So who got to Joe Scarborough? His wife Mika Brzezinski? His bosses at MSNBC, including head honcho Rashida Jones? Could it have been Jen Psaki, Biden’s former spox, now Scarborough's MSNBC colleague, letting Joe know he crossed a line? Or was it a call from the White House, rapping Joe’s knuckles? Or did the MSNBC suits themselves perhaps send Joe that iconic horsehead-in-the-bed clip from The Godfather?
Be that as it may, Scarborough clearly got the message, and wanted to make amends. The reason for the speculation is due to a complete 180-degree turn Scarborough did from Wednesday to Thursday about Hunter Biden and his life of ruin.
First, on Wednesday’s Morning Joe, the co-host leveled this stunning take:
I go through this document and I see [Trump’s] just throwing things against the wall...[I]t’s not a liberal saying, “that’s not true, Mr. President”...it's Republicans...State and federal courts, as Jack Smith said, rejected every post-election lawsuit filed by [Trump]....Right now, Democrats are being blamed for [Trump being indicted over his conduct relating to January 6]. Democrats are -- are -- it’s supposedly something to distract from Hunter Biden, who we’ve said time and again, if he did anything wrong, send him to jail. We don’t care. I mean, like, we -- we -- it's up to the Justice Department. It’s up -- it’s up to the people prosecuting. But [Republicans] are claiming this is a left-wing conspiracy. This was written -- all this statements -- Republicans.
Fast-forward 24 hours and a contrite Scarborough walked back his supposedly even-handed approach, couching it in more anti-Trump drivel:
[Trump’s lawyer is] still talking about the First Amendment, when...Jack Smith said, you have — you have the First Amendment right to say — to say what you want to say. You even have the First Amendment right to lie. You do not have, though, a First Amendment right to commit a conspiracy to overthrow the federal government of the United States. I mean, it just makes absolutely no sense. So, they’re either talking about the First Amendment or, over on another news channel, people were talking about a two-tiered justice system and talking about Hunter Biden’s hubcap rolling off his ‘67 Impala, something like that....I may have said it harshly yesterday when I said, “we don't care if Hunter Biden goes to jail.” [LAUGHS] I didn’t mean it that way. What I meant was, if he should — if he’s done something, if he’s found guilty, he goes to jail. Hold on. [PAUSE] Oh, wait, that’s what we do in America. But, for some reason, [Republicans] can’t say, “if Donald Trump’s done something, if he’s guilty, he should go to jail.”
Will Joe’s mea culpa satisfy his masters? Or will they demand a more abject apology? Some sort of symbolic seppuku? Perhaps Joe could take a lesson in the art of apology from the late, great John Belushi in The Blues Brothers.
In the past, Brzezinski gave Scarborough a mental-health timeout for several days. Will she banish Joe from the show again, to give him time to reflect on his sin of lèse-majesté against the House of Biden?
