While Donald Trump was hate-tweeting on Monday morning about Morning Joe and the gossip site rumors surrounding co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, the latter MSNBC co-host prided himself as being a Trump critic (he wasn’t) but more importantly called out the Obama administration and government for collectively having “blood on our hands” for the inaction in Syria’s civil war to, in part, preserve the Iran nuclear deal.
Scarborough first commented on the matter during the show when he hit the President for being “very condescending to the Washington press corps” when they pressed him concerning whether or not the money given to Iran as American prisoners were released was a quid pro quo.
Late in the 6:00 a.m. hour, Wall Street Journal writer Jay Solomon discussed his new book about U.S.-Iranian relations and, needless to say, one of the main revelations probably won’t fetch a mention on the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC as Solomon wrote about why the President ignored his own red line in Syria with Assad using chemical weapons.
Solomon revealed that the world was kept in the dark as the administration chose not to attack Assad for gassing his own people because it would jeopardize nuclear deal negotiations with Iran:
[W]hat none of the journalists knew, according myself at the time, that the U.S. was having secret negotiations with Iran in Oman to try to resolve the nuclear dispute and those — that exact period of time was when there was accelerated talks where the U.S. and Iran were essentially agreeing on an interim deal to contain Iran's program and both U.S. and Iranian officials I have talked to said the Iranian diplomats we were meeting with essentially said if you start striking the Assad regime, the Iranian government's closest ally....will pull the plug on these talks.
In the next hour, Brzezinski finished a news brief about the brother of the five-year-old Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh (who’s now known for that iconic video inside an ambulance) having died from injuries in an airstrike when Scarborough bemoaned the international community for repeatedly shrugging off these continued horrors as impossible to stop.
It was at this point that Scarborough suggested the U.S. (and therefore the President) have “blood on our hands” for what’s transpired under the iron fist of Assad:
It's just the inaction that has taken place in Syria and we've seen it on this set when we talked about 20,000 dead. 40,000 dead, 80,000. 100, 200,000. Now some estimates 500,000 people dead and people keep coming on this set saying there's nothing we can do...[W]e had an author this morning talking about the President backing off, drawing the red line because he wanted to do a deal with Iran. We just —we have from inaction, we have blood on our hands just like we have blood on our hands for our actions in Iraq.
Nodding in agreement was frequent Morning Joe panelist and columnist Mike Barnicle, who correctly explained that “our inaction” has resulted in Syria being “the fuse” that “entwines nearly all of Europe and a huge part of the civilized world” with “[n]ot crossing the red line, us, by walking back, that, in retrospect was a huge, huge mistake.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Morning Joe on August 22 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
August 22, 2016
6:50 a.m. EasternJOE SCARBOROUGH: It was a quid pro quo. The President was very condescending to the Washington press corps, saying how dare you suggest it's a quid pro quo and we find out a couple months later, it’s a quid pro quo.
(....)
6:52 a.m. Eastern
WALL STREET JOURNAL's JAY SOLOMON: I mean, the context of what was happening back in 2013 is interesting because there was use of chemical weapons in Syria. The President said I will strike and then there was kind of a quiet period where he didn't say anything and then reversed himself. But what none of the journalists knew, according myself at the time, that the U.S. was having secret negotiations with Iran in Oman to try to resolve the nuclear dispute and those — that exact period of time was when there was accelerated talks where the U.S. and Iran were essentially agreeing on an interim deal to contain Iran's program and both U.S. and Iranian officials I have talked to said the Iranian diplomats we were meeting with essentially said if you start striking the Assad regime, the Iranian government's closest ally, almost to take him out is almost an existential threat to the Iranian regime because of the way they use the Assad regime to fund Hezbollah, to fund Hamas and expand its role in the region. If you strike Assad, the Revolutionary Guards, the Supreme Leader will pull the plug on these talks. We cannot negotiate if our closest ally is being strike. There is not one reason the White House pulled the plug, there was also domestic political concerns, but the nuclear agreement really has been the White House — the Obama White House's number one foreign policy agenda and they were not going to put that at risk.
(....)
7:36 a.m. Eastern
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And an older brother of 5-year-old Syrian boy Omran Daqneesh has died. Omran draw worldwide attention after now-iconic images of him sitting in an ambulance stunned and covered in blood and dust went viral. His brother, Ali, was also injured following a blast that hit their family's apartment last Wednesday. The Aleppo Media Center reports he was 10 years old. A nurse has confirmed to NBC News that he suffered serious injuries to his face, abdomen and sides and underwent two surgeries. Omran suffered head wounds but no further brain injury and has been released from the hospital. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 100 civilian children have died in the civil war just since July 31st.
SCARBOROUGH: And, Mike, we talked about this a good bit last week. It's just the inaction that has taken place in Syria and we've seen it on this set when we talked about 20,000 dead. 40,000 dead, 80,000. 100, 200,000. Now some estimates 500,000 people dead and people keep coming on this set saying there's nothing we can do. There’s nothing the international community can do while chaos just spreads from Syria across the Middle East into Europe. It's going to be coming to America. In fact, it may already be here and we had an author this morning talking about the President backing off, drawing the red line because he wanted to do a deal with Iran. We just —we have from inaction, we have blood on our hands just like we have blood on our hands for our actions in Iraq.
MIKE BARNICLE: Well, through our inaction we have walked and talked ourselves globally into a situation in Syria that is now the fuse of Syria entwines nearly all of Europe and a huge part of the civilized world. I mean, the pictures that bring people's awareness of what's happening in Syria, that's wonderful that it happens, that we are aware of it, the people fairly badly about it, it's an ongoing occasion that we could have done something about it several years ago. Not crossing the red line, us, by walking back, that, in retrospect was a huge, huge mistake. A huge —
SCARBOROUGH: A historical mistake that let Assad know that he could do whatever he wanted to do to his people and we see it every day.
