Morning Joe

Willful ignorance combined with anti-Christian bigotry: not a pretty sight. Bill Keller, former New York Times executive editor turned Times columnist, put both on display on today's Morning Joe.

Joe Scarborough played a clip of Santorum criticizing President Obama and Hillary Clinton for at times speaking of "freedom of worship" rather than "freedom of religion." Santorum made his point crystal clear: merely having the freedom to pray is not enough.  People must have the right to practice their religion outside the confines of the sanctuary. But Scarborough and Keller claimed not to understand what Santorum was saying.  Keller then added his ugly coda: "sometimes Santorum sounds like he's creeping up on a Christian version of Sharia law." Video after the jump.

In a discussion Monday about the recent accidental Koran burning by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski disgustingly suggested that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum doesn’t respect non-Christian religions.

The former Senator commented in response to the burning that, “I think you highlight it when you apologize for it. You make it sound like there was something that you should apologize for. And there's -- there was no act that needed an apology. It was an inadvertent act and it should have been left at that.”  [Video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, in an attempt to defend President Obama’s recent apology for the accidental Koran burnings that set off riots in Afghanistan, equated his response to what a foreign leader would be required to do if his military inadvertently burned an American flag.

Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist correctly replied, “No because Americans wouldn’t go in the streets and start killing people” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart got into quite a heated debate about same sex marriage on MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday.

When Capehart aggressively tried to grill Christie, the Governor scolded, “I used to be a prosecutor. I don’t know if you did too, but I’m not going to be cross-examined by you this morning” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Sometimes, an image says it all.  Check out the screengrab after the jump of Jeffrey Sachs.  The lefty professor is unabashedly angry at Joe Scarborough.  

Why? Because the Morning Joe host called him out on his egregious double-standard. Sachs had labeled Republican Super PAC funder Sheldon Adelson "completely unlikable" and said he shouldn't be involved in American politics. But when Scarborough asked whose approach he prefers: Adelson's--who gives openly in his own name--or George Soros's--who funnels his money through myriad corporations to hide his influence--Sachs suddenly claimed he wasn't attacking one side or the other. Righhht.  Video after the jump.

Christian evangelist Franklin Graham made some comments about President Obama on MSNBC's Morning Joe Tuesday that have liberals across the fruited plain hopping mad.

So angered is MSNBC's Chris Matthews that on Tuesday's Hardball he said, "I think we should stop inviting this guy to talk about politics...he ain’t his father’s son" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Andrea Mitchell famously said she had to catch her breath after Foster Friess's Bayer aspirin line last week.  Well, call me a bit verklempt myself this morning, after Mitchell said on today's Morning Joe that:

1. She felt "nostalgia" for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. 2. The opposition to Clinton was "vicious". 3. She hates to revert to the "great right wing conspiracy", but "there really was a group out there . . . There really was an enemy." Video after the jump.

When Donny Deutsch thought he was being clever mocking Mitt Romney with a juvenile drawing of the Republican presidential candidate sunbathing near a "wrong-sized" tree, Morning Joe staple Mike Barnicle asked him exactly what many viewers must have been thinking at the time.

"Are you drunk?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell said Friday, "Mitt Romney is the single most cynical presidential candidacy we have ever seen."

Appearing on Morning Joe, the unabashed Obama lover doubled down claiming, "We have never seen such an empty, cynical candidacy in the history of presidential campaigning" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Let he who is without a Y chromosome cast the first stone . . . Today's Morning Joe afforded viewers a study in hypocrisy: the all-male makeup of a panel at yesterday's House hearing on contraception was bashed by the show's panel consisting entirely of, yes, men. 

With Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough having the day off, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle took guest-hosting turns.  Barnicle introduced the subject, harrumphing about "the absurd picture we just saw of basically, it looks like an all-male locker room in a golf club."  Lawrence O'Donnell and Dem congressman Elijah Cummings joined in the breast-beating. Video after the jump.

As NewsBusters has been reporting, the perilously liberal media have been focusing a great deal of attention on contraception in order to assist President Obama's narrative that Republicans want to take away everyone's birth control.

Doing his part on MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday was CNBC contributor Howard Dean who actually said with a straight face, "Very conservative women want their kids, their daughters taking birth control" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Those imagining Mika Brzezinski as a straight-down-the-line liberal will be surprised by her comments on today's Morning Joe.

Brzezinski didn't demur after Joe Scarborough described her as a Catholic who is "more conservative than many" on social issues.  To the contrary, she proceeded to prove Scarborough's point by defending Rick Santorum's stance on contraception.  The show had played two clips of Santorum in which he had called contraception "harmful to women" and said that contraception "is not OK."  Video after the jump.

In the wake of the controversy surrounding the Obama administration's edict on contraceptives, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some press member claiming Republican views on such matters are extreme.

Countering this nonsense Wednesday was MSNBC's Joe Scarborough who on the show bearing his name correctly stated, "America is much more conservative" when it comes to social issues than the media think (video follows with transcript and commentary):

It appears there's nothing MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski loves more than deficits as far as the eye can see.

On Tuesday's Morning Joe, the perilously liberal co-host proudly displayed her Valentine's Day gift - Barack Obama's debt exploding budget proposal with lipstick kisses all over it (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

There was a surprisingly positive consensus on Rick Santorum on today's Morning Joe.  Most remarkable was the observation by Obama fan Mika Brzezinski, who said "I don't agree with anything he says, but I like the guy." H/t  to NewsBusters reader D.B. for audio assistance.

Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist were also upbeat on Santorum, Scarborough astutely observing that "90% of Americans don't obsess on social issues," so that what some would cast as controversial past statements by Santorum won't hurt him nearly as much as might be imagined.  Video after the jump.

During a lengthy Morning Joe discussion about the growing contraceptive controversy, co-host Mika Brzezinski took issue with the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan saying the Obama administration is “mischievously” misinforming the public on this issue.

Noonan smartly responded with a much-needed lesson on exactly how the White House and the Left are dishonestly twisting this subject for political gain (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

When it comes to culturally liberal policy positions, MSNBC has been repeatedly eager to portray conservatives as engaged in a "war on women" with Democrats and the Obama White House being the white knights riding to the defense of damsels in distress everywhere.

But when one program dared to deviate a little from the party line earlier this week to voice concerns about the Obama administration treading on religious liberties, it left a pair of liberal Democratic senators rather irate, reported BuzzFeed late Thursday evening:

If President Obama didn't already see a sea of red flags, a thunderbolt from Chris Matthews this morning should surely inform him that he has badly misstepped with his decision to force Catholic institutions to provide services that violate their religious principles

Appearing on Morning Joe, Matthews said that "even liberal Catholics are going to be proud" of Catholic leaders who stand up to Obama, and indeed that the Catholic response "may come to civil disobedience."  Video after the jump.

Time magazine's Mark Halperin on Thursday admitted that if Republicans were in control of the Senate, which has now gone over a thousand days without passing a budget, the liberal New York Times wouldn’t be giving them the same free pass that it is giving the current Democrats in the Senate. 

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough pondered, “What would the New York Times editorial page say about a Republican Senate that didn’t produce a budget in over a thousand days?”  Halperin, who is also an analyst for MSNBC, quickly shot back, “They would be getting creamed.”

Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame, appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe Wednesday, began his discussion with Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum by saying, "You were not considered among your Republican colleagues to be the most popular member of the class in the Senate. I don’t think that’s an understatement."

After co-host Mika Brzezinski incredulously asked, "What do you mean by that, Carl," the former Pennsylvania Senator pushed back (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Joe Scarborough had a jocular way this morning of pointing out the pro-Dem bias in ABC/Washington Post polls.

On Morning Joe, after Mark Halperin cited a new poll from the conglomerate with many findings favorable to President Obama, Scarborough facetiously asked "does Axelrod poll for ABC?" He went on to detail the way the polling combine consistently puts its fat left thumb of the scales for Dems. Video after the jump.

Following an interview on Friday’s Morning Joe we are reminded once again of the liberal media bias when it comes to media coverage of religion.  During an interview with author Matthew Bowman of “The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith,” the MSNBC anchors attacked Mormonism, leaving us to ask if such criticism would ever occur for other faiths outside the Judaic and Christian traditions.

Co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, along with Time's Jon Meacham, continuously brought up the "public misconceptions" about Mormons such as polygamy and "strange religious rituals."  Brzezinski opened up the conversation stating that there are still so many misconceptions about the faith, a statement that would not pass her or any other MSNBC talking heads' lips if the subject was, for example, Islam. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Morning Joe viewers Wednesday were treated to a truly marvelous demonstration of the media's hypocritical double standard concerning negative campaign ads.

As host Joe Scarborough told Donny Deutsch, despite Barack Obama in 2008 running more negative ads "than any other candidate in history...the mainstream media, every network, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, they all covered for him. Nobody wrote that story because they all wanted him to win" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski on Tuesday gave quite a reaction to the news that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sang "America the Beautiful" at a rally in central Florida.

"Oh my God," gasped the Morning Joe co-host (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The ridiculous media hypocrisy concerning all the fuss over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's wealth and income tax rate was perfectly demonstrated on MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday.

After claiming that Romney's "tax issue is not remotely" past him, John Heilemann, the National Affairs editor for New York magazine, admitted that he never reported John Kerry's income tax rate during the 2004 campaign (video follows with transcript and commentary):

There was a truly delicious moment on MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday as the gang discussed the Republican presidential race from Florida.

When host Joe Scarborough recollected John F. Kennedy buying the West Virginia primary in 1960, Hardball host Chris Matthews, one of JFK's biggest fans, was seen visibly uncomfortable shifting position in his chair (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Howard Dean: "I need to take you on a tour of America's public schools; that's what I need to do." Joe Scarborough: "I've been fighting for education reform for a generation, and every time we've tried to reform schools . . . it was the Democratic party on the House floor and on the Senate floor and in the White House that stood in the way. I do not need lectures from you on education reform."

And that was the polite part of the exchange! But seriously, Joe Scarborough and Howard Dean had a big-time brawl on today's Morning Joe on the subject of education reform.  Dean defended teachers unions and their Dem lackeys, while Scarborough, who has made education reform a theme of his show, denounced the Dem-union cabal that has thwarted real reform every step of the way.  Video after the jump.

MSNBC's Obama-loving contributor Donny Deutsch said Wednesday the American public is never going to "like" Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney.

Appearing on Morning Joe, Deutsch asked, "When was the last time we elected an angry president, and when was the last time we elected a president people didn't connect with?" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):"

Rick Santorum to John Heilemann [and by extension to MSM at large] on today's Morning Joe: "it's your responsibility to defend the president, not mine." Ouch! If Newt's deft dicing of John King and Juan Williams paid huge electoral dividends, Santorum might anticipate a much-needed bump after running roughshod over the New York mag reporter.

Heilemann had called on Santorum to explain his failure to correct a woman at a town hall meeting in Florida yesterday who said President Obama was an "avowed Muslim" and legally unqualified to be president. After noting that he has repeatedly been on the record saying that he doesn't believe PBO is a Muslim and recognizes that he is legally qualified to be president, Santorum said that he chose not to chastise an elderly and infirm lady.  Then came Santorum's grand slam, as set forth above.  Heilemann only dug himself deeper when he responded by saying that prez candidate McCain had always defended Obama on the campaign trail. Video after the jump.