Morning Joe was out in force with its shovels on Monday, doing the dirty work of cleaning up after Biden's latest — and most dangerous — gaffe.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski began by claiming that Biden's regime-change gaffe was "far more tame" than President Reagan's hot mic moment in which he spoke about bombing Russia. The difference, of course, was that Reagan was obviously joking, whereas Biden was dead serious. And Mika praised the gaffe for having "put the Kremlin back on his heels."
Joe Scarborough agreed, saying the gaffe was "a good thing." And in a laughable moment, he described Biden as having engaged in "psyops," forcing Putin "to sleep with one eye open." Only a hard-core sycophant like Scarborough could keep a straight face while promoting the notion that notoriously bumbling Biden is capable of engaging in psyops.
Scarborough also attacked as "pathetic and un-American" the Republicans who have criticized Biden's flub. Scarborough seems to forget that the right to criticize our leaders is precisely what distinguishes the US from countries like...Russia.
And by no means were only Republican officials criticizing Biden's gaffe. Morning Joe's resident foreign policy maven, Richard Haass, head of the Council on Foreign Relations, tweeted that Biden's gaffe:
"Made a difficult situation more difficult and a dangerous situation more dangerous. That is obvious. Less obvious is how to undo the damage."
But Haass was strangely absent Monday morning, at least in the show's crucial opening half-hour. Instead, Morning Joe brought on a trio of commentators to join with Joe and Mika in dutifully praising Biden's speech, gaffe and all.
And if Biden's regime-change line was so brilliant, or as Scarborough later called it, a smart piece of "creative ambiguity," why did his handlers immediately jump to correct the record, repeatedly emphasizing that, contrary to Biden's gaffe, the US is not interested in regime change? There was also the pitiful excuse offered by Biden's UN ambassador, who suggested that Biden made the statement because he got carried away by emotion after meeting Ukrainian refugees.
Morning Joe claiming that Biden's gaffe, in which he called for regime change in Russia, was a good thing, was sponsored in part by Sling, Johnson & Johnson, maker of Pepcid, Publishers Clearing House, Coca Cola, and Pepsi.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
3/28/22
6:00 am ETMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Earlier in the day, he castigated Vladimir Putin, calling him a butcher. And then, in his speech at the royal castle in Warsaw, Joe Biden said the quiet part out loud.
JOE BIDEN: Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. For free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. We will have a different future, a brighter future, rooted in democracy and principle. Hope and light, of decency and dignity and freedom of possibilities. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.
MIKA: That his staff tried to walk his comments back had echos of the reaction to Reagan's evil empire speech and his hot mic moment when the Gipper joked during an audio check about bombing Russia.
RONALD REAGAN: I have signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.
MIKA: All right. Joe Biden's remarks were far more tame --
JOE SCARBOROUGH: -- a lot more tame.
MIKA: -- but likely still put the Kremlin back on its heels, which some argue is a good thing.
SCARBOROUGH: It's a good thing.
MIKA: This morning we gauge the impact of Biden's proclamations in Poland.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: So, Mr. Ambassador, let's talk about the speech, the historic nature of the speech. And, yes, yes, the ad libbed lines, which actually as far as psyops goes, was the important part of the speech. I'm wondering, Mr. Ambassador, if it's not nice, for once, that it is not Vladimir Putin defining the terms of the debate and keeping us guessing, but instead, it is Vladimir Putin wondering whether he has to sleep with one eye open.
. . .
It's so interesting though. A lot of the bad-faith actors on the Trump right who have been criticizing Joe Biden for being too weak now criticizing Joe Biden for being too strong. And really revealed themselves after that speech for just how pathetic and how unAmerican they are in attacking the American president in a time like this.
