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MSNBC Tag

Following President Trump's announcement that the United States, the United Kingdom, and France had launched a joint missile strike in Syria, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow told her audience that the strikes might be motivated as a means of distracting from domestic problems Trump is facing.  Apparently, she is concerned that even this impression will "taint" military operations. In her best "no, you are not dreaming Trump really won" voice, Maddow announced that the timing of the strikes and her sense that it seems to be a diversion weakens our military's "impact and effectiveness."  National security, she intones, is at risk.

Monday, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg gave a bizarre interview to the Washington Post, saying he was going to ignore the subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury. Later, Nunberg went on a network news tour, where, in a strange stream of consciousness, Nunberg spilled his guts on everything from White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to why Trump loves Corey [Lewandowski] more.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough cause a Twitter storm when he posted a misleading tweet about Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).  Scarborough misrepresented Hatch's comments about entitlements generally as being specifically about CHIP, a program created back in 1997 when Hatch co-sponsored the legislation with then-Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA). Scarborough has since taken down the tweet, but here is a screen cap of it:

There has long been a lot of buzz about Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe (D) running for president in 2020.  In the wake of Tuesday's strong showing for Democrats in Virginia, McAuliffe's potential for a presidential bid in 2020 has improved. In an interview with MSNBC's Al Sharpton in which Sharpton asked about his 2020 plans, McAuliffe said "let's talk after I get out of here." The Washington Examiner reports:
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who has been stuck at the bottom of all the 2020 presidential polls, saw his political stock soar last week when his party scored huge election victories, cementing his legacy and giving him a platform to run on.

A few weeks ago, Mediaite published a leaked video of MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell have the meltdown of all meltdowns. In the video, O'Donnell slammed his fists on the desk repeatedly and unfurled a profanity-laced tirade at the production staff for not properly dealing with a hammering noise coming from somewhere in the building. O'Donnell was not appreciative of having someone else's happy hour plans discussed in his ear piece during segments either, or what he called “insanity in my earpiece".

Not even Hillary Clinton, acclaimed author of What Happened, went this far.  On Wednesday's Hardball, Dem Rep. Jackie Speier called Russian "hacking" of the presidential election an "act of war." Taking things a significant step further, Speier said:
"I'm not convinced that they didn't get into the [voting] machines."
That was too much even for Chris Matthews, who interjected, "we don't know that yet. We don't know that."

Joe Scarborough took an I-told-you-so victory lap on today's Morning Joe. In the wake of President Trump cutting a deal with Pelosi and Schumer, the show aired a prepared montage of Joe, going back almost a year, predicting that Trump would wind up working with Dems, with whom, according to Scarborough, he feels more comfortable.

Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Rep. Joe Crowley, the fourth-ranking member of the Dem House leadership, stated that President Obama is "leading the charge" on efforts in state legislative races. Crowley was responding to Joe Scarborough's question as to what Dems will do differently from what they did in November, when they got "absolutely shellacked."

On today's Morning Joe, MSNBC senior political analyst Mark Halperin said that special counsel Robert Mueller "is a cyborg." Joe Scarborough was so tickled by the description that he had Halperin repeat it. Calling Mueller "a relentless opponent," Halperin said that "there is a strategy here, there's a fearlessness, and there's a level of coordination that makes anyone trying to help the president on this be put in a very defensive position."

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?"

Evan Siegfried is the sort of Republican MSNBC prefers as panelists: One who supported Hillary Clinton, and later Evan McMullin, and is happy to condemn President Trump. Appearing on today's AM Joy, Siegfried went beyond mere condemnation to predict Trump would stage an event to exploit politically. Discussing the Arpaio pardon, Siegfried said: