Finally! Something from a New York Times reporter you can absolutely, positively believe: that no matter the mounting evidence, he will not condemn Hillary Clinton for her email malfeasance.
On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough repeatedly tried to get Jeremy Peters to state whether he agreed with the federal judge who yesterday declared that Hillary had not "followed government policy" regarding her email. After haplessly trying to do anything but answer the question, an exasperated Peters finally sputtered: "you want, you want me to indict and damn Hillary? I'm not going to do that."
Note: check out the screencap. Gene Robinson of the Washington Post seems to be enjoying watching someone from the New York Times squirm.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: A federal judge says she did not follow government e-mail policy using her personal server for State Department business. And at this hearing for the FOIA suit, the judge said we wouldn't be here if the employee had followed government policy. Then we have her campaign staff saying that her use of a personal e-mail account was consistent with her predecessors and permissible under department policy. Is it or is it not permissible? I just want the answer. I don't want like lots of sentences around it. I just want the answer
JOE SCARBOROUGH: So the question is, Mika, do you follow a federal judge's opinion on the surface or do you follow political spinmeisters knowledge?
JEREMY PETERS: I think it's helpful to think about this--I don't have an answer for you -- but
EUGENE ROBINSON: She says it was permissible when she did it. When she started it. But the rule came out later and she --
MIKA: She broke it.
ROBINSON: Most of us would say --
JOE: She broke it. The federal judge said that she did not do it properly, that there's an impermissible use.
PETERS: Right. And there were questions from the very beginning about whether or not this was in line.
JOE: I'm just asking you. Do you, the federal judge, you've seen, he says it's impermissible.
PETERS: Impermissible. Okay. Fine. He says that, sure. I'm not arguing whether it was permissible or impermissible. All I'm trying to figure out is what Donny was saying which is, okay, how does this affect her politically?
JOE: It seems like it would hurt you to say, yes, the federal judge that works day in and day out, who follows the law and reads the law, it's his job to interpret the law says that she impermissibly used e-mail. And I'm just trying to figure out. Which is like Fonzie saying he's wrong, can you not just say, cause you're saying, well I don't know --
PETERS: I'm not saying --
DONNY DEUTSCH: It's a question of how it affects the populace.
JOE: No, no, no. It's a question of how a reporter for the New York Times --
DEUTSCH: Don't challenge the New York Times! Don't challenge the Washington Post!
PETERS: You want, you want me, you want me to indict and damn Hillary Clinton?
JOE: No we don't.
MIKA: No!
PETERS: I'm not going to do that.
