If Mike Barnicle were around at the beginning of WWII, perhaps he would have written "we better not fight back. It might make Hitler mad."
On today's Morning Joe, the cringing former Boston Globe columnist, second-guessing a united front against terrorism, worried "wouldn't . . . creating a NATO force just add fuel to the recruiting fever that ISIS employs within Europe?" Maybe Mike should start referring to ISIS as Borg. After all, he apparently believes that resistance is futile.
Monday’s Morning Joe began with an evaluation of the actions of the White House prior to and after the attack on Paris Friday night. Joe Scarborough began by demanding to know if the roundtable thought the President actually looked involved and engaged in understanding “the level of threat.” When Mike Barnicle tried to claim the President “looks fully engaged,” Scarborough felt it necessary to confront him on it.
"Wow . . . I'm absolutely surprised by that answer . . . Are you sure? . . . Are we talking about the same person?" That was Mika Brzezinski's stunned response after her attempt to recruit retired General and former CIA Director Michael Hayden into her campaign against Ben Carson blew up in her face on today's Morning Joe.
Referring to Carson, Mika asked Hayden "are you concerned that there's a front runner whose foreign policy sensibilities seem to lack, to say the least?" But instead of playing along with Mika's leading question, Hayden replied that, based on a long conversation he had had with Carson, all of his foreign policy instincts are "right." He said Carson asked "good questions" and is a "well-meaning, serious, bright man."
Thursday at the end of Morning Joe, the roundtable invited Darcy Olsen of the free-market think tank. the Goldwater Institute. to discuss Gov. Jerry Brown's veto of “Right to Try” legislation in California. The discussion centered on the book “The Right to Try” and the legislation surrounding the effort. Mika Brzezinski began by inquiring of Olsen "why is it so hard? What gets in the way?"
Did Mika Brzezinski just suggest that Ben Carson has a screw loose? On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski said of Carson "I want to be very careful with my words, but he just doesn't sound completely connected with everything."
Judging from her halting cadence, Mika clearly seemed to realize that she was treading on some very controversial mental-health ground. The lead-in to her "connected" comment was her observation "he tried to kill his mother for God's sake! . . . we have been listening to this man talk in a flat monotone tone about taking a hammer to his mother's head."
Veteran MSNBC watchers have surely noticed the Obama-loving network's extreme hostility to black Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. These attacks and the pressure against Carson, compared to other Republicans in the race, has been intense. As a black conservative, Dr. Carson has taken extreme criticism and scrutiny for his words.
Two days ago, as we reported here, Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace excoriated Ben Carson, accusing him of telling "one lie after another" and "bald-faced lies."
Today, it was Mika Brezinski's turn to denounce the good doctor. On Morning Joe, Mika said "there's this slipperiness to him that nobody will just say. He's slippery. He doesn't tell the truth, and he doesn't make sense."
Even Joe Scarborough, who according to the National Review's Elaina Plott has a "vehement" dislike of Marco Rubio, thinks there's nothing to the Florida Republican Senator's credit card issue.
On today's Morning Joe, an incensed Joe Scarborough told Hugh Hewitt he was "full of it," and that "you owe me an apology."
Scarborough was steamed that Hewitt seemed to suggest that Joe was part of the "Manhattan-DC Beltway elite" that refused to cover Hillary's scandals. Scarborough said "I put my neck on the line every day here," covering Hillary and criticizing media bias.
Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace went on an animated tag-team attack against Ben Carson on today's Morning Joe, accusing him of "one lie after another" and "bald-faced lies," respectively. And Scarborough emphatically denied that there is any bias behind the media's inquiries into Carson's biography.
Scarborough, Wallace and Mika Brzezinski also criticized panelist Mark Halperin for not buying into the Carson-is-lying line, with Mika sarcastically implying that Halperin had backed off Carson in anticipation of an interview with him. Denying that the current Carson kerfuffle reflects media bias. Joe cast himself as an equal-opportunity truth teller, pointing out that he had recently criticized people [hello, John Harwood] for the biased CNBC debate.
Thursday’s Morning Joe featured a discussion on the Iranian deal and hostages in Iran. Late into the segment, Mika Brzezinski inquired of Vali Nasr on whether he was surprised the hostages weren't part of the deal. Nasr, who served as a State Department official in the Obama administration, and Karl Vick, of Time Magazine, both expressed a lack of surprise for getting the hostages. Joe Scarborough, infuriated by the lack of suprise, began to criticize the idea of dealing with the Iranians.
It was like a mother trying to lead her naughty son through an apology . . .
Last week, Joe Scarborough predicted he would "get in trouble" for calling John Harwood's biased performance as debate moderator "embarrassing." On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski tried, in what seemed perhaps to be a pre-arranged mea culpa, to force Joe to say "I really respect everyone I work with." Joe didn't play along with the script but did ultimately mutter "of course I do" before quickly moving on.