Making his latest appearance Tuesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, NBC special correspondent and former Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw blamed “Fox News and ever more poisonous right-wing political organizations” for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as they’ve “constantly attack[ed]” President Biden, weakening him and the west.
And if that wasn’t brain dead enough, faux conservative George Conway surfaced earlier in the show to compare the January 6 committee and legal investigations against rioters and Trump officials to Ukrainians learning how to fight in their war against Russia.
Brokaw was teed up by co-host Joe Scarborough wondering “how” and “what can we learn from...history” and specifically The March of Folly and The Guns of August by famous historian Barbara Tuchman about failures in war, so it sure didn’t appear as though Fox News would be the lynchpin.
The longtime liberal journalist started off on-subject, saying both were applicable before staring down at what seemed like notes (and was bolstered by producers replacing him with stock photos of Putin, Ukrainian cities, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky until he finished speaking).
Arguing Putin’s current state “reminds me of that famous line from boxer Mike Tyson” in which “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” Brokaw said we’ll find out how this “warmonger with a sour face” reacts now he’s been hit.
Brokaw then, out of nowhere, invoked Fox News and conservatives opposing Joe Biden:
He obviously thought he could run over Ukraine while President Biden was under constant attack by Fox News and ever more poisonous right-wing political organizations. Putin thought Ukraine's President was just a boy comedian. Well, President Biden and President Zelenskyy are not in hiding like Putin. They are taking him on, thank God[.]
If triggering one White House walkback after another in less than a week is sticking it to Putin, you wonder what actually standing up to Putin looks like.
Nonetheless, Brokaw added that, seeing as how “smart men of Russia” are nowhere to be found, the message of Tuchman’s The March of Folly will go “on and on and more people tragically will die[.]”
Near the end of the 6:00 a.m. Eastern hour, Conway was riffing on the latest out of the ever-expanding House Select Committee on January 6 when he argued criminal investigations into what happened are how “we have to defend our democracy.”
Conway explained that while Americans aren’t needing “to take up arms...and learn how to use rocket-propelled grenades to defend our democracy the way they have to do in Ukraine,” our democracy is also at stake and would be in severe peril if it weren’t for “a functioning court system.”
He added that what took place that day was part of “a domestic threat” representing “the whole kit and caboodle” of a conspiracy, which led co-host Mika Brzezinski to boast as she went to break: “So well put.”
And a few hours after Scarborough gave what our Mark Finkelstein called a “tongue bath” about Biden and defended his Saturday remark calling for regime change in Russia, the MSNBC co-host partnered with frequent panelist Mike Barnicle to wax poetic about how, in spite of the United Nations, Biden has led the defense of Ukraine.
But on a more sour note for Scarborough, he lashed out at Americans who’ve criticized Biden’s handling of the war and his gaffes over the past week, calling it “un-American” to question a President facing such a massive crisis (click “expand”):
BARNICLE: You know, Joe, you've raised a really interesting point here. Without the President of the United States, without Joseph R. Biden at the helm, there is no NATO coming together and the Ukrainians are in a very difficult position without his voice and leadership. It raises the other question: Is the United Nations that ineffectual that we have not heard really a word from the United Nations and I have no idea what they're doing?...Where is the United Nations in all of this?
SCARBOROUGH: Well, I — that's a great question. I do want to say, again, speaking of what Joe Biden has done in — in this — this crisis, what NATO’s done in this crisis, is remarkable, it's unprecedented...[I]t's so disgusting, absolutely disgusting and un-American to see columnists in major newspapers, to see talk — talkers on certain cable news networks eviscerate the American President in the middle of the worst crisis, closest we've been to World War III actually since the Cuban missile crisis because of what they consider a gaffe. Again, that gaffe, the only thing that they took away from a historic speech, historic — the only thing they took away for Joe Biden doing what they celebrated time and time again in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan did it, when he got ahead of his State Department, when he got ahead of his diplomatic corps, when he got ahead of even his own White House, when he joked about bombing Russia in the next five minutes, when he talked about the evil empire, when he time and time again said things that made polite Washington gasp. Reagan was right, of course, we won the Cold War historically. I know a lot of people on the left say it's because of Gorbachev. Gorbachev had no choice because — what — Ronald Reagan and Democrats like Dr. Brzezinski, Sam Nunn, Scoop Jackson, and a lot of Republicans what they all did together to defeat the Soviet Union, they were tough. And so, now these same people who I have to say a lot of them are spewing Russian disinformation are now attacking Joe Biden because they're saying he had a senior moment. Really, a senior moment? [BRZEZINSKI GROANS] A senior moment? After — after defending Donald Trump for four years just — just vomiting out word salad. You — you actually have the audacity to say that? It's disgusting and it's un-American...Seriously, what's wrong with them?
Tuesday’s nonsense tying Fox News to Putin’s murderous reign was made possible thanks to advertisers such as ClearChoice, Discover, and E-Trade. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from March 29, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
March 29, 2022
6:49 a.m. EasternGEORGE CONWAY: [I]t’s not such necessarily a bad tactic for the Justice Department to allow the January 6th committee, which has — has been doing a yeoman's job of — of collecting some of the evidence and then studying it as it comes in. So, you know, I think I — I hold out hope that — that this will actually lead to some action. And, I think it’s important that it lead to some action —
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yep.
CONWAY: — or at least a determination as to whether or not a prosecution could be made because this is what — this is the way we have to defend our democracy. I mean, we don't have to take up arms and — and — and — and — and learn how to use rocket-propelled grenades to defend our democracy the way they have to do in Ukraine. The way we do it here, because we have a functioning court system and we have — and it’s not — it’s an external threat, it is a domestic threat. What we have to do is enforce the laws that exist on the books. And there are — you know, if there’s — if — if there ever was a conspiracy to defraud the United States about something, I mean a million dollars, a billion dollars, it’s usually money in these cases, but this was our democracy. This was the whole kit and caboodle.
BRZEZINSKI: Mmhmm.
CONWAY: If these laws don't apply here, they don't apply anywhere.
BRZEZINSKI: So well put.
(....)
8:26 a.m. Eastern
MIKE BARNICLE: You know, Joe, you've raised a really interesting point here. Without the President of the United States, without Joseph R. Biden at the helm, there is no NATO coming together and the Ukrainians are in a very difficult position without his voice and leadership. It raises the other question: Is the United Nations that ineffectual that we have not heard really a word from the United Nations and I have no idea what they're doing, if anything, on the ground in Ukraine but the idea of a humanitarian highways to help people who are in constant peril, starving to death, literally starving to death? Where is the United Nations in all of this?
SCARBOROUGH: Well, I — that's a great question. I do want to say, again, speaking of what Joe Biden has done in — in this — this crisis, what NATO’s done in this crisis, is remarkable, it's unprecedented. If you look at the economic sanctions, it's unprecedented. If you look at how President Biden has worked with NATO and the commitments that we've gotten from NATO and from NATO countries that we have never gotten before and also from countries outside of NATO we’ve ever gotten before. I’ve got to say that's why it's really — and I'm sorry — I'm just talking for myself and nobody else — it's why it's so disgusting, absolutely disgusting and un-American to see columnists in major newspapers, to see talk — talkers on certain cable news networks eviscerate the American President in the middle of the worst crisis, closest we've been to World War III actually since the Cuban missile crisis because of what they consider a gaffe. Again, that gaffe, the only thing that they took away from a historic speech, historic — the only thing they took away for Joe Biden doing what they celebrated time and time again in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan did it, when he got ahead of his State Department, when he got ahead of his diplomatic corps, when he got ahead of even his own White House, when he joked about bombing Russia in the next five minutes, when he talked about the evil empire, when he time and time again said things that made polite Washington gasp. Reagan was right, of course, we won the Cold War historically. I know a lot of people on the left say it's because of Gorbachev. Gorbachev had no choice because — what — Ronald Reagan and Democrats like Dr. Brzezinski, Sam Nunn, Scoop Jackson, and a lot of Republicans what they all did together to defeat the Soviet Union, they were tough. And so, now these same people who I have to say a lot of them are spewing Russian disinformation are now attacking Joe Biden because they're saying he had a senior moment. Really, a senior moment? [BRZEZINSKI GROANS] A senior moment? After — after defending Donald Trump for four years just — just vomiting out word salad. You — you actually have the audacity to say that? It's disgusting and it's un-American. And, yes, yes, I would say this regardless of who President — who the President of the United States was, if they were trying to bring NATO together, if they were trying to defend democracy when a — Russia was attacking a freedom-loving nation. That's what's happening here and, you know, they have no shame, so I suppose we’ll just keep telling the truth. They can continue their lies. They can continue worshipping Orban. They can continue looking to Putin for an example as they have in the past. Seriously, what's wrong with them?
(....)
8:36 a.m. Eastern
SCARBOROUGH: You were talking with us about Barbara Tuchman's classic The March of Folly. We seem right now to be — to be mired in between two Barbara Tuchman novels or — or — or — or histories. One, of course, The March of Folly but the other The Guns of August where superpowers stumble into a World War. How is this going and what can we learn from Tuchman and history?
TOM BROKAW: We can always learn from history, as you know, and Tuchman's book really was a classic all the way back to, as you know, not only Vietnam but the Trojan Horse Wars as well, about how they went completely off the rails. The current state of — of Vladimir Putin reminds me of that famous line from boxer Mike Tyson. He said everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Well, guess what? Putin’s getting punched in the mouth right now. From the beginning, Putin has been a warmonger with a sour face. He obviously thought he could run over Ukraine while President Biden was under constant attack by Fox News and ever more poisonous right-wing political organizations. Putin thought Ukraine's President was just a boy comedian. Well, President Biden and President Zelenskyy are not in hiding like Putin. They are taking him on, thank God, but the senseless death of brave Ukrainians, men and women and children, the destruction of a fragile Ukrainian economy oms and jobs goes on and for what in the final analysis? Where are the so-called smart men of Russia? The oligarchs who have gotten filthy rich because of Putin? The March of Folly just goes on and on and more people tragically will die as a result.
