Morning Joe

Leave it to NBC News’ liberal sister network MSNBC to continue to criticize Al Gore for his decision to sell Current TV to Al Jazeera, the Arab news network owned by the government of  Qatar.  Appearing on Morning Joe Wednesday morning, Al Gore was sharply criticized from the left by co-host Mika Brzezinski for selling his company to a network funded by oil. 

Speaking to Gore, Mika opened up the interview by asking him, “Is it okay, then, for you personally to -- I'd say profit from oil?”  Nowhere in the interview did Brzezinski or the rest of the panel -- including mildly conservative Joe Scarborough -- challenge Gore for selling Current TV to a network the airs strong anti-American viewpoints.   [See video after jump.  MP3 audio here.]

Marco Rubio's tough talk to Rush Limbaugh yesterday about no immigration deal being done unless certain language on border security, etc. is included?  Ignore it.  Just Rubio taking care of his conservative base—and saving face.  In the end, Rubio will likely give Obama his vote on immigration reform.  It's all about finding an out for Republicans when it comes to winning back a decent share of the Latino vote. And conservatives will be willing to take the deal.

Such was the collective wisdom of Morning Joe today, as enunciated by Jon Meacham and seconded by Joe Scarborough.  View the video after the jump.

I hate to criticize a fellow pilot, but when one engages in such sky-high hypocrisy, well . . .

On Morning Joe today, former Obama car czar Steve Rattner, a very successful hedge fund manager, decried "climate-change denier[s]." This is the same Rattner who, at last report, owned a "15,000-square-foot mansion on Martha’s Vineyard, to which [he] flies regularly on a Dassault Falcon 2000 jet [see file photo] he pilots himself."  Rattner wrung his hands over the fact that we're "putting millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere every day." But just earlier this week, the New York Times ran a story entitled "Your Biggest Carbon Sin May Be Air Travel."  View the video after the jump.

It's a classic MSM tactic: delegitimize opposition to a liberal proposal.  Suggest that there can be no principled objections, only base motives.  

Take the current proposals on "the pathway to citizenship"—AKA amnesty—being floated.  On today's Morning Joe, Politico co-founder and executive editor Jim VandeHei proclaimed that it was probably "the right thing to do," but fretted that it would be easy to "demagogue."  View the video after the jump.

Joe Scarborough was a voice in the politically-correct wilderness this morning on the subject of women in combat.  On today's Morning Joe, as other panelists voiced unerring if occasionally cautious support for the Pentagon's decision to permit women in combat, Scarborough sounded a stern warning note.

"I'll be damned; if we find out that the Pentagon is lowering standards for politically-correct reasons, then you know what? Then the blood of dead Americans in future battles will be on their hands." View the video after the jump.

Joe Scarborough has said that he doesn't know whether Morning Joe member Willie Geist is a Democrat or a Republican.  I'd say Willie leans left on social issues but is not reflexively liberal on other matters.  Today, with Scarborough absent from the Morning Joe set, Geist actually rode to the defense of Rand Paul.

The Republican Senator from Kentucky has been taking heat from Dems over telling Hillary Clinton at yesterday's Benghazi hearings that had he been president, he would have fired her for her handling of the matter.  Panelist Donny Deutsch made a predictable attack, calling Paul "pathetic, amateur hour" and an "idiot."  But Geist weighed in to say that Paul "had a right to challenge" Clinton, and that he's "not supposed to just sit there and celebrate her," and that he was "doing his job."  View the video after the jump.

Joe Scarborough often riles up conservatives for his continual trashing of his fellow Republicans, but his most recent claim might be a new low for the MSNBC conservative.  Appearing on Morning Joe on Wednesday January 23, Scarborough insisted that he was not a Republican-in-name-only (RINO), but instead is more conservative than most in Congress.

Scarborough, who NewsBusters has repeatedly documented slamming conservatives, suddenly views himself as the epitome of conservative values.  Earlier this month, Scarborough made similar comments when he claimed to be a, “really conservative guy.”  Addressing the usual all-liberal MSNBC panel on today's Morning Joe, Scarborough argued that he is “Mr. Cut.”  [See video after jump.  MP3 audio here.]

Ah, the masses. How they loved President Obama's inaugural speech.  And how Andrea Mitchell, being "up there," loved looking out over them.  She was "very moved."

Yes, on Morning Joe today, NBC correspondent Mitchell not only said that she was "very moved, being up there . . . looking out over the masses," but that she found the speech "uplifting," and that it was "a bigger moment that a lot of people originally gave it credit for."  View the video after the jump.

As NewsBusters reported Thursday, Tom Brokaw appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe said that not supporting gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre is akin to those that didn't back the Civil Rights movement in the '60s.

Conservative talk radio host Mark Levin took issue with this hours later and asked, "Have you lost your mind Tom Brokaw? Do you realize what an idiot you are?" (transcript follows without any need for additional commentary, audio available at Right Scoop):

Have a look at the screengrab: it shows Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, she holding chin in hand, he hanging head.  Their melodramatic reactions come in response to an NRA ad decrying the hypocrisy of political and media elites who want "gun free zones" in the schools where most Americans send their children, while sending their own children to schools with armed guards.

The panel's reaction was one of collective hyperventilation.  Mike Barnicle called the ad "political pornography."  Donny Deutsch said it's "one of the grossest things I've ever seen in my life."  Scarborough asked Mika "what's wrong with these people?" Brzezinski replied that some of the people running the NRA are "sick in the head" and that she is "embarrassed for our country."  But what of the substantive point made by the ad?  View the video, including the ad, after the jump.

I don't know about you, but when I want to know how William F. Buckley, Jr. would have felt about an issue, I always consult Arianna Huffington and Joe Scarborough.  But seriously, who would you trust more to reflect how Buckley would have felt on an important issue of the day: the editors of the National Review--the magazine that WFB founded--or the combined wisdom of Huffington and Scarborough?  In an editorial published before Hagel's nomination became official, the Editors at National Review wrote: "Chuck Hagel is a very poor choice for the next secretary of defense," concluding that he was "definitively not the man who should be the next secretary of defense."

But on today's Morning Joe, when Huffington asked "don't you think William F. Buckley would be endorsing Chuck Hagel now?", Scarborough responded with an emphatic "yes!"  View the video after the jump.

Oh those racist Republicans.  Did you know that they're hostile to Colin Powell because he's black? Yup, just ask former Obama car czar Steve Rattner.  The Morning Joe regular today claimed that poor Powell "feels this hostility toward him from the rest of the party in part because he's a minority."

Really?  Colin Powell feels hostility from "the rest of the party" because he's a minority?  The Colin Powell appointed to a series of increasingly prestigious positions by a series of Republican presidents? The Colin Powell for whom so many in the GOP were clamoring to run for president in 1995-96?  That Colin Powell?  Please.  View the video after the jump.

Once again, MSNBC pseudo-conservative Joe Scarborough has disgustingly smeared conservatives and pro-gun rights advocates. Speaking on Friday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough sneered, “Do you know how much money these people have made over the slaughter of 20 innocents in Newtown?” 

Scarborough has joined fellow MSNBCer Toure in slanderously accusing the NRA of profiting off of the Newtown tragedy.  The entire segment featured Scarborough ranting against the nation's oldest civil rights group:  [See video after jump.  MP3 audio here.]

We don't know if Joe Scarborough resolved to lose any weight this year, but he seems to have no game plan for diminishing his bloated ego. On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, the pseudo-conservative ex-congressman suggested that Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was afraid to appear on his program.

Speaking on the subject of gun control, Scarborough challenged Cruz’s belief that a ban on assault weapons was unconstitutional and then challenged Cruz to come on his show and defend his opinion, “Some people get scared, they don't like them coming on because you don't ask them three minutes' worth of questions. It’s not an easy give and take.”   [See video after jump.  MP3 audio here.]

Joe Scarborough had quite a hissy fit on the MSNBC program bearing his name Friday.

In the middle of a discussion with Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-Ks.) about the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, Scarborough barked at his guest, "Do you dare come on my show and say I am using the slaughter of 20 little 6 and 7-year-old children, I'm using that for political purposes?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Appearing on Wednesday's MSNBC Morning Joe, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was greeted with childish behavior by the show's panel of left-wing pundits, who were unable to conceal their disgust with the state's right-to-work legislation just signed into law by the Republican. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Contributor Richard Wolffe led off the disrespectful display when Snyder defended the new law: "I don't believe this is actually anti-union. If you look at it, I believe this is pro-worker." Wolffe started laughing and rudely interrupted: "Hang on a second. Are you really – are you serious? Are you serious?  This is not anti-union?  This actually, at its core, undermines the ability for unions to organize. So you can make many arguments you like, but saying it's not anti-union..."

MSNBC's resident RINO Joe Scarborough has resumed his regularly-scheduled conservative bashing on Morning Joe.  While discussing the impending fiscal cliff on

Thursday, co-host Scarborough said that following President Obama’s “great victory” in November, it will be very hard for the president, who, “for four years, was told that he was an illegitimate president, that he was a socialist” to be gracious to folks like Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).  [See video below page break.  MP3 audio here.]

It's hardly a surprise, coming from the man who counseled the United States to shoot down Israeli planes should they seek to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.  But just for the record, Zbigniew Brzezinski has opined that the US and, yes, Israel itself, should have voted in favor of last week's UN resolution granting “non-member observer statehood” to Palestinians living in the West Bank of Israel.

Brzezinski stated his view on today's Morning Joe.  He did say something that was probably true, when expressing skepticism that, despite their public utterances, President Obama and Susan Rice truly opposed the resolution.  Brzezinski suggested their opposition was more a matter of going along with "a line," done for domestic political purposes. View the video after the jump.

Appearing on Monday's MSNBC Morning Joe, NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd shared some inside information: "So I threw the Lincoln analogy at a close aide to the President last week, and he said, 'You know, with this Republican – with the way politics of Washington are today, there'd still be slavery.' That Lincoln wouldn't have been able to navigate the polarization..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Rather than dismiss such a nasty partisan attack, Todd observed: "It was an interesting and depressing observation from this very smart White House aide."

On today's Morning Joe, asked by substitute host Willie Geist how much of the tough talk by Republicans and Dems over the fiscal cliff was posturing, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele said that 80% was posturing, then added "a lot of it is, let's see how big yours is versus mine."

Steele was careful to suggest he was simply talking about the size of the two parties' respective . . . plans.  But between the smirks, raised eyebrows—and an immediate intervention from Geist—it seemed obvious that Steele was making a macho allusion to something else. View the video after the jump.

Many conservatives believe the fiscal cliff deal from President Obama that was delivered to Capitol Hill on Thursday by Treasury Security Timothy Geithner will not solve the government's financial problems despite the positive coverage the mainstream media is giving the plan.

One of those expressing concern about the proposal and the media attention it has received is Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's Morning Joe program, who said during his Friday broadcast that “there is such an arrogance in the media since the president won."

At the end of Joe Klein's stupefying defense of Susan Rice and the Obama admin's misinformation campaign on the Benghazi outrage on today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough asked Time's Klein whether President Obama had invited him to play golf, "because you are just gobbling up the talking points like Thanksgiving turkey." H/t NB reader Carmel.

Here were some of Klein's astounding assertions: There are no unanswered questions about Benghazi.  Ambassador Stevens had all the security he wanted. Rice's talking points were "absolutely accurate"--it was a spontaneous demonstration by extremists. Al qaeda was not involved in the attack. Not clear that reports from Stevens asking for more security exist. View the video after the jump.

Hector Camacho might be in tough shape in hospital, but someone is out there bobbing and weaving like a champ.  Meet Karen Mills, President Obama's head of the Small Business Administration.

When Joe Scarborough asked her straight-up to state the cost per worker of Obamacare, Mills ducked like a pro, switched the subject, and wound up describing . . . how last year, she bought blueberry jam at a Maine farmers market as gifts for her friends! Not a joke—just a world-class non sequitur from an Obama administration that would rather talk about anything other than the cost of its big-government plans.  View the video after the jump.

From Joe Scarborough to John Heilemann, Katty Kay to Mark Halperin to Willie Geist, it was unanimous on today's Morning Joe.  Whatever the substance, whatever the policy, Republicans would be making a massive political mistake by opposing the possible nomination of Susan Rice as Secretary of State.

Summed up Scarborough the MJ zeitgeist: "do a bunch of old white guys want to make their first big battle, post-election, a battle going up against a younger woman of color?" View the video after the jump. H/t reader cobokat.

It should come as no surprise to most people that MSNBC is a liberal network, but it appears as though they are now actively campaigning for the Democratic Party.  For several years, MSNBC has produced their own ads featuring numerous on-air personalities promoting different liberal causes.

 MSNBC’s latest ad, however, goes well beyond promotion of liberalism and has shifted into outright DNC promotion.  Narrated by ultra-liberal primetime host Rachel Maddow, the commercial is a litany of Democratic “achievements” essentially a mirror-image of the DNC platform.   [See video below page break.  MP3 audio here.] 

It took more than a month -- and an intervening presidential election -- but it appears as though MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough has finally joined the chorus of conservatives criticizing Candy Crowley for covering for President Obama’s false statements on Libya during the presidential debates. 

Speaking on Monday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough strongly rebuked the Obama administration’s handling of the post-Benghazi coverage.  [See video below page break.  MP3 audio here.]

For a second there, it sounded like David Gregory was onto something. But just as fast, he reverted to liberal form . . .

On today's Morning Joe, the Meet The Press host first argued that Republicans don't have to become more moderate—they just need to change their "tone."  But within seconds, Stretch was singing Mitt Romney's praises for having favored, prior to the primaries, "massive [read: liberal] immigration reform." Gregory then bemoaned the fact that during the primaries, Romney "had to keep moving to the right."  View the video after the jump.

For adman Donny Deutsch, there's really no difference between pushing a political party or a bag of potato chips: it's all about the branding.  S.E. Cupp, in contrast, is a conservative with bedrock principles.

Seated next to each other on today's Morning Joe set during a discussion on GOP strategy going forward, a blow-up was clearly in the cards.  And clash they did, with Cupp arguing that the GOP doesn't need to re-brand itself, but rather to "spend more time explaining why their policies work for everyone."  Deutsch, repeatedly trying to cut Cupp off, exclaimed that she "couldn't be more wrong" and that her anti-re-branding argument was "absurd." View the animated video after the jump.

Over the past week, the media have been obsessively attributing the GOP’s election loss to the party’s embrace of conservatism. It began with a predictable assault on the standard bearer of conservative thought over the airwaves, Rush Limbaugh. On election night, NBC’s Brian Williams opined that Rush was a liability for the GOP. And it didn’t stop with Williams.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe David Frum seconded that sentiment by claiming that Republicans were “fleeced, exploited and lied to” by the “conservative entertainment complex,” another obvious dig at Limbaugh and talk radio. Scarborough agreed, proclaiming that the GOP needs to stop listening to the “most extreme people” in the Party. Rounding out the week on Sunday, the all-liberal panel on NBC’s Meet The Press, piled on the anti-Limbaugh message: the loss was due to Limbaugh and the “loons and wackos” of the conservative base.