Joe Scarborough has unloaded on the moral preening and hypocrisy of President Obama and his supporters over Gitmo and military tribunals. In the wake of AG Eric Holder's announcement that not only will Gitmo remain open, but that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other accused terrorists will be tried there before military tribunals, Scarborough unleashed an extended, scathing indictment on today's Morning Joe. Mika Brzezinski did her best, fighting a rear-guard action in defense of the president.
Scarborough repeatedly cited the way Obama & Co. had heaped moral condemnation on Pres. Bush and VP Cheney during the campaign for having created Gitmo and established military tribunals.
Joe concluded with a swipe at the Obama-loving MSM: "the parade is going by here, and we're supposed to salute . . . it's Barack Obama. He can say whatever he wants to say and I think the press is going to salute."
View edited video clip after the jump.
Watch Joe unload on the hypocritical left.
Note: In a shift from his normal above-the-fray stance, Willie Geist waded into the argument. At one point, Mika challenged Joe to produce a quote from Obama condemning Bush with the kind of language Scarborough had asserted Obama had used. As you'll see, a bit later, apparently having done some research, Willie came to Joe's aid, citing just such language from then-Senator Obama.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I'm glad he's doing it: I support this policy, but what's offensive to me is Barack Obama suggested that George Bush wasn't a good American, that he was subverting American principles --
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And you don't think he still feels that way?
SCARBOROUGH: -- and the Democratic base basically said that Bush and Cheney were evil. And yet, I can tell you this, if I think something is evil and anti-American, when I'm President of the United States, I don't care what the cost is, I'm going to end it--unless I didn't mean it during the campaign . . . I had to sit here for a year-and-a-half having people come on this set saying Barack Obama is holy and George Bush and Dick Cheney are evil because they believe in military tribunals and Gitmo . . . You cannot say that a man is evil and anti-American, in effect, and then adopt his policies, and that's what's happened here . . . What did I say during the campaign when he promised to close Gitmo, time and time and time again?
BRZEZINSKI: It was a very possible prognostication that you turned out to be absolutely right about, and you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right, but that does not change his fundamental outlook, moral compass and philosophy.
SCARBOROUGH: My bigger point is: disagree without saying George Bush and Dick Cheney hate America.
BRZEZINSKI: Do we have that quote, of the president saying that?
SCARBOROUGH: Throughout the entire campaign [Obama said] that they were subverting the most precious concepts in American democracy . . . I am not going to allow this president and everybody else let the parade roll by after listening to them beat their chest in self-righteous indignation like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker for two years. They have been outed, OK?
BRZEZINSKI: I'm not going to allow you to completely change what this president and his form of leadership is based on.
SCARBOROUGH: Maybe he should have just disagreed with Dick Cheney and George W. Bush and not characterized them in a way that assumes the absolute worst. That they, somehow did not love the Constitution as much as Barack Obama, that they somehow were willing to shred that document and all the rights we hold so dear in this country to take shortcuts. Because if you're going to make those claims, and then do the same thing that they do, then you need to apologize to the American people, and say I was wrong, maybe I shouldn't have been as self-righteous as a televangelist.
WILLIE GEIST: Mika, you asked for a quote: let me give you one. Senator Barack Obama, 2007: "In setting up Guantanamo Bay we compromised our most precious values. In setting up the detention cells at Guantanamo, the military commissions represent a legal framework that does not work and is a terrorist recruiting tool," calling it "a legal black hole."
SCARBOROUGH: -- So he's keeping a terrorist recruiting center open, OK . . .I'm saying, the parade is just going by here and we're supposed to salute. No: if you think something is this wrong and compromises American's most precious values you don't double down on that policy. You know, I get it: it's Barack Obama. He can say whatever he wants to say and I think the press is going to salute.
