In the tumultuous world we currently live, there are a number of worthy topics of discussion. One possibility could be international issues involving countries such as North Korea, Iran, or ISIS. Another might be hotly debated domestic issues including health care, entitlements, or even national spending. Instead of any of this, the cast of MSNBC’s Morning Joe chose to spend an entire segment debating a joke made by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The Washington Post recently came out with a recording that included House Republican leaders such as Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, and Steve Scalise. A conversation occurred in which McCarthy, in an apparently light-hearted moment, joked that Vladimir Putin was paying then-candidate Donald Trump. Media hysteria was quick to follow:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Still to come. Is there a kernel of truth in every joke? We’re going to talk about a recording of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: First of all, this wasn't a joke. If it were a joke, Paul Ryan wouldn't have said we're a family here, nobody repeats it. Also, Kevin McCarthy wouldn't say after the joke, I'm deadly serious.
SAM STEIN: I thought it was a joke.
With the exception of Mr. Stein, the entire panel immediately moved to go after those involved in the recording under the premise that there was some sort of sinister truth lurking behind it. “You've got to put it in context,” Joe Scarborough insisted. “I'm all for people telling jokes that go terribly awry. I do it every day.” If by jokes, Scarborough is referring to his show which he hosts everyday than we are in agreement here.
However, let’s return to the topic in question. Is it really conceivable that in the midst of a tumultuous primary campaign that no one in Washington, not even once, made any sort of joke or snarky comment about what was then happening? Is it even more of a stretch to consider that, after having been discovered making such comments, that those involved were embarrassed to discuss it? National political correspondent for The Washington Post, Karen Tumulty, summed up her thoughts on the matter with the following:
There's laughter and there's nervous laughter. The other things to know about the context of this is what was going on in the world, in their world at that moment. A number of the leaders were coming directly from a meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister. Donald Trump was on the verge of getting the nomination. Word that the DNC servers had been hacked just came out. In fact, there was speculation in the tape that what they were going after was research against Donald Trump. That is when the conversation turns to Russia. At several points in this, we have the speaker of the house saying we've got to keep this in the family, ha-ha. It's the kind of thing that, if there are a screenplay written with this in it, it would be rejected. And also I think it speaks to -- the fact that this tape is in the possession of the Washington Post suggests that somebody in that room didn't think it was a joke.
Here are the excerpts from the May 18 exchange:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Still to come. Is there a kernel of truth in every joke? We’re going to talk about a recording of House Majority Leader Kevin Mccarthy.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: First of all, this wasn't a joke. If it were a joke, Paul Ryan wouldn't have said we're a family here, nobody repeats it. Also, Kevin Mccarthy wouldn't say after the joke, I'm deadly serious.
SAM STEIN: I thought it was a joke.
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: You've got to put it in context. I'm all for people telling jokes that go terribly awry. I do it every day.
BRZEZINSKI: It's what you do.
SCARBOROUGH: But, In this case you look at the facts surrounding it, just like you would with anything. First of all --
BRZEZINSKI: Interesting joke to make.
SCARBOROUGH: First of all, interesting joke to make when there's an investigation going on. Secondly, they denied it.
BRZEZINSKI: It reveals something.
SCARBOROUGH: And then when they denied it and said it didn't exist. Why would you lie about a joke? And then when confronted with it they pulled back from their lie about the joke, and in the transcript after some laughter can be heard, as The Washington Post reports, Kevin McCarthy said no, no, swear to god.
KAREN TUMULTY: There's laughter and there's nervous laughter. The other things to know about the context of this is what was going on in the world, in their world at that moment. A number of the leaders were coming directly from a meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister. Donald Trump was on the verge of getting the nomination, and word that the DNC servers had been hacked just came out. In fact, there was speculation in the tape that what they were going after was opposition research against Donald Trump. That is when the conversation turns to Russia. At several points in this, we have the speaker of the house saying we've got to keep this in the family, ha-ha. It's the kind of thing that, if there are a screenplay written with this in it, it would be rejected. And also I think it speaks to -- the fact that this tape is in the possession of The Washington Post suggests that somebody in that room didn't think it was a joke.
SCARBOROUGH: Willie Geist, also, you look at the totality of the events around it. They're talking about the Ukrainian leaders. This was also about the time that Republicans were starting to talk about stripping a plank in their platform in support of Ukraine as a favor to the Russians. That's certainly something the Ukrainian leaders had to be made aware of and something they obviously discussed in that meeting.
WILLIE GEIST: Yeah, you kind of have to take yourself back to the time, which was last summer, June of 2016, about a year ago when the jokes were made. Listening to the tape and reviewing the transcript, I think they were probably joking in the room, but against a backdrop of pretty serious charges and conversations about what was happening with Donald Trump, and the fact that that was even a possibility, that that was on the table, tells you something about the context within which the joke was made, I think.
SCARBOROUGH: David?
DAVID IGNATIUS: I don't know whether it was a joke or not. The point to me this morning is that we now have a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who’s gonna investigate this. He will talk to Kevin McCarthy, he’ll talk to Paul Ryan. He'll reconstruct exactly what they knew when they had this conversation because this is one of the things he's going to want to know the answer to. Why were they talking about somebody paying Donald Trump. Where did that come from? That’s why in a sense we don't have to decide whether it was a joke because there's a special counsel whose job it is to do that.
SCARBOROUGH: Dana Rohrabacher might as well just wear the gold chain on him. But, you know what else makes this less funny to investigators is this, quote, joke, came out the same day The Wall Street Journal broke the news that a bank in Russia that Vladimir Putin was on the board with helped Donald Trump get money for one of his hotels.
HEILEMANN: I would say that if it's humor, it's gallows humor.
BRZEZINSKI: Right, which is true.
HEILEMANN: And you’ll remember that Kevin McCarthy was famously the person who famously blurted out that the House Benghazi investigation was going on because it drove Hillary Clinton's poll numbers down. So, he has an unfortunate tendency to blurt out the truth sometimes in politically unfortunate ways. But, again by blurting out the truth he is out blurting out.
SCARBOROUGH: The classic definition of a gaffe in Washington and who said it when somebody accidentally does it?
IGNATIUS: Michael Kingsley
STEIN: You guys don't get humor.
BRZEZINSKI: Thanks a lot, Sam.
