Given MSNBC's penchant for propagating wild theories, perhaps the network should rename itself "Conspiracies 'R Us." Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's leading host, damaged her ratings and her reputation, such as it was, by going all-in on wild Trump-Russia conspiracy theories, only to see them debunked.
Last week on Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski floated the off-the-wall notion that President Trump has "dirt" on Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio, and is using it to blackmail them into supporting him.
On Sunday morning, Joy Reid demonstrated she was not to be outdone in the kooky-conjecture department. She proclaimed that her "first thought" when she heard of the Soleimani strike was that President Trump had ordered to "please" John Bolton, whom she described as a potential witness against the president in the Senate impeachment trial.
Reid's hypothesis—let's put this politely—is nuts. Between Mitch McConnell declining to call him, and President Trump prohibiting him from testifying in the inconceivable event that he were called, the odds that Bolton will ever be a witness at a Senate impeachment trial are effectively zero.
Reid obviously can't conceive of any good reason for taking out Soleimani. After all, Soleimani merely had more American blood on his hands than perhaps any other active terrorist. So there must have been some dark impeachment-trial conspiracy behind the strike against him.
After initially floating only the please-Bolton conspiracy theory, Reid later added the notion that Trump ordered the Soleimani strike also to please hawkish Republican senators who will be voting in the Senate trial.
Note also that Reid's guest, Tony Schwartz, who went from being Trump's co-author on Art of the Deal into his current incarnation as a professional Trump hater, humored Reid, saying "it wouldn't surprise me" if that was indeed the motivation behind Trump's decision to strike Soleimani.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
AM Joy
1/12/20
10:02 am ETJOY REID: When Donald Trump started these hostilities, really out of the blue, my first thought was John Bolton, being somebody that he thought he would please by doing this. John Bolton is somebody who could testify against him in an impeachment trial.
. . .
Would it surprise you if the reason why Donald Trump took this action in Iran, was because he knew it would please Republican senators who want to go to war with Iran that are going to vote on impeachment, and he knew it would please people like John Bolton who can testify against him?
TONY SCHWARTZ: Well, no: of course it wouldn't surprise me.
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