Morning Joe | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 3
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Morning Joe Tag

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.

On today's Morning Joe, Willie Geist was making the point—in the context of the controversy over President Trump's tweets about Mika and Joe—that presidents need to have a thick skin. To illustrate, Geist recounted the story of President George W. Bush being informed by a communications aide that Keith Olbermann had made a nasty attack on him that was being picked up in the press. Responded W: "Keith Olbermann? Why is he talking about me? He does Sports Center: I love that guy!"

President Donald Trump took to Twitter to unleash his anger on Morning Joe and its hosts Mika Brzezinki and Joe Scarborough. He wrote that he heard the show "speaks badly" of him, but wants to know why "I.Q. Crazy Mika" and "Psycho Joe" went to Mar-a-Lago for three nights around News Year Eve and asked to meet with him. Then Trump claimed Mika "was bleeding badly from a facelift" so he said no. Of course Mika didn't let this stand and responded on Twitter.

How to become an MSM hero? Publicly confront the Trump administration. At yesterday's White House briefing, Playboy White House correspondent Brian Karem got into a testy exchange with Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders over CNN's fake Russia story and the broader issues involved. Appearing on Morning Joe today, Karem received a hero's welcome. As he was introduced, someone exclaimed "well done!" and there was even a smattering of applause. At the end of the segment, after Karem pleaded for the media to "stand up" to the Trump admin, Mika Brzezinski concluded, "and stand with you. Brian Karem: amen—to everything you said."

Appearing on today's Morning Joe, law professor Jonathan Turley noted that Chief Justice John Roberts teamed with Justice Anthony Kennedy to devise an exception to the Court's ruling of yesterday that permitted President Trump's travel ban to remain in place. Under the exception, the ban does not apply to foreign nationals with a "bona fide" relationship with a person or entity in the United States. Turley said that as of late, Roberts has been "swimming a lot in the middle of the pool," has become very Anthony "Kennedy-like," and would become the new swing vote should Kennedy retire.

For months, we've been chronicling Joe Scarborough's increasingly anti-Trump statements, as the Morning Joe host Scarborough called the president a "schmuck" and a "jackass," and repeatedly questioned the president's mental health, as here and here. Scarborough now appears to have hit rock-bottom [excuse the pun], with his release of a music video portraying Joe with co-host and fiancée Mika Brzezinski observing a nightmarish anti-Trump mash-up.