MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough reacted to Special Counsel John Durham’s report that was fiercely critical of the FBI and the Trump-Russia probe by dismissing it as a waste of taxpayer money and that the main takeaway of the report is how bad Durham and Republicans look.
In one of his typical rants, Scarborough tried to find a silver lining, “The only good news is at least his four-year taxpayer funded boondoggle, that was funded by working Americans, paying him to walk through the fevered swamps of Trumpism is over.”
Scarborough’s remarks made prophets out of Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein who wrote in the Washington Post on Monday, “The report, coming almost four years to the day since Durham’s assignment began, will probably be derided by Democrats as the end of a partisan boondoggle.”
Scarborough also alleged that “Durham has nothing but a tarnished reputation to show for it. But it underlines, again, the fact, and Willie, if you listen to what people are saying about this report on the Trump right, it underlines the fact that, well, they just-- they hate the FBI.”
Bursting MSNBC’s bubble is not the same thing as destroying one’s reputation, but after a ranting about the GOP’s poor relationship to the FBI and at no point considering the demise of the Russia collusion narrative might have something to do with that, Scarborough returned to Durham, “Four years, millions and millions of dollars, and nothing to show for it but some really bad, humiliating headlines for pro-Trump newspapers.”
Fellow co-host Willie Geist also noted the supposedly excessive cost of the report, “Yeah. Nearly twice as long as the Mueller investigation. Four years almost to the day, almost $7 million spent for this 306-page report.”
Geist may have been less rough than Scarborough, but he still maintained that nothing new was learned, “So, when this report came out yesterday, the FBI said, yeah, we know all that. Everything you put in this report was out there, and that's why we made these changes a couple of years ago. So, yes, it is sort of a rehashing.”
The fact that the FBI was compelled to make changes would suggest there is something wrong with Scarborough’s version of history, but later on he would once again come back to the idea that it is Durham and Republicans who look bad:
Four years of nothing and now, we have Durham publishing another dud. We have Durham actually trying to relitigate cases in this report that juries unanimously rejected. It's unbelievable and you’re right some are taking victory laps, proving Ron DeSantis correct that this is a party addicted to losing. Jonathan, this would be like us taking a victory lap after the Boston Red Sox lost their fourth game in a row last night.
Scarborough continued with the baseball analogy, “We Red Sox fans, you don't see us taking victory laps around Fenway Park. We want to fire everybody when we lose. Republicans don't think that way. They think, oh, we humiliated ourselves. We spent four years of taxpayer's money with nothing.”
While the author revels in Scarborough’s dismay that his Seattle Mariners gave the Red Sox a 10-1 drubbing on Monday night, in this analogy Scarborough is the Red Sox. Durham’s report makes the FBI and anyone who defended the collusion narrative look terrible and yet, here is Scarborough, taking a victory lap.
This segment was sponsored by Subway.
Here is a transcript for the May 16 show:
MSNBC Morning Joe
5/16/2023
6:02 AM ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH: The only good news is at least his four-year taxpayer funded boondoggle, that was funded by working Americans, paying him to walk through the fevered swamps of Trumpism is over and Durham has nothing but a tarnished reputation to show for it. But it underlines, again, the fact, and Willie, if you listen to what people are saying about this report on the Trump right, it underlines the fact that, well, they just-- they hate the FBI.
They've turned the premier law enforcement organization into a political punching bag that they say they want to defund. They want to defund the people that protect us from terrorists, that protect us from gangs, that protect us from the people who are actively trying to kill us every day. It's just-- it's absolutely crazy. And this whole report, what was it to do? It was to trash the FBI. It was to investigate the investigators. It went on longer than the underlying investigation. Four years, millions and millions of dollars, and nothing to show for it but some really bad, humiliating headlines for pro-Trump newspapers.
WILLE GEIST: Yeah. Nearly twice as long as the Mueller investigation. Four years almost to the day, almost $7 million spent for this 306-page report and let's remember, in 2019, the Department of Justice under Donald Trump, the IG there launched his own investigation and said, yes, there were flaws in the way the FBI went about this, but the investigation itself was, in fact, justified. The FBI made changes after that. So, when this report came out yesterday, the FBI said, yeah, we know all that. Everything you put in this report was out there, and that's why we made these changes a couple of years ago. So, yes, it is sort of a rehashing. I guess John Durham had to produce something after spending four years on this, but It turns out not to be much of anything, really.
...
SCARBOROUGH: Four years. Four years of nothing and now, we have Durham publishing another dud. We have Durham actually trying to relitigate cases in this report that juries unanimously rejected. It's unbelievable and you’re right some are taking victory laps, proving Ron DeSantis correct that this is a party addicted to losing. Jonathan, this would be like us taking a victory lap after the Boston Red Sox lost their fourth game in a row last night.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: We know better than that.
SCARBOROUGH: And are in, like, last place.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh, my gosh.
We Red Sox fans, you don't see us taking victory laps around Fenway Park. We want to fire everybody when we lose. Republicans don't think that way. They think, oh, we humiliated ourselves. We spent four years of taxpayer's money with nothing.
BRZEZINSKI: But they got to use it.
SCARBOROUGH: And we humiliated pro-Trump newspapers publishing false headlines. “It's true, Hillary tapped Donald Trump's campaign.” It's all lies.
