On Friday, an agitated Donny Deutsch reached the end of his rope on the set of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Deutsch, who appeared deeply affected by a clip of President Trump calling The New York Times “fake news,” eschewed the traditional combination of liberal snark and false superiority characteristic of the show’s other panelists, opting instead to go with unmitigated rage.
Deutsch’s rant kicked off with the assertion that Republicans questioning the objectivity of the Mueller investigation were “undermining the FBI and undermining the news.”
“Forget the obstruction,” he continued, “forget the actual charge. This continual assault on the things that protect us -- our intelligence community, the media, the judicial system. I want to hear from Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. What do they say about this?”
Viewers had precious little time to process his claim that the mainstream media protect the citizenry before Deutch shouted, “It’s time for these cockroaches to come out from under their rocks and respond. What do you say gentlemen?”
The deafening silence that ensued was finally broken by host Joe Scarborough, who no doubt wished he had taken the day off like his fiancé and co-host Mika Brzezinski. “Uh, well, I don’t know who you’re calling cockroaches,” he fumbled, “but I do think it would be helpful for every member of Congress to come out.”
Donny Deutsch was not directly addressed by fellow panelists for the majority of the show’s remainder and only managed to speak by finding the occasional opportunity to interject. Scarborough finally prompted him for a response at the end of President Trump’s speech in Davos, a full two hours after his emotional outburst.
This is not the first time Deutsch has gone too far on live television. In 2010, while appearing on HLN’s Joy Behar Show, he used a racial slur in reference to Rebulican Marco Rubio, who was a senatorial candidate at the time. He later backtracked on Twitter.
While entertaining, Deutsch’s inability to control himself speaks volumes about the issue of systemic media bias. Many hard-left pundits and personalities are so overcome with disdain for their political adversaries that they struggle to create even a pretense of objectivity.
