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Morning Joe Tag

On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski trashed President Trump in the wake of his visit to Texas yesterday. As Joe Scarborough was describing the positive impact a president's visit to a disaster area will have, Brzezinski butted in to say it was not in Trump's nature to be "human or empathetic." Cut to MSNBC reporter Garrett Haake, standing in deep water in the middle of a Houston highway, who replied:

On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle fretted over the personal impact the investigations surrounding the Trump administration are having on aides to the president. Each wondered, "what do you tell your children?"

On today's Morning Joe, after accusing President Trump of "impairment," Howard Dean said that "people keep talking about" the 25th Amendment as a means to remove the president from office. But Dean immediately poured cold water on the notion, saying "I personally think that's probably hooey." Law professor Jonathan Turley agreed with Dean: "Yes, indeed, that falls under the constitutional doctrine of hooey." Turley went on to describe the complicated procedures under the 25th Amendment, which would ultimately require a two-thirds majority in both houses of congress. Concluded Turley: "the 25th Amendment is not a really good option."

Looks like Joe Scarborough might be getting bored with attacking Donald Trump. So now he's turning on the people who put Trump into office. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough cited comments made by James Clapper after Trump's remarks in Phoenix last night, and by Michael Hayden in 2016, questioning Trump's fitness for office, specifically with regard to the potential use of nuclear weapons. Joe then referenced a statement made by Mika Brzezinksi prior to the election in which she warned Americans against voting for Trump.

On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough said that presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway is "so stupid" that it "makes my teeth hurt." Scarborough, presumably seeking to cover his tracks, then revised his remark to say "not her, but the words that come out of her mouth," a distinction with no real difference. Conway had noted the donations to Democrats including Hillary Clinton made by Robert Mueller and several lawyers he has appointed to his investigative team.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are suggesting that the Trump White House might be behind the leak of the transcripts of President Trump's conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia. On today's Morning Joe, Joe and Mika floated the notion that while the leaks might have been mildly embarrassing to the president, they were "really damaging to the press." In support of their theory on who was behind the leaking, the pair pointed to the fact that when the Washington Post informed the White House that they had the transcripts, Trump administration officials did not ask the paper not to publish them.

There are many vitriolic anti-Trump regulars on Morning Joe. Elise Jordan ranks right up there with the "best" of them. Interesting, considering that Jordan is a Republican, having worked for President George W. and on the Rand Paul campaign. Perhaps that explains it: bitter aftertaste from the primaries? In June, as our friends over at NewsBusters noted, Jordan compared Trump to a "suicide bomber." In July, Jordan tried to revive the discredited Russian "dossier" to use against the president.

Is Mika Brzezinski predicting that President Trump won't serve out his term? Sounds like it, judging by her observation on today's Morning Joe.

"If you are losing Republicans every step of the way because you've proved to be not trustworthy, and you've failed them miserably on health care . . . [and] undermining someone who's been incredibly loyal to you . . . isn't he playing the person who ends up getting fired on The Apprentice, instead of being the person who says "you're fired?"

Knowingly or not, Mika Brzezinski has exposed the progressive strategy for ever-increasing government control of our lives. On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough actually made a principled conservative case against Obamacare, saying that many conservatives "do not believe that the federal government should compel people to buy insurance. Should not compel young people to buy health insurance if they do not want to buy health insurance." Mika responded saying that she understood Joe's point about "sticking to conservative principles," acknowledging that "many Republicans were deeply offended by the concept of Obamacare." But Brzezinski then proceeded to give away the liberal game:

"People have it [Obamacare.] . . . Isn't it politically past due to take away health care? Whether you were for it or not?"

Mika Brzezinski was doing her best on today's Morning Joe to undermine the just-released statement by Jared Kushner on his dealings with the Russians. But when Mika tried to tee up former FBI agent Clint Watts to take a shot at the statement, she got what must have come as an unpleasant surprise. Mika put it to Watts that the Kushner statement, rather than explaining away dealings with the Russians, "raise[s] questions." But instead of taking Mika's hint, Watts replied:

"I think Kushner's statement is good. That we get this sort of transparency. And I believe his account of things."

Give Joe Scarborough credit. Just when we were getting bored with all the Trump/Nazi analogies, Joe has come up with a new one. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough compared Trump press secretary Sean Spicer to an old Soviet spokesman and propagandist. Scarborough's beef was that Spicer had supposedly said that the meeting of Trump campaign people including Donald, Jr. and the Russians was "just about adoptions." Joe called that a "lie." But have a look at the screenshot below, showing what Spicer actually said.

Does Joe Scarborough believe that Donald Trump will be resigning the presidency sometime this summer? Seems so, judging from Joe's baleful proclamation on today's Morning Joe. Said Scarborough:

"they have dug so far down low into the bunker that this is not Nixon in '73. This is Nixon in the summer of '74."

Nixon resigned the presidency on August 8, 1974. Below is the iconic image of Nixon waving goodbye as he leaves the White House.

On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough stared into the camera and invited people to contact him if they're aware of a presidential campaign that accepted "oppo research or support" from a foreign power. The question was based on a quote, shown on the screen, from former Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens asking whether any other campaign in history had received "oppo from foreign interests." Joe's invitation came in the context of a discussion of a meeting of senior Trump-campaign people with a Russian purportedly offering oppo info on Hillary Clinton. Of course, based on what's now known, Trump's campaign people didn't actually receive oppo research, just an offer of such in order to get a meeting.