Monday’s Morning Joe featured a discussion with Richard Stengel, the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. What proceeded was a discussion of the administration for securing the Iran Deal, without any effort to release Journalist Jason Rezaian, or the other three hostages of the government in Iran. Stengel would try to defend the lack of action, by highlighting that other governments do the same, but the Morning Joe crew was not having any of it.
Joe Scarborough
By Mark Finkelstein | November 2, 2015 | 8:24 AM EST
In the wake of the CNBC debate debacle, Joe Scarborough went on an epic rant on liberal media bias on today's Morning Joe. He summed things up this way, in challenging the panel: "you can't do it and nobody here can do it: name the single Republican that has hosted a Sunday show, that has been an anchor of a news network for the big three networks over the past 50 years: you can not do it."
Mark Halperin largely agreed, saying "there's huge liberal media bias." But Mike Barnicle actually claimed that having fair moderators would be a bad thing for Republicans because they would lose their ability to run against the media.
By Michael McKinney | October 30, 2015 | 12:01 PM EDT
Friday's Morning Joe featured a discussion by the roundtable on the subject of the debates and the fairness needed for them. While Newsbusters previously discussed Morning Joe's discussion on the bias of moderators, Morning Joe also discussed their surprise and support of Dr. Ben Carson, who has come out leading the change to reform these debates.
By Mark Finkelstein | October 29, 2015 | 8:29 AM EDT
Tuning into Morning Joe today, the question on this NewsBusters' mind was whether—given that MNSBC and CNBC are corporate cousins—Joe Scarborough would have the guts to go after John Harwood. He did.
In at least three segments this morning, Scarborough criticized Harwood for what he called his "embarrassing" performance as moderator of the GOP debate last night. Scarborough's repeated criticism on Harwood's blatant anti-GOP bias led Joe at one point to ruefully observe "I'm sure I'll get in trouble for saying this."
By Mark Finkelstein | October 28, 2015 | 8:32 AM EDT
Whatever Nicolle Wallace had for breakfast this morning, Jeb should down a double order . . . On today's Morning Joe, former Bush communications chief Wallace slammed a Politico story in which former McCain staffers rejected parallels between Jeb's campaign and that of McCain, who came back from the political wilderness to win the nomination in 2008.
Calling the story a "cheap shot," "low blow" and "irrelevant clackery of the clacking class," Wallace repeatedly pointed out that the sources for the story were McCain staffers now working for other candidates in the current GOP race. Such folks would obviously have a vested interest in scotching the notion of a Jeb comeback.
By Mark Finkelstein | October 27, 2015 | 7:21 AM EDT
Joe Scarborough had to prod her into it, but once she got going, Mika Brzezinski unleashed a blistering tirade against Hillary on today's Morning Joe for accusing Bernie Sanders of sexism.
Hillary has ginned up great feminist umbrage at Sanders' statement at the debate that people need to stop "shouting" about gun violence and do something about it. A clip was played of Hillary at two stump events saying that when women talk some people think they're shouting. In an extended riff, Mika repeatedly called Hillary's shtick "pathetic," adding that she was "cringing" at the "stupidity" of it. Mika said "I'm going to get killed" for her criticism of Hillary. Wonder who's going to bring the hammer down on Mika?
By Mark Finkelstein | October 23, 2015 | 8:40 AM EDT
Talk about politics making strange bedfellows . . . Joe Scarborough has said that when he goes back to Washington, DC, his "best friends" are "liberal Democrats." The one person Scarborough singled out to illustrate this was Maxine Waters, mentioning that he hugs her on the House floor.
Scarborough's statement came during a pre-recorded New Hampshire town hall with John Kasich that aired on today's Morning Joe. I wish Scarborough had explained why his best friends are liberal Democrats rather than any of the 247 Republicans in the House. Maxine Waters, really? The woman who called George W. a "liar" and Dick Cheney a "liar" and "thief?" Who refused to call the Rodney King riots by that name, labelling them a "rebellion" instead?
By Mark Finkelstein | October 22, 2015 | 8:24 AM EDT
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were among the first in the media, going back months, to take Donald Trump seriously. In contrast, Bill Kristol had repeatedly declared that we had reached "peak Trump," only to find The Donald confoundingly continuing to climb in the polls.
Things boiled over on today's Morning Joe. Despite a fresh poll showing Trump with an astounding 48% of GOP voters in Massachusetts, Kristol blithely declared that Trump "is not going to be the nominee." That elicited sarcastic laughter from Scarborough, who shot back "we can show you clip after clip after clip after clip of your incorrect predictions about Donald Trump and his imminent collapse." Later, Kristol seized on a new poll from Iowa showing Ben Carson having overtaken Trump. Claiming that "you guys have been overestimating Trump and underestimating Carson," Kristol said he was "just trying to be helpful." An exasperated Scarborough exploded: "you're out of your mind. You're not trying to be helpful. You're trying to cover your a--. It won't work with us."
By Mark Finkelstein | October 21, 2015 | 7:47 AM EDT
It might be apocryphal, but the famous quote attributed to Pauline Kael, the late film critic of the New York Times, is along the lines of "how could Nixon have won? Nobody I know voted for him."
Mika Brzezinski had her Pauline Kael moment on today's Morning Joe. Mika declared herself "really surprised" by poll numbers showing there are more Americans dissatisfied with Hillary Clinton's response to Benghazi than there are people who think the congressional investigation into Benghazi is too partisan. Said Mika: "it's sort of like a disconnect I guess that I have with the people I talk to and the rest of the country."
By Mark Finkelstein | October 20, 2015 | 8:53 AM EDT
This could be the worst whitewashing since Tom Sawyer suckered people into helping him with that fence... On today's Morning Joe, Joe Klein cleared Hillary of responsibility for American deaths in Benghazi, and blamed the CIA.
According to Klein, "this really was a CIA station there, not so much a consulate, and those guys should be able to protect themselves in most circumstances." Klein doesn't think Hillary should even be called to testify: "this is something that does not rise to the level of the Secretary of State." He suggested instead that David Petraeus be hauled before the committee.
By Mark Finkelstein | October 20, 2015 | 7:55 AM EDT
Basta: enough already! It's not that John Heilemann thinks Joe Biden is a liar, it's just that he's not convinced that Biden knows his own mind yet. And so it was that on today's Morning Joe, Heilemann declared "if he called me this morning and said I'm going to get in today at noon, I wouldn't believe him because I think there's a chance that by noon he'd change his mind."
Heilemann used two words with rhyming Middle English endings to describe Biden's charged emotional state: fraught and wrought.
By Mark Finkelstein | October 19, 2015 | 8:47 AM EDT
Joe Scarborough says there's an effort underway to delegitimize the FBI investigation of Hillary's email. Did Mark Halperin just abet that effort by alleging that FBI agents conducting the investigation are driven in part by personal animus toward the Clintons?
Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Halperin said that "of all the entities in the United States that represent a threat to Hillary Clinton being the next President of the United States, those FBI agents are probably in the first tier, in part because they're following the evidence wherever it leads, but in part because—let's be honest—a lot of FBI agents don't like the Clintons. View the video, and be sure to watch to the end to catch Hillary cackling in response to Jake Tapper's questions about the email.