Mika Brzezinski makes no bones about being a liberal Democrat. She was big on Bernie, even more enthusiastic about Elizabeth Warren, whom she repeatedly urged to run for president. But while she might well vote for Hillary in the end, Brzezinski is anything but a Clinton acolyte.
Her aversion was on display on today’s Morning Joe. A clip rolled of Speaker Paul Ryan saying that as a candidate Hillary should be denied classified briefings, given FBI Director Comey’s finding that she had been “extremely careless” with classified information. Panelists Harold Ford, Jr., Jim VandeHei and Michael Steele scoffed at the notion that Hillary could be denied such classified briefings. That’s when Mika went off: “you’ve been hostages for 30 years! You’ve all been hostages for 30 years and you don’t know how to think anymore.” Mika recommended that people look at Hillary “as a human being, not someone who for years and years and years and years and years we’ve just decided is in a different category of humanity.”
Mika Accuses Panelists- You’re ‘Hostages’ To Idea Hillary Deserves Special Treatment from Mark Finkelstein on Vimeo.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: House Speaker Paul Ryan is demanding swift action for the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, to bar Clinton from the intelligence briefings party nominees are used to getting.PAUL RYAN: Look. I was on the ticket in 2012. After the convention you get the full, deep classified information as part of transition, as part of being a nominee. I think the DNI, Clapper, should deny Hillary Clinton access to classified information during this campaign given how she so recklessly handled classified information.JOE SCARBOROUGH: Harold, that seems rational, doesn’t it?HAROLD FORD, JR. To bar her from having –JOE: — access to any classified information.FORD: [laughs] She is the nominee of the Democratic party.JOE: So? The FBI Director said that she was reckless in how she handled classified information. You or I would not be given access to it.FORD: I understand the politics of it.. . .JOE: No. No. No. I’m just talking the facts of it.. . .JIM VANDEHEI: I get your point and I think you made it really well yesterday on this show yesterday. But it’s not going to happen. Number one, Congress can’t prevent the briefings. I think that’s why he said we would like to look at it.JOE: No. The intel community can though –VANDEHEI: The intel communcity can, but the administration is not going to –JOE: We’re talking about setting precedents. And this isn’t something like we haven’t been through before. I’m sure you have been through it before as [a member of the] Armed Services Committee. You go through a hell of a lot to get classified information.VANDEHEI: But ultimately it’s a White House call and the White House will decide whether or not that happens and they’re not going to do that to Hillary Clinton.. . .MICHAEL STEELE: You’re right, Harold. I mean at the end of the day the White House is not going to shut Hillary Clinton off from these intelligence –JOE: Why not? Anybody else would be shut off.STEELE: They would.JOE: So the Clintons live by different standards.STEELE: Yeah. We know that.JOE: So what, the rules that apply to the rest of the world do not apply to the Clintons. Part 47.MIKA: You’ve been hostages for 30 years.STEELE: It’s a different kind of –VANDEHEI: I’m not arguing that they shouldn’t prevent it. I’m just saying they are not going to.MIKA: I know! Because you all have been hostages for 30 years and you don’t know how to think anymore.VANDEHEI: I don’t think you are — we’ve been hostages –STEELE: I agree. I don’t think she –FORD: What would you recommend they do then? She’s the nominee–just give it to her –MIKA: I’m not recommending anything. I just recommend you think logically, as if this is a human being and not someone who for years and years and years and years we have just decided is in a different category of humanity.
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