DOWNLOADS: (198)

PLAYS: (2156)

Embed

Attention junkie Donald Trump is doing his best to take advantage of Bill Maher poking fun at him on Jay Leno's show this week, where he decided to one-up Trump's birtherism with President Obama. Sean Hannity actually had this clown on for the better half of his show Thursday evening and Trump repeated some of the same remarks he made on Extra the previous day: Trump will ‘probably sue’ Maher after proving mother didn’t have sex with orangutan:

Real estate mogul Donald Trump is threatening sue HBO comedian Bill Maher over a bet over whether the billionaire’s mother had sex with an orangutan.

During an interview with NBC’s Jay Leno earlier this week, Maher had mocked Trump’s absurd offer of $5 million if President Barack Obama could prove he was a U.S. citizen. Maher said that he would donate $5 million to the “Hair Club for Men” or “Institute for Incorrigible Douchebaggery” if Trump produced evidence to counter the claim that he “had been the spawn of this mother having sex with an orangutan.”

“The other night on Jay Leno’s show, he made an absolute offer, I made an absolute acceptance,” Trump explained to Extra on Wednesday. “I sent him documentation and he owes me $5 million, which I’m going to give to charity.”

Trump repeated his threat to sue Maher and also told Hannity that HBO should fire the comedian immediately for insulting him:

Hannity said there would be far more outrage if anyone but Trump had been the target of Maher’s barbs. Trump called Maher “insulting” and said he was shocked by the “horrible things” Maher was saying about his parents. He sent a letter directly to Maher with his birth certificate demanding the five million dollars, which he joked that Maher may or may not have. There has been some question over whether Maher would be legally obligated to pay up, but Trump assured Hannity that his lawyer is confident of their case.

But on the subject of the double standard, Trump agreed that there is only minimal outrage because the insults were directed at him. He told Hannity that if he ever said anything similar about Obama, “you would be fired immediately.” He said that more people should be outraged about Maher’s statements, bragging that his lawyer won him five million dollars before and he’ll do it again.

Apparently the entire concept of comedy and satire is lost on these two. You've got to give it to both of them for having that feigned victimhood routine down pat, though. Heaven forbid that mean old comedian was picking on Trump. It's not like he's ever said anything hateful or disrespectful to deserve it!

Hannity was also pushing him about whether he's going to run for president again and he didn't rule it out, so I guess we've got an early scoop: The next Republican presidential primary is going to be just as big of a clown show as the last one.

Here's Maher on Leno's show earlier this week for anyone that missed it.

DOWNLOADS: (220)

PLAYS: (2450)

Embed

DOWNLOADS: (137)

PLAYS: (1497)

Embed

I've got to wonder if anyone over at Fox ever asked if something Bill Maher or any other left-leaning comedian said on the air was an indication of the rest of the media "coming around" on anything? I would guess the answer to that question is "No."

But that's the way Fox News Watch host Jon Scott opened up his show this Saturday, prior to yet another round of beating the dead Benghazi-gate horse. Fox does always have their double standards when it comes to "celebrities" though. If you're a Republican, you must be taken seriously at all times and might even end up being one of their idols, like the revisionist version of St. Ronnie they love to prop up. But if you're a liberal, you're going to find yourself either being completely ignored or scorned and mocked.

DOWNLOADS: (222)

PLAYS: (3030)

Embed

From this Wednesday evening's The Tonight Show, President Obama went after Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock and his comments about conception from rape being "God's will."

Obama tells Leno: 'Rape is rape':

Asked by host Jay Leno about Mourdock's comments, in which the Indiana state treasurer said during a debate Tuesday evening that "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something God intended to happen," the president said "rape is rape."

"I don't know how these, come up with these ideas ... rape is rape. It is a crime," the president said. "These various distinctions about rape ... don't make any sense to me."

Mourdock, an Evangelical Christian, says abortion should only be legal when necessary to prevent the death of the mother. He argues it should be illegal in cases of rape and incest. Many who share his faith believe God chooses when conception occurs and that abortion is equivalent to murder.

In a press conference Wednesday, Mourdock accused Democrats of twisting the meaning of his comments.

"I would be less than faithful to my faith if I said anything other than life is precious. I think it is a gift from God. I don't think God would ever want anyone harmed, sexually abused, or raped. I think it's wrong when someone wants to take what I said and twist it," Mourdock said.

The Obama campaign aggressively criticized Mourdock's comments throughout the day Wednesday, and sent an email to female supporters in the evening linking Mourdock to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

"Not surprisingly, Romney is still standing by his endorsement and is refusing to ask that [an ad featuring Mourdock and Romney] be pulled down," deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter wrote in the email. "It's a grim reminder of something he's trying desperately to hide in the final weeks of this election: Romney has campaigned as a severe conservative, supports severely conservative candidates, and would be a severely conservative president -- especially on issues important to women."

The Romney campaign on Wednesday said that the presidential nominee disagreed with Mourdock's comments, but would not ask the Senate candidate to take down an ad featuring Romney.

President Obama also reminded the viewers just what's at stake this election with a couple of Supreme Court nominations potentially in the balance and that keeping organizations like Planned Parenthood funded and allowing women to control their own reproductive rights are not just health issues, but economic and family issues as well.

DOWNLOADS: (397)

PLAYS: (3039)

Embed

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday insisted that President Barack Obama's health care reform law should be overturned and that people with preexisting conditions should be denied coverage if they had never had insurance before.

During an appearance on NBC's Tonight Show, host Jay Leno told Romney that he knew people that had never been able to get insurance before "Obamacare" was passed.

"It seems to me like children and people with preexisting conditions should be covered," Leno noted.

"People with preexisting conditions — as long as they’ve been insured before, they’re going to continue to have insurance," Romney explained.

"Suppose they were never insured?" Leno asked.

"Well, if they’re 45 years old, and they show up, and they say, I want insurance, because I’ve got a heart disease, it’s like, `Hey guys, we can’t play the game like that. You’ve got to get insurance when you’re well, and if you get ill, then you’re going to be covered,'" Romney replied.

"I know guys that work in the auto industry and they're just not covered because they work in brake dust," Leno pressed. "And then they get to be 30, 35, and were never able to get insurance before. Now they have it. That seems like a good thing."

"But people who have had the chance to be insured — if you’re working in an auto business for instance, the companies carry insurance, they insure all their employees — you look at the circumstances that exist," the candidate explained. "But you don’t want everyone saying, `I’m going to sit back until I get sick and then go buy insurance.’ That doesn’t make sense. But you have to find rules that get people in that are playing by the rules."

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent pointed out that by passing health insurance mandates in Massachusetts, Romney had acknowledged that people should get coverage when they are well, but he had since moved further to the right in an effort to win the GOP presidential primary.

"So he’s forced to give a nonsensical answer to the core policy and moral question that’s left behind if we do away with Obamacare: What should the federal government do about those who can’t get insurance covarge, thanks to preexisting conditions?" Sargent wrote.

"Until Romney details otherwise, his answer, for all practical purposes, is: Nothing."

DOWNLOADS: (119)

PLAYS: (718)

Embed

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly told NBC's Jay Leno on Tuesday that people should cut Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum some slack for his "dopey comments" on social issues.

"I have no idea what Rick Santorum stands for," Leno admitted to O'Reilly. "All I know is, he doesn't like condoms, he doesn't like birth control."

"I don't understand this anti-gay thing, it doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, we are Americans, we should include everybody in the same tent. I don't understand why it's a threat to my marriage -- I've been married 32 years -- why if Bob and Steve want to get married, why it's a problem to me."

Sensing the audience was against him, O'Reilly kept his opinion on LGBT rights in check.

"The social stuff is -- you know, look, we want our president involved, but not that involved," the culture warrior explained. "And if you get involved with the social stuff and personal behavior judgements, that's not what America wants."

He added: "Santorum is a guy who is inexperienced in this arena. He got drawn into a few things. He's made some past comments. Everybody has dopey past comments. ... So, we got to cut him a little slack."

But within the comfort of his own Fox News set, O'Reilly has often been quick to say that same sex marriage was dangerous and would eventually lead to marriages with turtles, goats, ducks and dolphins.

(H/T: Gawker)

DOWNLOADS: (345)

PLAYS: (493)

Embed

Jay Leno proved that he can be every bit as useless of an interviewer as the majority of our cable “news” hosts. They’re all good at throwing these guys softballs and allowing them to come on the air and lie with little or no pushback. Former Massachusetts Governor and likely 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared on the Tonight Show Wednesday night and gave us the standard Republican line about President Obama “needing to move to the middle”, or in other words, capitulate more than he has already and give Republicans everything they want.

Romney pretended that Republicans care about Americans getting back to work and improving our economy while in the next breath saying the government shouldn’t be doing anything to help improve the economy and ignoring the fact that all Republicans have done for the last two years is obstruct any moves the Democrats have tried to make to get Americans back to work. It's also laughable that Romney would pretend he's worried about job creation in America given his track record on that matter.

Romney went on to say that we should have let GM go bankrupt. He defended the Bush tax cuts and told the standard “job creators” lie as to why they should be continued.

Romney tried to downplay some of the damaging material that’s come out of the latest WikiLeaks document dump and said that America “came off pretty well” followed by some rah, rah, rah we’re the greatest country on earth jingoism.

Romney finished off the interview by defending John McCain’s continued moving of the goalposts on DADT by citing his military service as though that makes him some wise sage on the issue and said that “now is not the time” to reform the policy. Jay Leno pointed out that the same sort of rhetoric was used during the Civil Rights movement but gave Romney a pass with having to respond to that fact.

I think Romney's going to have some trouble since the Republicans are attacking "Obama-care" as some socialist program rather than just another version of Romney's or Bob Dole's health care plans. Since he's in lockstep with the far right of the party on every other issue and obviously wants to run for president again, I await him denouncing the plan he helped get passed as Governor of Massachusetts.

DOWNLOADS: (891)

PLAYS: (5292)

Embed

President Obama... definitely funnier than Jay Leno at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Good grief. Leno bombed but not quite as badly as Rich Little. The President on the other hand had a lot of very funny one liners for the night.

As one of my non-Twitter impaired C&L contributors informed me, apparently there are a lot of people having some fun at Leno's expense on Twitter with the hashtag #funnierthanLeno.

From The Daily Show April 20, 2010:

Jon apologizes for criticizing Bernie Goldberg and Fox News, but it's only because they're a terrible, cynical, disingenuous news organization.

UPDATE: Goldberg went on Fox News today and responded to Stewart -- Bernard Goldberg: Jon Stewart's "sewer rats" wrote "crazy hateful comments" on his website.

DOWNLOADS: (780)

PLAYS: (7523)

Embed

Apparently Fox's Eric Bolling isn't too happy with Bill Maher for something he said during his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno:

Maher: ‘I thank the Tea Baggers’ for health care reform:

But when talk show host Jay Leno asked Maher about health care reform on Wednesday, Maher replied, "I thank the Tea Baggers. They're the ones who got it passed,"

Maher acknowledged that the Tea Partiers might be confused by his gratitude. "I'm sure they're saying, 'What are you talking about Bill?'" he suggested. "'I was so against the health care bill I marched on Washington with tea bags hanging from my hat, dressed up in my Founding Fathers costume, with a picture of Hitler, you know, and Obama's face on him, screaming about his birth certificate.'"

"And America saw that," Maher concluded, "and said, 'What loons. We're going with the calm black man. These idiots can't even spell, 'Go back to Kenya.'" Read on...

Apparently that didn't sit too well with Eric Bolling who said this on the April 1 edition of Fox & Friends. From Media Matters -- Bolling: "There was only one teabagger" at the Tonight Show "and it was Mr. Maher"

Bolling wouldn't have anything to be upset about if these Tea Partiers hadn't called themselves "teabaggers" until they figured out how unfortunate that choice of name was.

DOWNLOADS: (131)

PLAYS: (367)

Embed

March 29, 2010 NBC Jay Leno Show