During Wednesday’s edition of Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski compared President Trump to a cave man, later adding that “he’s like Fred Flintstone running the country.”
Not surprisingly, the panel had few positive things to say about President Trump’s meeting with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un, which took place on Singapore on Tuesday. Panelist Richard Haass argued that the summit “probably” distanced us from war.
He added that this is “a good thing, we’ve walked that back to some extent,” but then criticized “what we got” as “extraordinarily thin; lacking in substance or detail, no definition of things like denuclearization, no provisions for verification” and “no mention of missiles.”
Co-host Joe Scarborough interrupted Haass’s criticisms as a picture of President Trump and Kim Jong-un shaking hands came up, arguing “that picture right there is an extraordinary picture that no other self-respecting President would give the leader of North Korea.”
Brzezinski, probably one of the “haters” the President referenced in a tweet about critics of his decisions on North Korea, described them as “very, almost caveman-like.” She continued: “He’s like Fred Flintstone running the country; writing things on a stone, actually not even able to do that.”
Later, Brzezinski spoke with Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (who was probably another one of those "haters") and he all too happily joined in on the Trump-bashing chorus.
To the panel’s delight, Murphy took shots at the President’s negotiating skills, pointing out that “his reputation in New York was that he’d throw a lot of bluster up front but then when he sat down at the negotiating table, he’d give away everything the other side wanted and that’s how he found himself in multiple bankruptcies and that seems to be what happened here.” Murphy then recycled the same tired talking point that “all Trump cares about is these syrupy photo-ops.”
The near 100 percent correlation between Murphy’s analysis and the commentary from the Morning Joe panel should prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the media has become the PR firm for the left.
To see the relevant transcipt, click "expand."
MSNBC's Morning Joe
06/13/18
06:13 AM
JOE SCARBOROUGH: North Korea yesterday morning, the President meeting with Kim. 24 hours later, what are your thoughts?
RICHARD HAASS: I think the prevailing view, one I share, is that this probably distanced us from war. And that’s a good thing, we’ve walked that back to some extent. But after that it’s mainly criticism, Joe. What we got was extraordinarily thin; lacking in substance or detail, no definitions of things like denuclearization, no provisions for verification, no mention of missiles, so what we got was extraordinarily thin; not even clear what the follow-up is, no timetable and we gave an awful lot for it and the idea that once again…
SCARBOROUGH: Well, that picture right there is an extraordinary picture that no other self-respecting President would give the leader of North Korea.
HAASS: Right and the fact that once again we did not value an alliance, that we played a major card in this case, U.S. Republic of Korea, South Korea military exercises, not only did we play it but we didn’t consult before we played it; it just shows that this is a, this is a President who sees allies as essentially expendable.
MIKE BARNICLE: Richard, talk about that a little; the disruption of our relations with Japan, South Korea and other alliances around the world.
HAASS: We saw it at the G7. What it is is I think you have a President who sees alliances if anything as more cost and burden than benefit. He sees allies as free riders militarily, rivals economically. So if that’s your mindset, the idea that you would not value or protect their concerns comes pretty naturally. And what we saw with South Korea the other day was just that, look what was not on the agenda, no talk of missiles, much less medium-range missiles that reach places like Japan and South Korea. Again, this willingness to weaken the exercise basis of our presence, the talking about taking U.S. Forces out. When Jimmy Carter did that decades and decades ago, it was wildly controversial. And again, what worried me as much as anything was the lack of consultation. This is a country who basically has placed its security in our hands. The idea that we would ever make a major announcement like that without first working with them, what kind of a message does that send beyond the immediate substance? It basically says you can’t count on us.
SCARBOROUGH: What kind of message does it send on human rights that you have gulags all over that country? The most repressive regime in the world and Donald Trump is saying that Kim is “beloved” by his people.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And then at the same time insulting the Prime Minister of Canada. President Trump is back in D.C. this morning, returning from his summit in Singapore after an active night on social media. Last night, he tweeted four times about meeting Kim Jong-un, twice thanking him for taking the first bold step to meet and for suspending nuclear tests. Trump also took aim at domestic critics writing “A year ago the pundits & talking heads, people that couldn’t do the job before, were begging for conciliation and peace, ‘please meet, don’t go to war.’ Now that we meet and have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, the same haters shout out, ‘you shouldn’t meet, do not meet!’” It’s very, almost caveman like.
SCARBOROUGH: Have you seen…
BRZEZINSKI: It really is. He’s like Fred Flintstone running the country; writing things on a stone, actually not even able to do that.
SCARBOROUGH: Did you see the clips yesterday from Fox News, the same people that were yelling at Barack Obama about meeting with North Korea and Iran without preconditions and saying it was the end of the world, now turning around, talking about how this is the most glorious thing ever and he dares to make peace. It’s, it’s laughable.
BRZEZINSKI: It is. And I think you’re giving him too much credit for actually thinking things out. But I get your point on the approach being about money. Joining us now from Washington, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Senator, what, what is the path to trying to not screw this up so badly for Mike Pompeo?
DEMOCRATIC CONNECTICUT SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY: That’s a, that’s a very good question. You know, listen, Barack Obama had this famous line back in 2003. He said, “I’m not against wars. I’m just against dumb wars.” You know, from our perspective, we’re not against diplomacy, we’re just against bad diplomacy and this was really bad diplomacy.
BRZEZINSKI: Horrible.
MURPHY: The problem is, yeah, the problem is, you know, this President has never been the deal maker he claims to be, his reputation in New York was that he’d throw a lot of bluster up front but then when he sat down at the negotiating table, he’d give away everything the other side wanted and that’s how he found himself in multiple bankruptcies and that seems to be what happened here; whether he did it ahead of time or at the spur of the moment, as Richard mentioned, giving away the military exercises with South Korea without getting anything in return, I think puts Mike Pompeo in a very difficult spot because it suggests that this negotiation is going to go equally badly if we get to the second and third stage. But frankly, a lot of folks think that what Kim wants is to just drag this out, to just give himself more time and to the extent that all Trump really cares about is these syrupy photo-ops, if he finds a way to set up a few more of those, keep Trump going, he may be able to get the time that he wants without ever having to give up anything in return.
