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Morning Joe Tag

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 10, 2016 42 Comments
The headline's not a typo: avowed Hillary supporter Mika Brzezinski has torn into Republicans who withdrew their support for Donald Trump over his hot mic comments, calling them "pathetic, weak and spineless." On today's Morning Joe, Mika's point was that for anyone who had bothered to look, there was, long before Friday, tons of negative material out there about Trump. So anyone pretending to be shocked by the most recent disclosure must have been willfully blind. And based on his strong debate performance last night, Mika predicted that they might now "have to come back." Joe Scarborough graphically made the same point, saying that "halfway through the debate, they [the dump-Trumpers] were looking at their TV saying oh . . . shoot."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 06, 2016 26 Comments
Right, Donny. Because who could ever come up with an argument against Hillary Clinton, possibly the most corrupt, scandal-ridden, jaded candidate in the history of presidential politics? On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, to his credit, fulminated against anti-Trump MSM reporters who are supposed to write stories down the middle but are instead "openly cheering for Hillary Clinton." That's when Donny Deutsch defended media bias, saying that reporters have a "conscience" and that "sometimes there's no other side to an argument."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 05, 2016 15 Comments
Still disloyal after all these years . . . Eight years after serving as a Sarah Palin aide, Nicolle Wallace can't stop trashing the woman she was presumably paid to support. On today's Morning Joe, Wallace suggested that if ignorance of foreign policy were an asset, "Sarah Palin would be Vice-President of the United States." Wallace's unworthy remark came in the context of a discussion of Libertarian president candidate Gary Johnson's claim that his own ignorance of foreign policy was an asset, since it makes him less likely to get the country involved in foreign wars.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 04, 2016 5 Comments
Joe Scarborough was probably just trying to make the point that Donald Trump is very unpopular with black voters, but he wound up saying something that some might view as insulting to African-Americans. Interviewing Al Sharpton on today's Morning Joe, he asked about the Rev's view that Hillary has not been doing enough to appeal to black voters. As Sharpton prefaced his remarks by observing that Hillary is way ahead of Trump among black voters, Scarborough interjected "my dog's way ahead of Trump among black voters." It's amusing to watch the video: as Joe gets to the end of his statement, it seems to dawn on him that he's wandered down a dangerous path, but by then it's too late so he plows ahead!

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 03, 2016 21 Comments
This Insurrectionist finds Mark Halperin to be among the most cautious and level-headed of pundits. The With All Due Respect host typically avoids wild speculation and is generally of the on-the-one-hand and on the other school of analysis. So it was striking that on today's Morning Joe, Halperin, with some prodding from Joe Scarborough, suggested that Donald Trump might be planning a big October surprise in the nature of a "revelation" about Hillary Clinton. One sensed that Halperin had some inside knowledge of the situation, though all he mentioned in support of his theory is that Trump is surrounded by people such as David Bossie, who has spent a quarter-century investigating the Clintons' personal lives.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 30, 2016 21 Comments
Mika Brzezinski prefaced her remarks by saying she wanted to phrase them "carefully," but then, in the most careless way, Brzezinski clearly accused Donald Trump of being mentally ill. On today's Morning Joe, reacting to a depiction of Trump by New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters as being incapable of taking criticism of his performance, leading his advisers to communicate with him via the media, Mika said that was "very sick" and "it sounds like they're dealing with someone who, doesn't—how do I say this carefully—is very troubled, is very disturbed."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 29, 2016 32 Comments
Mika Brzezinski went on an epic feminist rant on today's Morning Joe, condemning not just Donald Trump for his comments about a former Miss Universe, but raging against the entire beauty pageant culture in which women are judged on their . . beauty. Mika summed up her intellectual argument this way: "you stupid men." Brzezinski considers it unfair that beauty pageant contestants are expected to be trim, whereas men like Trump and Newt Gingrich "can walk around as rotund as all get out." But if those guys had entered the Mr. Universe contest, every inch of their oiled bodies would come under the microscope. But they haven't. Thank God. And if a woman in exercise of her free will enters a beauty contest, that's her choice.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 28, 2016 23 Comments
Mika is Woman: hear her roar! Mika Brzezinski had a suggestion for Donald Trump on today's Morning Joe. After Hillary, in the debate, "cleaned his clock" and "wiped the floor" with him, Mika suggested that Trump might want to "bow down" in acknowledgement of the strength of women. Mika was still furious after an opening segment in which she and the other panelists trashed Trump for having, among other things, "weight shamed" a former Miss Universe. Admitted Mika "just to be shallow, I have to say given all his comments about women . . . I'm really glad that a woman cleaned his clock. I'm really glad that she wiped the floor with him. I love it. I love it."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 27, 2016 30 Comments
The screencap says it all . . . on today's Morning Joe, reacting to last night's presidential debate, Mika Brzezinski was nothing short of despondent. Brzezinski repeatedly argued that although Hillary was "amazing," did "great," etc., it is Donald Trump who walked away the winner politically because he was able to "connect" with the concerns of broad swaths of the electorate. Readers are encouraged to view the video to understand the depths of Mika's despair.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 26, 2016 23 Comments
Donna Brazile has been a fixture for years on talking-head shows. This Insurrectionist has always thought of her as an affable but relatively reserved soul. Reserved? There's another side to Donna that I was obviously missing! Right from the beginning of her Morning Joe appearance today, in which she swayed gracefully in her seat while greeting "brother Ben" Ginsburg, Brazile was a one-woman show of expressive gestures and phrases. Just sit back, roll the video, and appreciate Donna's very animated performance, which ends with her telling Joe Scarborough "I love you—thank you boo."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 23, 2016 30 Comments
Mika Brzezinski used an unfortunate metaphor on today's Morning Joe to describe Hillary and Trump's different approaches to preparing for Monday's first presidential debate. Said Mika: "you think of like the two law students preparing for the bar. The guy is polishing his car to calm down. And the girl is studying up to the last minute." Mika is apparently unaware that Hillary flunked the DC bar exam after graduating from Yale law school in 1973. 67% of the people taking the exam at the same time passed, putting Hillary in the bottom third. Maybe instead of studying, she was too busy . . . polishing Bill's car.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 21, 2016 9 Comments
Richard Haass is the quintessential member of the foreign policy establishment. Long-time President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Haass has served in Republican and Democrat administrations and advised candidates from both parties. In this election, he has been very critical of Donald Trump. So no taint of partisanship can be applied to the normally mild-mannered Haass' scathing comments on today's Morning Joe about President Obama's UN speech of yesterday. After calling the speech a "major disappointment," Haass unleashed the unkindest cut, saying of Obama's detached attitude to the crises of the day "this is not the faculty lounge." Ouch.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 20, 2016 16 Comments
Republican congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has to be one of the best-informed, well-spoken, reasonable, fairly non-partisan Members of Congress. So when Royce appeared on today's Morning Joe to discuss the latest atrocity in Syria, in which the Assad regime barrel-bombed an aid convoy, he was initially given respectful "Mr. Chairman" treatment, until . . . Royce had the audacity, responding to Andrea Mitchell's question about Donald Trump's "embrace of Vladimir Putin," to refer to Hillary Clinton's failed "Russian reset." That set Mika Brzezinski off. After an "oh, wow" of incredulity, Mika demanded "can we at least be on the same planet here?"

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 19, 2016 10 Comments
A current GQ article detailed something that this Insurrectionist, as a regular monitor of Morning Joe, had observed: that Joe Scarborough went from being a Trump booster during the primaries to a vitriolic critic of The Donald during the general election campaign. But a trend I sensed last week continued on today's Morning Joe: Scarborough seems to be swinging back in Trump's direction. On a number of issues, it was Scarborough-against-the-panel in defending Trump. First, Joe noted how a reporter had teed Hillary up to criticize Trump for speaking of a "bomb" in NYC, whereas Hillary herself had spoken of "bombings." Later, Scarborough alone rose to Trump's defense over his suggestion that Hillary's bodyguards be disarmed.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 15, 2016 29 Comments
Americans of color to the rescue? That's how MTV's Ana Marie Cox sees it. Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Cox said: "I feel like if Hillary Clinton wins in the fall, it will be because the black and brown people of America have saved us, like they do a lot of time." Cox, perhaps best known as founder of the Wonkette blog, was preceded on set by Marcela Valdes of the New York Times, whose recent article noted the lack of political engagement in Latino culture [emphasis added]: "through all my conversations, I began to fear the real roots of political engagement, which lie not in quadrennial outreach programs but around dinner tables and in churches and classrooms, are far more absent from Latino life in America than most people understand."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 14, 2016 3 Comments
Can you imagine the absolute outrage on the left if a conservative pundit suggested that a male Democrat candidate was a "pansy?" The cries of "homophobia" would echo through the land, amidst demands that the offending pundit be defenestrated. But on today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski wondered out loud if Mike Pence is a "pansy." And you can just hear the liberal crickets gathering to say . . . absolutely nothing about it. Brzezinski's beef is that Pence, while denouncing David Duke, has declined to use Hillary's word—deplorable—to describe him, and has failed to be sufficiently critical of Putin. Mika claimed that Pence is "scared of his boss"--Donald Trump. So Mika, care to expand on your use of the word "pansy?"

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 14, 2016 15 Comments
How deeply has Joe Scarborough dived into Hillary's tank? On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough offered Hillary a script of how she should attack "right-wing Republicans." Howard Dean was so impressed by Scarborough's work on Hillary's behalf that he exclaimed "I actually think you could actually be her speechwriter. That's exactly what she should be saying. I'm sure you don't want that job, but I'm just saying, you know?" Howard, don't be so sure Scarborough doesn't want that job. Sure looked this morning like Joe was auditioning for a spot in Hillary's West Wing.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 13, 2016 36 Comments
As liberal pundits go, I find Sam Stein among the least objectionable—a low bar to be sure. The HuffPo editor has a streak of fairness to him. But on today's Morning Joe, Stein served up some absurd spin on Hillary's "basket of deplorables." "Deplorables," according to Stein, in a way "does work to her advantage." Why? Because some moderate Republicans will "look at this division between the deplorables and the non-deplorables . . . and do say to themselves: do I want to be part of that?" A kind of snob appeal, Sam? Don't think so, and even Joe Scarborough, who continued his attacks on Trump throughout the show dismissed the notion, saying "you don't win voters by calling other voters irredeemable."
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