Then why the hell weren't those "top journalists" shouting it from the top of the evening news and in banner headlines? . . . On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough said "as we were leaving Iowa, I heard from a lot of top journalists who whispered "you know Bernie won." I heard that time and time again. 'You know Bernie won.'"
With Scarborough asking "where is this, Bolivia in the 1930s?" and Steve Schmidt saying it was "shady as hell," the blame was laid at the feet of the Democrat party, which runs an intentionally murky process so it can control things. No doubt. But what about the responsibility of those "top journalists" to blow the whistle? Why did they "whisper" and speak "quietly?" How might this campaign be different if the day after Iowa the headline had been either "Bernie Wins" or "Debbie Wasserman Schultz Throws Iowa to Hillary?"
JOE SCARBOROUGH: By the way, we haven't talked about Iowa. How the Des Moines Register editorial page is talking what about what a lot of journalists quietly told me as we were leaving Iowa. And I heard from a lot of top journalists who whispered "you know Bernie won?"
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I felt that something was wrong.
JOE: I heard that time and time again. "You know Bernie won." And then the Democratic party comes rushing out, almost right after -- out of Iowa. Right after the last like ballot is counted "It's over, Hillary won, nothing to see here." And the Des Moines Register, not a conservative paper, is calling BS on them, BS on the Democratic party --
MIKA: Saying something smells --
JOE: Saying something smells in Des Moines. It's pretty remarkable. I saw a tweet, I think it was Alex Burns with the New York Times, who said "Iowa, you had one job." And you look on the Republican side -- it's exactly right.
But the Democratic party I heard, Steve Schmidt, even before all of this. I said why is the Republican party so much more transparent and the Democratic party is muddied? And a journalist who probably has voted Democrat his entire life said well, it's intended to be that way so if it's close they can control it more. And Bernie Sanders' people said they were asking to see the ballots, see the paper list, the Democratic party as refusing to show it to them? Where is this, Bolivia in like the 1930s?
STEVE SCHMIDT: Most Americans don't understand the rules, particularly on the Democratic side in Iowa. But look, it's shady as hell. It just is. And we ought to think about it as a country is that how we want to begin the process? One of the two --
JOE: It is shady as hell.
SCHMIDT: One of the two great parties, is this how we want to begin the nominating process to pick the most powerful person in the world?
