Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Morning Joe Tag

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 28, 2016 15 Comments
Go ahead, Hillary: make our day . . . In the wake of Elizabeth Warren's joint appearance with Clinton in Ohio yesterday, today's Morning Joe panel went gaga pver Warren, promoting her for Hillary's VP pick. Joe Scarborough proclaimed that Warren "is Led Zeppelin" for the way she fills a stage. Mika Brzezinksi, long a big Warren booster, suggested that because Hillary wants to win, she will put Warren on the ticket. Scarborough went so far as to declare that any Hillary VP pick other than Warren would "look like a dud."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 27, 2016 10 Comments
In my old liberal hometown of Ithaca, NY, back in the George W. era it seemed you couldn't drive a block without seeing a "Dissent Is Patriotic" bumper sticker. But the night Barack Obama was elected, one imagined all across town earnest souls in their driveways, scraping those stickers off. And so it is that Joe Biden, the Vice-President of the United States, traveled to Ireland to imply that Donald Trump is 'un-American." For good measure, when it comes to illegal immigration, Biden proclaimed a preference for "bridges" over "walls." Think about that.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 23, 2016 16 Comments
With all the zeal of a Joey-come-lately, gun-control convert Joe Scarborough clashed on today's Morning Joe with Second Amendment defender Tom Cole, Republican congressman from Oklahoma. When Scarborough lectured Cole about terrorists "who want to kill people in your district," Cole shot back "Joe, I know something about terrorism. I lived through an incident in Oklahoma City." And when Scarborough patronizingly instructed Cole to "read the Constitution," Cole retorted "I think I've read the Constitution as often as you have." Mike Barnicle waited until after the interview to take a cheap shot at Cole, claiming that he is "handcuffed to the top leadership of the NRA at the expense of ordinary people."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 21, 2016 15 Comments
Imagine you're a real reporter—not a thinly-disguised member of the Dem cheerleading squad—and you had the opportunity to question President Obama's spokesman this morning. Wouldn't you have wanted to know the degree to which President Obama and his minions were complicit in the fiasco of the redaction of the Omar Mateern tapes, removing most of his proclamations of allegiance to ISIS, Allah, etc? But when the Morning Joe crew interviewed Josh Earnest, not a word about the Mateen tapes, or anything else that might have jostled Josh's feathers. To the contrary, the interview was one long set-up, giving Earnest the chance to sanctimonously wring his hands over the rejection by the Republican Senate of various gun control measures. Most bathetic of all was Mike Barnicle. Barnicle prefaced his question by saying "I'm going to ask you to do something that's probably difficult given your role as White House spokesperson." For a fleeting second one imagined Barnicle was about to challenge Earnest with an uncomfortable question. Hah! "Give us a feel for the president as a human being, okay? As a father, as a parent, as a citizen because we all know what happened in Orlando." Hard-hitting stuff, Mike!

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 17, 2016 33 Comments
In 1964, Republican Barry Goldwater suffered a devastating landslide loss to LBJ. Aside from his home state of Arizona, Goldwater carried only five other states, all in the Deep South. Goldwater amassed only 52 electoral votes, to Johnson's 486. But even that paltry performance will look "extremely successful" compared to the thrashing that is in store for Donald Trump in November -- if you believe Joe Scarborough. On today's Morning Joe, after reviewing Trump's disapproval numbers with various demographics, Scarborough said "Barry Goldwater is going to look like an extremely successful candidate." Interestingly, Nick Confessore of the New York Times disagreed, arguing that the American electorate is so polarized that LBJ-like landslides are impossible today, and that the candidate of either party has a guaranteed base of 48%.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 16, 2016 47 Comments
There was a stunning moment on today's Morning Joe, when Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson was stumped when asked a simple question. With all the brouhaha over gun control in the wake of the Orlando massacre, what law could have stopped Omar Mateen? It was, of all people, Sam Stein of the Huffington Post who asked the killer question. Stein pointed out that Mateen was not on the no-fly or terrorist watch list, and had passed a background check. "So what is the actual legislative response" that would have stopped the Orlando attack? Johnson resorted to claiming that Congress had "a lot of ideas," but could not name one that would have made a difference. He also repeatedly recited the new mantra: gun control is a matter of homeland security. Bottom line: the Dem clamor for gun control is a political stunt. It's about increasing vote totals, not public safety.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 14, 2016 34 Comments
For a guy who regularly decries the debasement of the political culture, Joe Scarborough sure has a funny way of elevating the dialogue . . . On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough said that Donald Trump reminded him of "scumbags" who said that President George W. Bush had something to do with 9-11. Scarborough was steamed over Trump's comments yesterday on the campaign trail that when it comes to Islamic terrorism, President Obama either is not tough enough, or "has something else in mind . . . there's something going on." Asked later to clarify his statements, Trump said he would let people "figure out" their meaning for themselves. Scarborough sidekick Mike Barnicle was only too happy to jump on Joe's bandwagon, claiming that Trump's statements were a "disqualifier" for his presidential aspirations.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 13, 2016 44 Comments
Do you think the families and loved ones of the Orlando victims wish Omar Mateen's father, an anti-American Afghan, had never been permitted to enter the United States? Do you think the great majority of Americans agree? The answer seems obvious: but not to the clueless cast of Morning Joe, which today trashed Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslim immigration. Mika Brzezinski epitomized the willful blindness, claiming the Muslim ban has "no connection at all" to the Pulse massacre.
Accessibility by WAH