After trying to reassure their liberal viewers earlier in the show that the Mueller report could still damage the President, Friday’s Morning Joe panel eventually moved on to the latest Democratic strategy to take down Trump – his tax returns. After co-host Joe Scarborough expressed his hope that the documents would prove Russian collusion, pundit Donny Deutsch predicted a “silver bullet.”
“We talked earlier today about the fact that reaching a certain legal standard is one thing, but there’s great public interest in figuring out...if he had any reason to compromise – be compromised by the Russians,” Scarborough eagerly proclaimed as he introduced the topic. Turning to Nick Confessore of The New York Times, the anchor reiterated: “My gosh, the public interest is great for us to figure out whether the President could possibly be compromised by financial ties with Vladimir’s Putin’s oligarchs.”
Confessore agreed and observed that “it’s a fair question if the Mueller report or Trump’s tax returns are the most sought after piece of paper in America right now, it’s kind of even-stevens there.”
Moments later, Deutsch weighed in, promising all manner of criminality to be revealed by the IRS forms:
On top of that, the tax returns, I will put in, are 10x as far as there importance and consequence versus Mueller. The tax returns are into the financial soul of a human being. You will see years and years of tax fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, any way you can look at it. And it’s going – that’s going to be a stunning silver bullet document.
He also claimed that the inevitable legal wrangling over the release of the President’s tax returns would be an important test for new Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh: “Joe, we’re going to learn about the reality and the – the authenticity of Trump’s Supreme Court justices because the new guys are these pure, by-the-law, constitutionalists, absolutists, and if you follow that letter of the law, there’s only one way to go here.”
Having learned nothing from over-hyping the Mueller investigation, MSNBC wasted no time charging headlong into another presidency-ending conspiracy theory.
Here is a transcript of the April 5 discussion:
7:16 AM ET
(...)
JOE SCARBOROUGH: We talked earlier today about the fact that reaching a certain legal standard is one thing, but there’s great public interest in figuring out if the President did not do anything illegal, you still – there’s a great public interest in trying to figure out if he had any reason to compromise – be compromised by the Russians. To be – you know, we have all seen presidential policies regarding NATO, regarding Syria, regarding basically ceding – ceding Crimea over to Vladimir Putin, things that other presidents would not do. And his own sons talk about the fact that the majority of his money has come from Russians, they’ve talked about that in the past. My gosh, the public interest is great for us to figure out whether the President could possibly be compromised by financial ties with Vladimir’s Putin’s oligarchs.
NICK CONFESSORE [NEW YORK TIMES]: Well, Joe, I think, you know, it’s fair question if the Mueller report or Trump’s tax returns are the most sought after piece of paper in America right now, it’s kind of even-stevens there. You know, obviously everyone wants to know what’s in there.
(...)
DONNY DEUTSCH: Joe, we’re going to learn about the reality and the – the authenticity of Trump’s Supreme Court justices because the new guys are these pure, by-the-law, constitutionalists, absolutists, and if you follow that letter of the law, there’s only one way to go here.
On top of that, the tax returns, I will put in, are 10x as far as there importance and consequence versus Mueller. The tax returns are into the financial soul of a human being. You will see years and years of tax fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, any way you can look at it. And it’s going – that’s going to be a stunning silver bullet document.
(...)
