On Monday’s Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski finally lost it with Hillary Clinton. Last Friday, Brzezinski condemned Bill Clinton as a sexual “predator.” This week, Mika was extremely upset at Hillary Clinton’s “hypocrisy” in going after Trump as a “sexual assaulter” while simultaneously defending her husband from similar or more serious charges of sexual assault and rape. Brzezinski told Clinton in no uncertain terms that she “needs to stop talking about this topic.”
The segment in question came after a long discussion throughout the broadcast about allegations of sexual misconduct against multiple politicians, including Roy Moore, Al Franken, Donald Trump, and Bill Clinton. In that context, NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker was brought on the show to draw attention to Hillary Clinton’s latest comments pointing the finger at Trump as a sexual abuser:
BRZEZINSKI: Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is speaking out about the harassment allegations leveled at Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. Joining us now, NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker. What can you tell us?
WELKER: Well, Mika, the whole discussion that you guys are having there in the studio I think has dredged up and revived some of the back-and-forth that we saw during the 2016 campaign. Hillary Clinton, defending her husband, Bill Clinton, saying look, this was litigated, and sort of used the moment and used this moment in which we're looking at Roy Moore to criticize the current commander in chief. Take a listen to what she had to say and then I'll tell you what President Trump had to say on the other side.
[playing clip from 77 WABC Radio interview]
HILLARY CLINTON: We have a man who’s accused of sexual assault sitting in the Oval Office, don't we? And the very credible accusations against him have not been taken seriously.
(...)
RITA COSBY: You just said that, you know, you have a sexual assaulter in the White House. How could you say that about President Trump?
(...)
CLINTON: Well, based on the very credible statements that have come forward from, I think now, a dozen women, and really based on his own words. You know, the Hollywood Access tape was not made up. He was describing sexual assault.
[end clip]
WELKER: Mika, we asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders about the allegations against President Trump during the briefings last week. There have been more than a dozen allegations. Those were aired during the campaign. She continued to insist and reiterate what then candidate Trump said as a candidate, which is that the allegations are not true.
Welker then went on to read Trump’s response to Clinton, but instead of getting upset at Trump’s tweets (as is usually the case), Brzezinski’s greater scorn by far was reserved for Hillary:
WELKER: President Trump lashed out, by the way, at Hillary Clinton over the weekend saying this: “Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can't stop, which is so good for the Republican Party.-
BRZEZINSKI: [loud sigh] Oh my god.
WELKER: -Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!” So sort of baiting her to re-enter the race. But Mika, look, this is an issue that I don't think is gonna go away, and will be a centerpiece again during the briefing.
BRZEZINSKI: [starts talking over Welker] No, and she’s not helping. My “oh my god” was not actually to Trump's tweet for the first time ever. I just, Kristen Welker, thank you.
WELKER: Thanks.
BRZEZINSKI: You guys, I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry, actually. Hillary Clinton needs to stop. She needs to stop talking about this topic. Unless Bill Clinton wants to come forward and apologize for being a sexual harasser, for settling with woman for what happened with Mon- -- he needs to apologize. He needs to apologize as quickly as Al Franken did, as much as al- -- as Mark Halperin did, and as much as he wants to. These men who are apologizing, we need to deal with them, but if you're not going to apologize and it's clear you've done something wrong, please, please, you the politician and your wife the politician need to not talk about these issues. Just don't, okay, unless you want to come to the table with some honesty, because this is why we're here. This is why we're here with Donald J. Trump, the guy who ran pageants and had enough on the record to know that he doesn't have a great record with women, who is destroying every step that we have made in the past ten years for women, setting us back. This is why he's here, because of hypocrisy.
Brzezinski’s frustration here was palpable. She does genuinely appear to have turned against Hillary in particular for the utter hypocrisy that Clinton displayed in painting herself as a feminist champion who loudly proclaimed that “[e]very survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported” while also doing everything in her power over the years to smear and silence any woman who has accused her husband of serious sexual crimes or improprieties.
Perhaps if liberal journalists had actually applied Hillary’s own standard to Bill and her when it was politically unpalatable (which Brzezinski failed to do), the media might have more political capital against Trump and Moore today.
