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Morning Joe Tag

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 17, 2016 26 Comments
Tell us what you really think, Bill . . . Weekly Standard editor William Kristol has been one of Donald Trump's harshest conservative critics. He really let it hang out on today's Morning Joe, calling Trumpism "a new low" consisting of "Third-World, authoritarian, populist, demagogic politics." Earlier, Kristol sniffed off the significance of the major shake-up in the Trump campaign, in which Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon and consultant Kellyanne Conway have assumed leading roles: "I don't think it matters, because the problem is Donald Trump."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 16, 2016 64 Comments
Question for Cokie Roberts and Joe Scarborough: does the name Hillary Clinton ring a bell? On today's Morning Joe, NPR's Roberts and Scarborough proclaimed  Donald Trump "morally tainted." Roberts took it one step further, also declaring "morally tainted" those who support Trump. Scarborough asked Roberts whether she'd ever seen "a candidate so morally tainted, so challenged that people are calling him a racist and calling him a con man, at the same time saying we support him?" Roberts said no one has ever seen anything like this, and for good measure, citing her roots growing up in the Jim Crow South, suggested Trump's candidacy was a "stain" taking the country back in that direction. But when it came to being morally tainted, Hillary's name never crossed the lips of Roberts or Scarborough.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 12, 2016 52 Comments
Some inside baseball from the Trump campaign . . . Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have known Donald Trump for years, and reportedly are in regular contact with members of his campaign staff.  On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough said that what: "every Donald Trump staffer will tell you is: he never, ever takes any of the blame himself. He always screams at staffers. That's what is starting to happen now that the polls are going low." Meanwhile, Mika Brzezinski reported that Trump is exhausted, sleeping in "two-hour spurts," and that as a result Trump is "losing it." Do Joe and Mika have any sources inside Hillary's campaign? Think Clinton might occasionally raise her voice? And if she isn't sleep-deprived, what's accounting for her physical and verbal stumbles? Short-circuit, anyone?

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 11, 2016 33 Comments
A few days ago in our Quick Hits feature, this Insurrectionist wrote "the server is a Sword of Damocles over Hillary's campaign. Whatever the polls may say, Clinton knows that she is just one disclosure away from disaster." Has Mika Brzezinski heard the hair holding that Sword start to fray? Today's Morning Joe reported on the disclosure that a senior Clinton Foundation official had contacted close Hillary advisers Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills to request, as something "very important," that they set up a contact between a billionaire foreign Foundation donor and the US ambassador to Lebanon. Reacting, Mika said "as a Clinton supporter, I think the bigger question is, what is going to come out? Could something big come out? Could we have implosion of epic proportions. Could you say that the candidate you support doesn't have something lurking here that could bring down her campaign?"

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 10, 2016 29 Comments
The opening segment of today's Morning Joe was one long fusillade against Donald Trump in light of his remark yesterday that there is nothing people could do to stop a President Hillary from abolishing the Second Amendment, "although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know." The single harshest criticism came from Joe Scarborough, who suggested that Trump had "crossed the Rubicon" into fascism. Scarborough said that in the past he had rejected use of the words "fascist" or "fascism" in reference to Trump because he had never made "a call to violence." Scarborough asserted that Trump's comments yesterday were a suggestion that "Second Amendment people" kill Hillary Clinton or judges. Concluded Scarborough: "he crossed a lot of Rubicons yesterday."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 09, 2016 51 Comments
Was New York Times columnist Frank Bruni suggesting there could be civil unrest if Donald Trump loses big and bitterly? That seemed a likely implication of his comments on today's Morning Joe. Bruni said his "fear" is: "what if he goes down big and goes down bitterly? I really worry about the aftermath. I worry about November 9th and forward in terms of what's been stirred up." Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson tried to soothe poor Frank's fears: "We survived Bush-Gore 2000, we made it through that just fine and I think we'll make it through post-Trump just fine, too."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 08, 2016 42 Comments
On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough said that "I had multiple sources last night telling me that an independent with the backing of a lot of Republican money is going to launch today." None of the other panelists, including the well-connected Mark Halperin, had heard that. Scarborough continued: "several good sources told me that people, Republicans from, let's just say #NeverTrump land found somebody and they're going to put good money behind him." Scarborough said it would be someone "French-like," i.e., like National Review author David French whose name was floated not long ago before withdrawing.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 04, 2016 23 Comments
The liberal establishment has yet to recover from the shock to its delicate sensibilities caused when Donald Trump spoke of Megyn Kelly having blood coming from her "wherever." But will anyone blink a whatever now that MSM member Mika Brzezinski has told Republicans that they need to "get their heads out of . . . something?" The ever-diplomatic Willie Geist suggested Mika had "sand" in mind, but it seemed clear she was referring to something else.

On today's Morning Joe, Mika repeatedly made the case that the Republican establishment should dump Trump. Analogizing the Trump candidacy to a car that has burst into flames, Mika called Republicans "wussies" for refusing to get out of it.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 03, 2016 53 Comments
We reported yesterday on Joe Scarborough's statement that Republicans, conservatives and so-called right-wing bloggers had been contacting him to ask about Donald Trump's "mental health." Scarborough himself called Trump "unhinged." Joe took things a significant step farther on today's Morning Joe, saying that Republicans have been contacting him, asking themselves "is Donald Trump a sociopath?" Scarborough was careful to state "I didn't say this, but this is what everybody is saying." Scarborough dropped the s-word in the context of hammering Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W., over his lesser-of-two-evils support of Trump.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 02, 2016 63 Comments
On Morning Joe, in the wake of recent comments by Donald Trump including his criticism of the Gold Star Khan family, Joe Scarborough says that he has been contacted by Republicans, conservatives and what the media would call "right-wing bloggers" to inquire about Trump's "mental health." Scarborough says "everybody" is talking about it. Scarborough went on to say "I've known him for a decade, never seen him act like this before. It's unhinged, not the Donald Trump I've known for over a decade. I never have seen anything remotely resembling this type of behavior from a guy who I've known and liked and called a friend."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 01, 2016 21 Comments
As we reported yesterday, in her Fox News Sunday appearance, Hillary Clinton blamed "professionals" on whom she was "entitled to rely" who “made the wrong call” by sending her classified material. Appearing today on Morning Joe, Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook continued to blame others, whining that the emails containing classified materials came from "long-time tenured State Department professionals." But as Scarborough and others on the panel pointed out, Hillary forced others into sending her classified information in an improper way because she only maintained email on her private server.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 29, 2016 20 Comments
Of all the metaphors he might have picked to praise Hillary Clinton, Joe Scarborough chose the most unfortunate one: that of "brain surgeon." Because to many people, Hillary brings to mind none other than Nurse Ratched, that cold and domineering figure who subjected one of her charges who wouldn't fall in line to . . . a lobotomy. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough actually said "why don't we try actually hiring a brain surgeon who's been operating on brains instead of chopping down trees for the past 30 years?" Scarborough put the words in the mouths of Hillary supporters he imagined, but was clearly expressing his own sentiment.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 27, 2016 8 Comments
Couldn't Joe Scarborough have waited until after Barack Obama and Joe Biden gave their DNC speeches tonight before he began gushing over them? Apparently not. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough, pre-lauding Obama's speech-to-be, said "you know when you're watching a great movie . . . and you can see where it's going, and you sort of start smiling?" But it wasn't just Obama's as yet unspoken speech that had Scarborough excited. "You look at that lineup: it's absolutely extraordinary," enthused Joe. In addition to Obama, tonight's line-up consists of Michael Bloomberg, Tim Kaine and Joe Biden. Yes, when it comes to oratory that will bring people to their feet, set their pulses racing and forever claim that they were there in the hall that night, there's nothing like Mike Bloomberg bragging about the day he banned the Big Gulp.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 26, 2016 13 Comments
Today's opening segment of Morning Joe was one—long—gush-fest over First Lady Michelle Obama's speech to the DNC last night. The apotheosis of adulation came from Joe Scarborough, who said that the speech "reminded me of Ronald Reagan." Scarborough also had an "America love it or leave it" message for those who think our country needs to be made great again: "we are the last best hope for a dying world. If you can't get behind that message as a Republican or a Democrat, then let me buy you a ticket to another country." Wonder if Joe offered Michelle a ticket out back in 2008 when she said that "for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country?"

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 19, 2016 51 Comments
John Heilemann came up with a strange way to defend Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and to attack Melania Trump, for the plagiarism in speeches each of them gave. On today's Morning Joe, Heilemann argued that Biden and Obama's plagiarism wasn't as bad, because they ripped off fellow liberals: Neil Kinnock and Deval Patrick, respectively. In contrast, passages in Melania's speech came from a 2008 Michelle Obama speech. Per Heilemann, that made Melania, or the person who prepared those passages for her, a "moronic plagiarist." Heilemann omits one important thing: Melania is the wife of the candidate, for whom English is not even her second language. In contrast, at the time they gave their plagiarized speeches, Biden and Obama were presidential candidates themselves. They were almost certainly directly involved in the plagiarism.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 15, 2016 48 Comments
Want to see a textbook example of the kind of thinking that leads to the fall of civilizations? View the video of Richard Haass, President of the Council Relations on today's Morning Joe. A clip was played of Donald Trump favoring a declaration of war and repeating his call for the restriction of Muslim immigration, in particular Syrian "refugees," that we know little or nothing about. A hand-wringing Haass argued against "cutting down immigration" and other measures, because "our connections with entire populations and communities, our best measure of defense is making sure that people in these communities are working with us rather than threatening us." So according to Haass, we shouldn't defend ourselves against terrorists entering the country by restricting the immigration of Muslim "refugees" about whom we know little or nothing. Why? Because doing so would incite Muslims already in the United States and lead to them "threatening us." If that is so, our problems are even more serious than we have realized. If the Muslim population in the US is a tinderbox, on the brink of "threatening us" if we try to defend ourselves, why were they admitted in the first place? And whatever additional threat they might pose if we do adopt sensible measures, shouldn't the first thing we do be to limit the ability of more such volatile people to enter our country? Haass' attitude, which as you'll see is seconded by Mika Brzezinski, is the passive, self-disarming road to the decline and ultimately destruction of our nation and civilization.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 14, 2016 15 Comments
Joe Scarborough couldn't have been kinder as he slid the shiv into Mike Pence this morning. The opening segment of Morning Joe was devoted to the veepstakes, and Scarborough politely trashed Pence while making the case for Chris Christie. Scarborough went out of his way to praise Pence as an "able leader" and someone he likes. But he proceeded to say that Pence wasn't "ready for prime time." Joe broke out the deer-in-headlights metaphor and analogized Pence to previous running-mate "disasters." On the other hand, Joe argued that Christie is someone who has been on the national stage, capable of destroying Marco Rubio with one debate, and who is best equipped to prosecute the case against Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 08, 2016 32 Comments
Morning Joe did a very decent job today of covering the shooting of police officers in Dallas and the issue of police shootings of African-American. The remarks were generally even-handed. Even Al Sharpton was cautious and balanced in his comments. And so it was surprising that of all people, Chuck Todd made the most tendentious remark. Speaking of the shooting of Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota, and discussing the need for better police training, Todd said: "how do you train prejudice and hate out of somebody's heart? That's a tough thing." Is there racism among police? Of course, as there is in every segment of society. Was the Minnesota governor right when he said Castile would be alive if he were white? Quite possibly. But for Todd to focus on police "prejudice and hate" was a gross and unfair overgeneralization. Chuck Todd: please spend a few days in a police cruiser in an inner city. See what the police see and have to deal with every day. Then come back and tell us whether police "prejudice and hate" is the key to the problems facing our society.
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