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Joe Scarborough swung a double-edged sword on today's Morning Joe, swiping simultaneously at his MSNBC colleague Chris Matthews and at radio host and debate panelist Hugh Hewitt. The subject was Marco Rubio, with Hewitt calling him "the most dynamic speaker the Republican party has seen ever, since Lincoln." "Since Lincoln," asked Scarborough incredulously—"do you have a tingle going up your leg?" Scarborough said that rather than recalling Lincoln, "when I see Marco speaking, I'm seeing a guy that's running for student government." View the video here.

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Sunday slammed Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) and the House Freedom Caucus for "holding the House hostage" and blocking Republicans from electing a successor to outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who wants to resign at the end of the month. Hewitt said on NBC's "Meet The Press" that he hopes Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — who has said he doesn't want to be Speaker — will change his mind. Hewitt then criticized Brat, who was on the roundtable, and the conservative House Freedom Caucus for giving Ryan a tepid response. "There's like 15 of you...

Senator Ted Cruz joined me on the show today:Audio: 10-08hhs-cruzTranscript:HH: Joined now by United States Senator Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz, welcome, itÂ’s good to speak with you. TC: Hugh, thank you for having me. ItÂ’s always a pleasure to be with you.HH: Quite an amazing day in Washington, D.C.TC: Yes.HH: You have an extraordinary amount of influence on the House of Representatives. What do you think they ought to do?TC: Well, it has been an extraordinary day. Kevin McCarthyÂ’s dropping out, I think, surprised everybody. And you know, what I think they should do is what I have both publicly...

First, there are the GOP’s “True Believers,” to use Eric Hoffer’s term. Among the four categories of voters, the True Believers in 2016 have already picked a candidate and are sticking to him come hell or high water—at least unless and until he drops out or wins. It’s clear that the True Believers are lining up primarily behind Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Rick Santorum or Donald Trump. The second category of GOP voters are the “Buckley Voters,” so-called because they tend to follow the “Buckley Rule” and support the most conservative candidate they see...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States should use India’s help to deal with Pakistan if it becomes ‘unstable’ in the future. “You have to get India involved. India’s the check to Pakistan,” Trump said, during his appearance on a radio talk show. Trump’s statement came in response to Hewitt’s question regarding what he would do if Pakistan, “the most dangerous country in the world other than Iran,” became ‘unstable’. Asked whether he would send in US troops to neutralise Pakistan’s nuclear capability should the country go rogue, Trump replied that he would not reveal his...

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Donald Trump today. The interview took place during the first two segments (about 22 minutes including commercials) of Hugh's show. It was friendly and covered several subjects. You can listen to the replay here tonight. Click "LISTEN LIVE". 6 Pacific / 7 Mountain / 8 Central / 9 Eastern

In the view of this NewsBuster, Hugh Hewitt is the ablest conservative interviewer on radio. So it was surprising to see him serve as such a loyal CNN soldier on today's Morning Joe. Hewitt, a member of the CNN panel at Wednesday's GOP debate, refused to complain about the paltry opportunities he was given to question the candidates. And defending the fact that Donald Trump had been given twice Scott Walker and Mike Huckabee's airtime, Hewitt said that while "unfortunate," Jake Tapper had done a "marvelous" job of allocating time. That was too much for Mika Brzezinski, who bluntly told...

Here’s my 10-minute summary of the CNN Republican debate (which should have been renamed the CNN-Pssst-did-you-hear-that-nasty-thing-one-Republican-said-about-another-Republican debate):The Winners: Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina were the two standouts in Wednesday’s debate.Rubio brought an appealing mix of the common touch and tough talk on foreign policy to the debate stage. Unlike some other candidates, he didn’t seem like he was elbowing his way into the debate, so it “felt” like he was a featured speaker. He sounded like the grownup in the room when he tussled with Trump on foreign policy. Trump grimaced and rolled his eyes, but offered no substantive...

Hugh Hewitt drew Trump’s ire with a smart question. On Wednesday night, the conservative talk radio host will be ready for round 2 ... Hewitt declined for obvious reasons to detail potential debate questions. But he showed off a spreadsheet grid he’s made to keep track of each candidate’s “at-bats,” in an effort to assure that all are heard from. And his basic philosophy is simple. “Trying to channel the Republican primary voter who is undecided—or, what’s the term, loosely attached—and what they would want to know,” he explains. “And one of those things is who’s the best positioned to...

CNN’s Republican debate on September 16th will be conducted with dignity and gravitas by questioners like Hugh Hewitt and Jake Tapper, who will treat the candidates with a level of respect and courtesy that many of them just don’t deserve. They have to. I don’t. On behalf of all infuriated conservatives, I demand the right to interrogate the candidates myself. I get to ask a question and a follow-up, and here are the rules. First, answer the damn question. It insults me when you think I’ll somehow forget what I asked, so bewitching is your oratory. Second, answer, then stop talking....

Talk radio host Hugh Hewitt has said in the wake of last week's controversial foreign policy interview with Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump that "I deplore 'gotcha questions,'" yet he's repeatedly defended asking them in the past and even says on his website that there's no such thing as a "gotcha question."

The conservative radio host accused of asking Donald Trump “gotcha” questions in an interview this week has denied the charges, saying he has no favorites and will ask “hard questions” of all candidates later this month when he acts as a questioner in the second Republican primary debate. “I don’t do gotcha questions,” Hugh Hewitt told CNN on Sunday, adding that Trump had had a “great interview” in which he had been “very sophisticated” and “almost Nixonian” in other answers. In the interview, broadcast on Thursday, Trump confused Iran’s Quds force with the Kurds and said he would know the...

Sarah Palin appeared on CNN this morning and defended Donald Trump after his less-than-stellar interview with Hugh Hewitt. Trump’s foreign policy-focused interview was pretty widely panned for The Donald’s loose grasp on the issues. On State of the Union this morning, Tapper asked Palin if she thought Trump got “gotcha” questions. Palin said, “I’d rather have a president who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit.”

Sarah Palin appeared on CNN this morning and defended Donald Trump after his less-than-stellar interview with Hugh Hewitt.Trump’s foreign policy-focused interview was pretty widely panned for The Donald’s loose grasp on the issues. On State of the Union this morning, Tapper asked Palin if she thought Trump got “gotcha” questions.Palin said, “I’d rather have a president who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit.”She added that the public doesn’t “give a flying flip” which specific leaders are overseeing specific regions anyway. Palin suggested a good metric to judge candidates by might be...

Sarah Palin appeared on CNN this morning and defended Donald Trump after his less-than-stellar interview with Hugh Hewitt. Trump’s foreign policy-focused interview was pretty widely panned for The Donald’s loose grasp on the issues. On State of the Union this morning, Tapper asked Palin if she thought Trump got “gotcha” questions. Palin said, “I’d rather have a president who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit.” She added that the public doesn’t “give a flying flip” which specific leaders are overseeing specific regions anyway. Palin suggested a good metric to judge candidates by...

Donald Trump trashed conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Twitter early Saturday morning, a day after Hewitt denied asking Trump "gotcha questions" during an appearance on his show. ... "Why would a very low ratings radio talk show host like Hugh Hewitt be doing the next debate on @CNN. He is just a third-rate "gotcha guy! A producer for Hewitt's radio show responded by posting a handwritten note Trump left for the host telling him it was a "great honor" to appear on his show. ...

There is one very important metric Donald Trump likes to judge someone’s merit on: ratings. He constantly talks about how good The Apprentice did in the ratings and most of the time, when he wants to express his dislike of someone, he goes after their ratings (though he couldn’t exactly do that with Megyn Kelly). -snip- Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 3 hours ago New Jersey, USA Very low ratings radio host Hugh Hewitt asked me about Suleiman, Abu Bake al-Baghdad, Hassan Nasrallah and more - typical "gotcha" questions Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 3 hours ago New Jersey, USA Why would...

SALEM RADIO NETWORK host HUGH HEWITT's tough questioning of guest DONALD TRUMP, and TRUMPs subsequent insults thrown at HEWITT, have earned the veteran radio talker a lengthy profile in the WASHINGTON POST. The POST's examination of HEWITT, whose probing of TRUMP on foreign policy issues exposed the candidate's uncertainty and drew a lambasting from TRUMP as a "third-rate announcer," notes that despite HEWITT's open conservatism and Republican Party ties, he "has a reputation for facilitating rich and respectful on-air conversations with guests whose own political loyalties lie far afield from his own" and has close ties with powerful figures across...

Foreign policy gaffe prompts a familiar strategy: Don’t apologize, strike back at questioner. Donald Trump’s enemies have been waiting for his Sarah Palin moment. On Thursday night, they thought they had it. Trump whiffed on a foreign policy query about the leaders of major terrorist organizations and of Iran’s Quds Force. His ignorance of General Qasem Soleimani and his inability to distinguish between the “Quds Force” and the Kurdish people immediately became the focus of the national conversation. But then the event took a distinctly Trumpian turn: The candidate not only didn’t apologize or express any regret, he launched an...

From the moment he walked onto the Republican debate stage in Cleveland, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has been Donald Trump's most relentless critic. He has called him a "fake conservative," a "chameleon," a man who "buys and sells politicians." Long before former Florida Jeb Bush hit Trump with a video of his most liberal statements, Paul had his campaign team on the case. Yet in a Friday interview with Michael Smerconish, first spotlighted by Mediaite's Matt Wilstein, Paul got a chance to mock Trump's stumbling "commander in chief interview" with Hugh Hewitt. He did not take it. Instead, he defended...