As we described it, Tuesday's Morning Joe was a "Gloat-a-Thon" over the Mar-a-Lago search. But even the show's unbridled schadenfreude on Tueday paled in comparison to Morning Joe's absolute ecstasy today over Donald Trump's potential legal woes.
Mika and George Conway both joined the long chorus line of liberals declaring that the "walls are closing in" on Trump.
The ultimate euphoria came at the end of the first half-hour, as MSNBC legal analyst Charles Coleman, commenting on how the the Biden DoJ has turned the tables on Trump, quoted an "old saying:"
"It's no fun when the rabbit has the gun."
Mika immediately burst into prolonged, uproarious, laughter, and twice repeated the phrase. Scarborough was so enthralled with the saying that he said he would "write it down."
Now imagine if a conservative commentator invoked the notion of a Republican president's law enforcement agencies having "the gun" on a Democrat president. Cue the shrieks of liberal outrage!
And consider that a favorite liberal talking point nowadays is how Trump and others have and continue to incite violence. So who's inciting violence now, as they laugh uncontrollably at the prospect of Donald Trump having a gun trained on him?
Other low-lights from the segment:
- Mika and Joe amused themselves by repeatedly mentioning the many times that Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment during his deposition yesterday with lawyers for New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Scarborough wondered whether Trump might be "mobbed up," and if his taking the Fifth constituted a "confession."
- Yesterday, we noted a CNN legal analyst claiming that a federal indictment of Trump, stemming from the Mar-a-Lago search, was imminent. Today, it was Morning Joe's turn to use I-word, with legal analyst Barbara McQuade saying that an indictment of Trump in Fulton County, Georgia was likely the "most imminent."
- Joe and Mika broke out their traditional string of epithets for Trump supporters: "conspiracy theorists, insurrectionists, weirdos, crazy people, freaks, lunatics," and, of course, "fascists."
- Scarborough suggested that just as the law should go after the "fascists," the law should deal with "people on cable news channels" who in Joe's opinion are inspiring violence. Gee: wonder which "cable news networks" and which "people" Scarborough wants to see locked up?
- Remember how the liberal media ridiculed Trump for claiming that Trump Tower was being wiretapped? Now, McQuade also said it would be perfectly appropriate for Biden's law enforcement agencies to monitor Trump and his associates via "listening devices, surveillance techniques, confidential informants, consensual monitoring, and other things."
The gloat-a-thon on Morning Joe was sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Shingrix, Ring, and Wegmans.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
8/11/22
6:00 amMIKA BRZEZINSKI: The former president once claimed that innocent people don't plead the Fifth. So what does that say about him!--after he invoked the Fifth Amendment hundreds of times with the State of New York yesterday?
Yeesh! Walls are closing in.
. . .
Does he still think it's disgraceful?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: 400 times over, disgraceful.
MIKA: Does he think it's something you only do if you're guilty?
SCARBOROUGH: 400 times, guilty.
MIKA: And does he still think it's something that the mob does?
SCARBOROUGH: 400 times! Is he mobbed up?
MIKA: We'll get into that.
SCARBOROUGH: Is he telling us? Is this confession?
. . .
GEORGE CONWAY: Well, I do agree. This is, I think the walls are closing in on him.
. . .
BARBARA MCQUADE: I think the Georgia investigation is at least the one that is the most imminent. I don't know whether ultimately it is the one that is the most significant or brings the most prison time, but I think that's the one that's moving the most quickly.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: You say, appeasing the public, you're talking about appeasing conspiracy theorists, insurrectionists, weirdos --
MIKA: -- crazy people.
SCARBOROUGH: -- freaks.
MIKA: -- lunatics.
SCARBOROUGH: -- Fascists. I think you call fascists fascists, and if people are, if fascists are going out making threats, I think what you do, you know, you go after them with the law.
MIKA: There's that, but there's also --
SCARBOROUGH: The rule of law. And if you have people on cable news channels that inspired violence leading up to January 6th, and then were shocked on January the 6th by the violence that took place, and then after January 6th pretended that they weren't shocked by the violence that took place on January 6th, and they're doing it again?
Well, you know, there are legal channels for that, too.
MIKA: Newsweek matched this reporting of where this all came from on the inside to senior government officials who told the search was largely based on from an informant --
SCARBOROUGH: -- an informant on the inside of Mar-a-Lago!
MIKA: -- what documents Trump was hiding, and where they were located.
SCARBOROUGH: Wow!
MIKA: Trump world is now reportedly trying to figure out who flipped. According to Rolling Stone, Donald Trump is worried he may have a rat, or multiple rats, in his midst. He's wondering if his phones or tapped. Or even if his buddies could be wearing a wire. And Barbara, I would think that's a very good thing to be concerned about.
MCQUADE: Yeah, absolutely. If this is an ongoing investigation, as it appears to be, then it would be appropriate to continue to collect evidence. And so, the ways that those are done are through listening devices, surveillance techniques, confidential informants, consensual monitoring, and other things.
. . .
CHARLES COLEMAN: Well, you know, Joe, as the old saying goes, it's no fun when the rabbit has the gun. [Mika bursts into extended laughter.]
And I think that's where Donald Trump finds himself [Mika continues to laugh]. He is essentially getting a very different view of how the legal system works. You know, this is someone who --
SCARBOROUGH: By the way, Charles, I grew up in the South --
MIKA: That is fantastic! It's no fun when the rabbit --
SCARBOROUGH: -- and I heard from my grandmom and my mom and my aunt, I heard just about every hearing, every saying --
MIKA: It's no fun when the rabbit has the gun!
SCARBOROUGH: I never heard that one. So I'm going to write that down right now while you continue. Go ahead.
