker attempted to divert attention onto Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. Bob claimed that he does not support the Muslim ban threat, but does believe in building a wall to keep out illegal immigrants. He also claims that we need to raise the tariffs to help boost the economy. Throughout his interview he mostly answered his questions directly and cleanly. However Clinton never really answered her questions directly and just slung insults at Donald Trump. The pundits, E.J. Dionne, Matt Dowd, Sara Fagen, and Roland Martin, talked about the election for their part of the show. They seemed to all lean towards Clinton for president, but they all agreed on Gary Johnson might be able to change the tide of the race due to pulling votes from Trump or Clinton. Paul and Grover discussed the economy and its effects on the election. Paul and Grover both came from different perspectives on who will win the election and provided a good look on both parties opinions on the economy. Now starting off with the host. George is an excellent host, he asked questions that kept his guest on their toes and seemed to not favor one side over the other. To me Hillary Clinton was a terrible guest on the show she dodged most questions and just insulted the Republican party. Bob Corker was an adequate guest he didn’t dodge too many questions but he also didn’t fully support his candidate as much as he claimed. Roland, Matthew Dowd, E.J Dionne, and Sara Fagen gave a new outlook to the information the show gave me. Paul Krugman and Grover Norquist gave good information about the economy but they argued more than explained, in my personal opinion.

All in all Clinton needs to stop dodging questions, Trump needs to be open to a little bit of change, and in the end it may just come down to who we don’t want to be in office.

June 5, 2016

On June 5, 2016 I watched Meet the Press and State of the Union. Meet the Press airs on NBC on Sundays at 8 A.M. It is hosted by Chuck Todd. The guests were Garry Johnson, Bob Costas, Jim Brown, Bryant Gumbel, and Senator Mitch McConnell. The Pundits were Representative Donna Edwards, Andrea Mitchell, Ron Fournier, and Lanhee Chen. State of the union airs on CNN every Sunday at 8 A.M. It is hosted by Jake Tapper. The guests were Donald Trump, Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and U.S Senator Bernie Sanders. This week on State of the Union there were no pundits.

On Meet the Press they mainly discussed the legendary fighter Muhammad Ali, who died two days before the show aired. On the show Jim Brown who was a friend of Muhammad Ali, Bryant Gumbel an  American T.V journalist, and Bob Costas, who is writing a book about Muhammad Ali. They were discussing Muhammad Ali’s life this week. They did really well on discussing the topic, and none of them could think of a negative thing to say about the legend. They all agreed he was an extremely prideful and well liked, but was a man who fought for what he believed in to the death.  The pundits had similar views on Muhammad and all had a fond memory of the fighter.

Chuck Todd did a good job on hosting and asked decent questions throughout the show. Gary Johnson has a better mix of opinion from both parties then the other candidates. Bob Costas and Bryant Gumbel both discussed their subjects very well and didn’t hesitate to answer on questions. Jim Brown seemed insightful when he did speak, he didn’t speak very much. Senator Mitch McConnell was a figure that I didn’t enjoy watching. This was due to the fact that he never answered Chuck’s questions, and tried changing the focus. As for the pundits between the four of them their opinions all differentiated. I didn’t mind listening to them and I enjoyed hearing all of their opinions.

Now as for State of the Union. They mainly covered on the upcoming primary. The interview on Donald Trump was mainly focused on the lawsuit on Trump University. During the interview Trump said the judge’s race, he is hispanic but was born in the U.S, influenced his decisions on the case. This makes him seem pretty racist but he claims since he is building a wall to keep out illegal immigrants from Mexico it isn’t racism. Meanwhile Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have teamed up against Donald Trump to attempt to take him out of the election. They were all slinging insults at each other. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump seemed to realize that most of their voters won’t vote out of choice but out of the lack of options. An example of this is Donald Trump’s new advertisement of the Clinton’s mistakes and scandals. I believe Jake Tapper is a decent and funny host, and my opinion on the guests is Donald Trump is crazy, Hillary is a crook, and Bernie Sander’s ideas would only work in a perfect world.

From what I’ve experienced from these two shows are that Muhammad was a great man and will never be forgotten from this generation, Donald Trump may be racist, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are fighting like three year olds, and no one except Bernie Sanders considers himself in the race for presidency.