Morning Joe

As we would cynically say back in the good old days in Queens [insert NYC accent]: yeah, right.  On today's Morning Joe, Associated Press White House correspondent Julie Pace claimed that one thing that made Hillary hesitate in deciding to run for president was that she "worried that her candidacy would block out Joe Biden who is quite a close friend of hers."  When Joe Scarborough expressed…

Ronald Reagan: "My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: we win and they lose." Thomas Friedman on Barack Obama: "He actually knows what America looks like from the outside in. And he can actually see America even to some point from the Iranian perspective." So whom will history record as being more effective in countering America's…

For Iran, Mike?  On today's Morning Joe, reliable Obama fan Mike Barnicle managed to keep a straight face while lauding the Iran deal as an "extraordinary feat." He did so despite poll numbers displayed showing that a huge majority of Americans don't think the ayatollahs will keep their promises. Let's see: sanctions lifted while centrifuges keep spinning and nuclear scientists beaver away in…

When Republicans make campaign announcements, the press usually grab their pitchforks, light their torches, and proceed to run them down. Such was the case with Mika Brzezinski, who typified the Morning Joe crew’s response to Rand Paul’s announcement trailer with the question, "Isn't that kind of setting yourself up to fail?"   Donny Deutsch also lamented the over-the-top rhetoric of the Paul…

Much of today's Morning Joe was devoted to a discussion of Rolling Stone's failed journalism on the UVa story. Maybe Mika Brzezinski should look in the mirror: she began her interview of Wendy Sherman, the chief US negotiator on the Iran deal, by offering her "congratulations."  Even Sherman herself had the sense to suggest that congratulations were not yet in order. In contrast, Joe Scarborough…

Last week, NewsBusters brought you "Stumped," as April Ryan struggled to cite a single foreign policy success by her super-fave, President Obama. In the best Hollywood tradition, this morning we bring you a sequel--Stumped II: Syria! On today's Morning Joe, lugubrious lefty Eric Alterman of The Nation mag was stumped when Joe Scarborough asked him what the US should do about Syria. After humming…

New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters was asked on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday about the difference between the Indiana religious-freedom law as it was originally written and as it stood now. Peters decided to unveil the bigger issue with the RFRA laws themselves: "these laws look as if they're coming from a dark place. They are designed in many cases to express a disapproval about gay…

Sometimes you just want to shake the TV and say "enough with the cutesy facial expressions, already: spit it out, Mika!"  Morning Joe mavens will know what I mean: Mika Brzezinski has the annoying habit of letting a series of sighs, raised eyebrows and facial tics substitute for a clear articulation of her position on a given issue. There was a prime example of the phenomenon on today's show,…

On today's Morning Joe, liberal Republican Nicolle Wallace sought to slough off a Politico article reporting that Jeb Bush is losing the influential "Laura Ingraham primary." Claimed Wallace, who served as Jeb's press secretary when he was governor of Florida, Ingraham "hates everybody.  She always hates the Republicans more than the Democrats at this point, too." Wallace even suggested that…

Not even a lifeline could have helped her . . . There was a telling moment on today's Morning Joe when Joe Scarborough challenged April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks to cite some of President Obama's foreign-policy successes. Ryan was reduced to replying "that's kind of tough. Hmm, that's a tough one . . . I have to really ponder that."    

After not covering on Thursday night a report that detailed how Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents attended sex parties paid for by Colombian drug cartels, NBC continued to show no interest in the multi-year scandal by making no mention of it during Friday’s edition of Today. While ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir also failed to cover this story on Thursday, ABC’s Good Morning…

This had to be one of the more telling moments about the emptiness of Hillary Clinton's campaign.  When Mika Brzezinski asked Morning Joe panel members today to describe Hillary's message "in ten seconds or less," they burst into laughter.  "Why is that funny?" demanded Mika, surely knowing the answer: that Hillary stands for nothing much more than "it's my turn, dammit!" But that didn't stop…

Employing a variant of the old surgeon's joke — "The operation was a success, but the patient died" — White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, on friendly ground on MSNBC this morning, essentially told viewers that the administration still considers Yemen a success, even as its government is on the fast track to being forced into indefinite exile. Earnest told the "Morning Joe" show's Mika…

Joe Scarborough, MSNBC’s solitary leaner toward the center-right, was unavailable for Monday’s broadcast of Morning Joe. Without him to restrain her, Mika Brzezinski proceeded to make a piñata out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election comments, repeatedly accusing him of “race-baiting.” This is odd, considering Mika insisted just a few days before that Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin…