Mark Finkelstein
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It's one thing for Joe Scarborough to criticize President Trump regarding various controversies. But when Scarborough brazenly boasts about the "Obama recovery," and thanks President Obama for it, you know that the former Republican has gone all-in with the Democrats. Playing off the recent drop on Wall Street, Morning Joe opened today by mocking Trump for his positive comments on the market back in August. Fine. But Scarborough then took things a servile step further, declaring:
On Monday's New Day, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, speaking of President Trump's tweet in which he referred to Michael Cohen as a "rat," Honig says: "people get killed because of that . . . People have been murdered because someone said, that guy's a rat." Honig tried to cover his tracks by adding, "I'm not saying the President is trying to get Michael Cohen injured." Sure. I suppose that's why Alisyn Camerota, picking up on Honig's accusation, said: "bad things happen to cooperators in prison."
Joy Reid guest Jason Johnson warns: "I've heard plenty of black women say, if there's not a black woman on this ticket, I'm not voting." And Reid declares that the Democrats: "can't run two white guys," warning that "women are going to be outraged," and "voters of color are going to say: well, then why are we participating?"
MSNBC host Joy Reid and guest Elie Mystal on Saturday openly connived about the best way to "get to" Trump. They concluded that it would be to "go after" Ivanka. Gloated Mystal: "this is the first time that we have Ivanka . . . in the crosshairs . . . The only way we're really going to get to Trump is if you go after his kids . . . And this [going after Ivanka] could be the way to do it."
On Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski apologizes for having called Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on Wednesday's show, a "butt boy." But whereas she apologizes "especially to the LGBT community and to my colleagues," Brzezinski doesn't apologize . . . to Mike Pompeo.
On Morning Joe, Donny Deutsch describes President Trump as "pathetic" and "defanged," going from being a "malignant cancer" to a "benign cancer." And so it is for the cast of Morning Joe. No matter how they might have denounced President Trump the day before, as the sun rises they are forced to begin yet again their labor of trying to take Trump down.
Appearing on MSNBC, Richard Painter, who in 2018 ran as a Democrat for a US Senate seat from Minnesota, declared that President Trump's "goose is cooked," and that he should seek a plea deal and resign from the presidency.
Turning on the tube this morning, you had to wonder whether you were actually watching Morning Joe, or a rerun of Saturday Night Live's satire of Mika Brzezinski's histrionics on the show. The doubt arose because Mika gave an exceptionally emotional performance that seemed like a virtual parody of the parody. As others spoke, Mika made a series of excited interjections.
Guest hosting for Ari Melber on his MSNBC show The Beat, Yasmin Vossoughian was speaking to Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee when she appeared to question whether Democrats would be patriotic if they don't impeach President Trump: "Congresswoman, are Democrats putting country first by not pursuing impeachment?"
On his MSNBC show, Hardball, Chris Matthews suggests that it would be a "witch hunt . . . to impeach a President for his sexual misconduct, even if it is illegal."
Morning Joe began the week reveling in President Trump's problems, with Donny Deutsch saying that the President's predicament is just "the tip of the iceberg" and insisting more than once that Trump will pay "for the rest of his life."
On CNN's New Day on Sunday, Michael Moore, a former Obama-appointed U.S. and Democrat state senator in Georgia, boasted: "you're hearing sort of the death rattle of this presidency, of this administration. I don't know that we need to call the undertaker yet, but it's certainly time to pick out the cemetery."
To offer a different interpretation, reader WKRP took the view that McQuade was not suggesting that President Trump be stripped of his citizenship, but that he be removed from office if he obtained the presidency via fraud. If indeed that's what McQuade meant, she found a roundabout means of saying so. But this writer acknowledges this as a plausible alternative interpretation of her remark.
On Morning Joe, commenting on remarks by Rudy Giuliani that could be seen as critical of President Trump, Mika Brzezinski twice asks at "what time" Giuliani crafted his remarks. She twice suggests that the explanation for Rudy's candor could lie in the fact that they came "late in the day." Back in 2016, at a time when Trump was considering Giuliani as a possible selection for Secretary of State, Mika hinted that Rudy had been "drinking a lot" during a meeting with Trump.
On CNN's New Day, after former Bush 43 aide Scott Jennings praises President Trump's handling of the passing of George H.W. Bush, CNN's John Avlon says: "I don't think you want to give out too many medals for not screwing up a presidential funeral. The President was on best behavior this week, but that's a fairly low bar."
On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, criticizing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for allegedly "lying" to Congress about the Saudi prince's involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, says that Pompeo is "a relatively young man with great credentials, a great past behind him, who is going out and sullying his reputation for a man who may not be in the White House for another year."
On Morning Joe, Willie Geist approvingly quotes a tweet by MSNBC legal analyst Daniel Goldman, who wrote that comparing President Trump to mob bosses is unfair to mob bosses, because they "are far smarter and way more savvy and discreet than Trump." Geist adds that, unlike the President, mob bosses "can't pardon the witnesses they tamper with."
On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough reveals, and Mika Brzezinski confirms, that Mika's father, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to Jimmy Carter, voted for George H.W. Bush And that was the one and only time Brzezinski voted for a Republican presidential candidate. Scarborough explains that what inspired Zbig was the kind of leadership and discipline that H.W. demonstrated in deciding not to continue on to Baghdad after the successful expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm.
On the MSNBC show 'AM Joy,' Maria Hinojosa says: "The government supports the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that supports public media, which is independent. Although oftentimes kind of bends over backward to show that they're not too progressive, precisely because they don't want to be caught on that charge."
On Morning Joe, Donny Deutsch says that he has spoken with Michael Cohen "many times" in recent days. Deutsch says that Cohen now feels that in light of his testimony and admission of having lied about the duration of his contacts with Russians regarding a possible Trump real estate deal, he is "on the right side of things," and can "stick his chest out."