Mika Brzezinski has never been short on hyperbolic statements when it comes to Republicans. But she outdid herself in her Wednesday Morning Joe rant on their letter to Iran. She claimed “Senator Tom Cotton either wants to help out Iran, as Hillary Clinton said, or he doesn't understand politics...and foreign policy.”
Joe Scarborough was quick to label the outrageous remark as "deeply offensive," but Brzezinski doubled down, insisting that "they either wanted to embolden Iran or at least help them or they just were delivering a self-inflicted wound to themselves, with the collateral damage being the President and Iran, possibly. But it was idiotic, really stupid, totally out of step, and as damaging as it gets. Congratulations, Republicans."
As if that wasn’t enough, Brzezinski insisted that both the letter and the Netanyahu speech were attempts to "embarrass the President and undermine the process" by doing "something completely inappropriate, unprecedented, and completely lowbrow."
In case anyone was uncertain about Brzezinski’s opinion on the Republican letter to Iran, she finally spoke her mind, "this is one of the worst things the Republicans have done in this entire administration's time in office" and it "was akin to an obscene gesture."
Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard took her to task, noting that she supplied "no evidence of any damage" caused by the letter.
Brzezinski disparagingly fired back, "They could be damaging, but luckily, Tom Cotton's not big enough to be damaging. He's just a freshman Senator."
Kristol’s response was priceless. "Oh, just a freshman Senator. Barack Obama was a freshman Senator."
Mark Halperin of Bloomberg News accused Kristol of employing a partisan double standard, saying he "wouldn’t have this attitude if Tip O'Neill had written a letter like this to the Russians during the Cold War."
Kristol countered with a strong punch. "I’m sorry. There were letters written to the Soviet Union on behalf, on many issues by senators of both parties and I did not criticize them."
Scarborough piled on with a reminder of the dialogues between Democratic lawmakers and America’s enemies in the 1980s. "Democratic Senators and House Members who went on to become Senators [wrote] letters to Nicaraguan Communists, apologizing for Ronald Reagan...I didn't see the mainstream media freaking out when that happened."
Kristol finished the job by contrasting the openness of the Republicans with the secrecy of the Democrats, "This was an open letter. Democratic Senators privately met with Ortega and Nicaragua and with others. Nancy Pelosi went to see Bashar Al Assad in 2007. I think that was questionable, but I didn't criticize her patriotism, I didn’t call her a traitor the way the Left is calling 47 Republican Senators."
