Mika Brzezinski opened Tuesday's Morning Joe by pointedly saying "it is VERY good to be here." That was an apparent expression of discontent with the fact that the show had been yanked off the air the day before, Morning Joe's first scheduled episode after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
But in short order, the show aired some wild, left-partisan speculation as to the shooter's motivation. You can imagine the prospect of something like that was precisely what caused the MSNBC suits to keep Morning Joe off the air yesterday.
On Tuesday's show, NBC News law enforcement correspondent Tom Winter repeatedly cautioned people not to jump to conclusions about the shooter's motive. But Winter then proceeded to pass along this bit of anonymous conjecture:
"It is possible that Donald Trump—and there's a bit of a theory in law enforcement—is it possible that Trump was not conservative enough for this individual?"
So be cautious, people! But, there's "a bit" of a theory among some anonymous law enforcement sources that Trump wasn't "conservative enough" for the shooter. Does speculation get much more irresponsible than that? But anything goes, apparently, for Morning Joe to try to deflect responsibility from the left. And so they aired that "bit of" a theory his morning.
Yes, by all means, let's be cautious. Let's try to get the facts, and tamp down bits of "theories" tending to increase tensions in this already pressure-packed political environment.
And in that effort, Morning Joe should start with itself.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/16/24
6:00 am EDTMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Good morning. It is VERY good to be here, and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Tuesday, July 16th.
. . .
TOM WINTER: The why. And I know, and I get it, because I get the vitriol online, somebody shot at Donald Trump. What other reason could it be than some sort of a political reason? That's what people are saying.
And I think it's important to remember, first off, the last presidential shooting we had, John Hinckley Jr. did it toimpress a Hollywood actress. We've seen a number of incidents happen over the years where people thought the motive was clear, and it turned out to be a complete 180 based on the evidence. And that's where the FBI needs to go with it.
Then we found out yesterday that they had a preliminary review of the cell phone. Investigation is still ongoing, obviously. And it was really nothing on that that led them to the why. And I think that's a real challenge.
In going forward here in this investigation, they're talking to the family. Every indication so far is that the family has been cooperative. But they're kind of running out of leads at this point. And so I think that they're either hoping somebody that somebody comes forward, or that they find some other piece of evidence, or a needle within needles in a haystack, to try to figure out why this happened. I will caution people that it is possible that we might never know why this individual got on the roof that day.
And I would also caution people, people think, well, it's just, it's anti-Donald Trump because this person doesn't like them, because their views are on the other side of the political spectrum.
It is possible that Donald Trump—and there's a bit of a theory in law enforcement—is it possible that Trump was not conservative enough for this individual?
It runs the gamut. And I think it 's important in this situation, this is the way we approach our reporting, everything's on the table. Let's figure out what authorities have. Let's do our own work, talk to our own people. You saw some of that in Kelly's piece right there. Andf from that point, we can start to piece together why this happened.
