Morning Joe Hails Colleges Cracking Down on Pro-Hamas Protesters!

On Thursday, Morning Joe treated us to surprising praise for Speaker Mike Johnson -- albeit regarding his support for aid to Ukraine, something dear to Joe Scarborough. Friday brought another surprise: tough talk about the pro-Hamas protesters wreaking havoc on American campuses, and praise for university administrators taking action to curb their excesses. Thus, Joe Scarborough condemned students occupying the offices of college presidents, even suggesting that any president who tolerates that should "seek employment elsewhere." At one point, Scarborough even called protesters who blocked graduation speakers "brats." Willie Geist spoke positively about the chancellor of his alma mater, Vanderbilt, who actually expelled three students who had occupied his office. New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters has written an article on the matter: "Colleges Warn Student Demonstrators: Enough." As a panelist on Morning Joe, he criticized protesters at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, who had marred what was supposed to be a joyful event for outstanding students. He also acknowledged that college administrators have been slow in dealing with these problems. He cited the Trump years during which speakers who were conservative, or affiliated with Trump, were often canceled or shouted down.  President Biden is reported to be "obsessed" with Morning Joe, so much so that he has made Scarborough a frequent phone buddy and informal adviser. But if Biden tuned in on Friday, he couldn't have been thrilled with the panel's take. Biden's already under pressure from the Pro-Hamas/River to the Sea wing of the Democrat party.  And now even the liberal media is starting to call for crackdowns on those protesters? Oy vey! Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe  4/19/24 6:47 am EDT WILLIE GEIST: So Joe, yesterday, you saw another case, several in recent weeks, where heads of school, chancellors, administrators, have said, there is a line now between free speech. We've allowed you to protest, we've allowed you to go to certain places. We've opened dialogues on our  campus, given you a place to have these debates.  But when it comes to harassment of Jewish students, when it comes to interrupting the operations of, say, a class, or a speaker, or people moving through the campus, we're now saying, you can't do that anymore. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, exactly. Whether you're talking about the, the interruption of the functioning of the Golden Gate Bridge, or the normal functioning of Columbia University, you know, it's, it's too much. It's too much. You can have free speech without, again, stopping the normal functioning of these institutions.  . . .  And so, I'm glad the president of Columbia University has stepped forward. You know, some people may call allowing students to take over president's offices at Columbia in the 1960s a storied tradition. I don't. I call that anarchy. Like, if you're a president of the university and you're letting students take over your office, maybe, maybe you should seek employment elsewhere.  Because I guarantee you there are a lot of parents that send their children to schools who don't want students running the place. They'd like grown-ups to run the place. And it looks like that's what's happening in Columbia. GEIST: Yeah. I'll speak for -- you know, I went to Vanderbilt University. They've had a lot of this on their campus in recent weeks. And a group of students a couple of weeks ago pushed their way into Kirkland Hall, where the chancellor's office is. They pushed aside an unarmed security guard, they sat there for 20 hours doing exactly what you're talking about, Joe. And Chancellor Diermeier, who runs Vanderbilt, ultimately said, okay, you're all suspended. And then one by one, reviewed their cases and expelled three of the students. SCARBOROUGH: Good! GEIST: And said, we've given you a place to have free speech. We've given you a place to protest. We've given you a place to voice your opinion. We've created symposiums where both sides of this discussion can be heard. You didn't participate in that, but you broke into our office and sat here. So now, three of you are no longer students of Vanderbilt University. And that was one of the first schools, actually, to do that, and I think you've seen more if it now since then.  Jeremy Peters, the national reporter for the New York Times is writing about this. He's got new reporting on how those administrators are now responding to a surge in anti-Israel protests on campus. Also with us, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt. His group is out with new data on antisemitic incidents in the United States in the last year. Good morning to you both. Jeremy, I'll begin with you. It does seem to have been, just within the last couple of weeks even, a bit of a change in the approach that some, not all, that some leaders of campuses, of universities across the country, are taking with these protests. What did you find in your reporting? JEREMY PETERS: That's exactly right, Willie. Schools have had enough. And Vanderbilt issued what are believed to be the first expulsions of student protesters related to demonstrations stemming from the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel.And from Vanderbilt to NYU, to Columbia, to the University of Michigan, to Pomona, schools are saying, basically, look, this is not about free speech. You have a right to speak up. You have a right to demonstrate. What you don't have is a right to harass and disrupt. And that's what's really been impeding these universities core mission, which is to educate your students. And you can't have an environment that is constantly disrupted, where students are subject to harassment, where they're spit upon, where they're yelled at.  Where graduation ceremonies, or like the incident I wrote about at my alma mater, the University of Michigan, this honors convocation that was supposed to be this kind of lovely, celebratory moment where kids who were the highest-achieving students are honored. Their parents and grandparents are there. And shat happened? It got disrupted and had to be shut down early because of pro-Palestinian protesters were standing up and shouting down speakers and unfurling banners. And this is something I think universities have been slow to acknowledge. I mean, remember during the Trump years, universities really became this, this cauldron of protest activity, where this kind of overly censorious culture developed. Where if there was a speaker who was conservative, or aligned with Trump, instead of letting that person speak, a lot of times the speach would be canceled out of fear for the safety of that speaker. Or people would interrupt the speaker. And now, you know, I think universities are saying, we didn't do enough to rein that in, but now they are. SCARBOROUGH: And, you know, the thing is, that's happened over the past couple of years. But this has been a problem for a long time. I'll just say it, brats who are protesting when, say, Christine Lagarde tries to speak at a graduation, or Condi Rice tries to speak at a graduation, or I think even Christine Todd Whitman one time was canceled from speaking at the graduation!  I gotta say, you're either the adult running the campus, or you're the child, that is incapable of controlling students. The students are there to learn. That means IIall the students are there to learn. Not just students who decide this one issue is the most important issue to them. And I certainly understand, if Gaza is the most important issue, especially to Palestinian students in America. But it goes well beyond that. You can't shut down an entire campus.Your right to free speech doesn't mean your right to impinge upon everybody else's free speech and their ability to unction in a university setting.

'Credit Where Due'—Scarborough Lauds Reaganesque Speaker Johnson On Ukraine

"Hear hear! Good on him. Credit where credit is due, and credit is definitely due with Speaker Johnson."  -- Joe Scarborough It's often said that it can be a kiss of death for a politician to be praised by a political opponent.  But that adage might not hold true in the case of Joe Scarborough's praise of Speaker Mike Johnson. Because on today's Morning Joe, Scarborough lauded Johnson not for agreeing with some liberal icon, but for upholding the principles of . . . Ronald Reagan. Scarborough's commending of Johnson came in the context of the Speaker's advocacy of aid for Ukraine.  And in doing so, Johnson described himself as a Reagan Republican, a believer in peace through strength, wanting to send a message to adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, and seeing the US as the greatest country in the world. Marjorie Taylor Greene and others will find a way to criticize Johnson's statement, but it's a tricky needle to thread. Does a Republican really want to speak out against Ronald Reagan? Note: Speaking of Johnson's stance, Scarborough called himself a Baptist, and thus as someone who embraces conversions. He even quoted from the Just As I Am hymn.The irony was lost on Scarborough that he's had quite the conversion himself. Going from being a hardcore pro-life, pro-Second Amendment congressman from Florida's conservative panhandle, to decrying the overturning of Roe and beating the drums for more gun control.  Scarborough's conversion has been so complete that he's become a Biden phone buddy and informal adviser. Just as you were, Joe Scarborough: please! Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 4/18/24 6:03 am EDT JOE SCARBOROUGH: In a few minutes, Willie, we're going to be talking about Speaker Johnson and Ukraine. I must say, he has had a conversion. You know, it's, it's like A Christmas Carol. That the ghost of the Republican party past came to visit him in the middle of the night and said to him, [imitates voice of Ronald Reagan] "Well," and he said,"Yes, sir." MIKA BRZEZINSKI: No, I think -- SCARBOROUGH: No, listen. What do I say about conversions? MIKA: I'll take 'em. SCARBOROUGH: I'm a Baptist. MIKA: Yeah. SCARBOROUGH: We love deathbed conversions, we love midlife conversions. You want to convert? Just as I am, and waiting not, to cleanse my soul of one dark spot. Well, okay, we'll take Speaker Johnson, who sounds like Ronald Reagan. And I will say, in defense of some of the leaders in that House GOP, like some of those leaders that run important committees. It sounds like they're actually concerned about China, Iran, and Russia! WILLIE GEIST: And this might literally be a political deathbed conversion for Mike Johnson, as the threats to his job continue from that faction. But Joe, Speaker Johnson invoked Ronald Reagan's name -- SCARBOROUGH: Hear, hear. GEIST: -- finally said it out loud. It's something we've been talking about for months now on this show: the party of Ronald Reagan turning its back on Ukraine in a fight against Russia.  Speaker Johnson said yesterday, "I am a child of the '80s. I am a child of the Reagan era. We have to do what's right here. We have to give Ukraine what it needs." Where was that over the last couple of months? Unclear. But he's come around. The question will be, have enoug hother Republicans come around to that position to clear this funding and get it to Ukraine? Perhaps as early as Saturday night, when Speaker Johnson says there will be a vote. MIKA: Hope to see Democrats step up. SCARBOROUGH: Maybe he'll go to the floor. MIKA: No. SCARBOROUGH: Maybe he'll say -- MIKA: Listen -- SCARBOROUGH: MTG, tear down that wall! I mean, there's so many options now. MIKA: Yeah, there's a lot to say. SCARBOROUGH: He can borrow so much from Ronald Reagan. . . .  MIKAL And despite the threats from his Republican colleagues, Johnson is pushing forward. MIKE JOHNSON [speaking with Jake Tapper on CNN]: We're going to stand for freedom and make sure that Vladimir Putin doesn't March through Europe. We're an exceptional nation. We're the greatest nation on the planet, and we have to act like it. And we have to project to Putin and Xi and Iran and North Korea and anybody else that we will defend freedom. It doesn't mean boots on the ground. We're not the world's policemen, but we're going to do the right thing. And I think the Congress is going to take an important stand here. JAKE TAPPER: Are you going to have to rely on Democrats to pass the rule in order to bring these bills to the floor, and also the legislation itself? JOHNSON: Well, I hope not. I hope our Republican colleagues will stand together, stick together on this. I think we understand, look, I'm a child of the '80s. I regard myself as a Reagan Republican. I understand the concept of maintaining peace through strength. That's one of our guiding principles. It's a really important philosophy. And it's a big part of our party and our world view. And I think here is an opportunity to make that stand at a really critical time in world history. SCARBOROUGH: I mean, this is like a movie for me. I went to sleep last night, and we were living in the age of Trump. And I woke up this morning, and now we're in the age of Reagan again. Listen to this. Peace through strength. Huh. MIKA: That sounds good. SCARBOROUGH: And you knowm, a couple days ago, I kind of got heated up about how Republicans hate on America so much. I was talking about how horrible America is. And I said America is the greatest country in the world. And they need to start saying it. Well, the Speaker said, "We're the greatest nation in the world." Good on him. Like, we don't hear this from Republicans.  We certainly don't hear that we have to actually fund people who are fighting against Russian aggression much these days. Except from, again, those responsible leaders, whether you're talking about the chairman of the intel committee or the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, people who are actually talking like grown-ups. But I've got to say, give credit where credit is due, and credit is definitely due with Speaker Johnson talking like a Reagan Republican, talking about the need to protect freedom in this fight between western democracy and what's going on in Russia.  

Metaphor Amnesia? Morning Joe Calls Trump an 'Animal,' Ready to 'Lash Out'

When Donald Trump referred to the illegal immigrant accused of killing 22-year-old Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus as an "animal," the liberal media went aflame with outrage. Thus on MSNBC, Joy Reid condemned Trump's "dehumanizing and degrading" language [see clip at 2:00.] So, surely, no one on MSNBC would ever use the a-for-animal word in describing Donald Trump! Oh, wait. On today's Morning Joe, Mara Gay, an MSNBC analyst and member of the editorial board of the New York Times, said of Trump: "He's like a caged animal. And that's a dangerous situation. He's feeling very threatened. He's out of control. And so we do expect him to lash out." Oh no! Not just an animal, but an out-of-control animal! Creating a "dangerous situation" in which "we expect him to lash out." Yet for some reason, no one on the panel castigated Gay for her use of such "degrading and dehumanizing" language. Huh! Remind me to tune into Joy Reid's show later. Surely she will apply the same standard to Trump critics as she did to Trump himself! Or not. Notes: Gay's calling Trump an "animal" was preceded by a discussion of Trump's reported lack of discipline. Jonathan Lemire noted one exception to that rule -- that in the days prior to the 2016 election, Trump was persuaded to stay off Twitter and stay on message, which helped him win the election. But Lemire managed to work in a dig, saying that in addition to Trump's discipline, what contributed to his victory was "an assist from FBI Director Comey." That was a reference to the letter Comey sent days before the allegation saying that some of Hillary's emails had come to light that were pertinent to the FBI's investigation. Some in the liberal media blame Hillary's loss on that letter.  Scarborough admitted that, like Trump, he too finds it difficult to sit for hours on end, and that therefore "Mika lets me talk all the time to stay awake!" That might have been a peace offering from Joe toward Mika, who is reportedly fed up with his constant big-footing of her on the show.  Amateur psychiatrist Mika diagnosed Trump with an "ADD mentality." Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 4/17/24 6:18 am EDT JOE SCARBOROUGH: Jonathan Lemire, obviously you've been covering Donald Trump a very long time. You understand that his lack of discipline is legendary. His [in]ability to sit still, legendary. He wrote, even in "The Art of the Deal" that, basically, that he didn't have the discipline to sit down and make plans for a day. He just kind of showed up in the office, answered phones, moved around, did things. Drudge puts it this way, "Don in Hell," [Mika laughs] with a picture of Donald Trump inside the courtroom. And for anybody that knows him, reported on him, that's been around him. The fact that this guy has to sit in a courtroom, six, seven, eight hours a day. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh, that's not good for him. SCARBOROUGH: Required to. It's just, it's something he has never done his entire life. JONATHAN LEMIRE: He has a legendary short attention span, ricocheting from one thought to the next, would always frustrate his business advisers, and certainly his White House staff. He's been, best I can tell, disciplined, only a handful of times in his life. Once, famously, in the last week or so of the 2016 election. The one time he was convinced to stay off Twitter, and he, mostly, stayed on message at rallies, and we know that helped him win there in those last few days—with an assist from FBI Director Comey. But that is certainly the exception rather than the rule.  SCARBOROUGH: And I will just say, yeah, anybody sitting six, seven, eight hours. You know me: if I were sitting somewhere for eight hours, I would, I would be falling asleep. I would be -- MIKA: You can't even get through four! [A reference to the daily length of Morning Joe.] SCARBOROUGH: I would be writing songs! Yeah, it's hard to even get through four, and Mika lets me talk all the time to stay awake! So I can't imagine: what a, what a physical toll for anybody. MIKA: This is where also it helps to have real firsthand knowledge of Donald Trump over the course of over a decade. And the guy has no attention span. We've seen it up front, and how we've known people who've worked for him, and they have to work around this sort of ADD mentality that he has, and the need for attention. Constant attention. Making moments. . . .  MARA GAY: And you saw yesterday that the judge recognized that concern in admonishing him and saying, I'm not going to have, you know, mumblings in my courtroom that could intimidate potential jurors. So, obviously that is a concern shared by many. I do agree with George [Conway.] I think that his pr capabilities are going to be somewhat limited in New York City, or maybe it was Jon that mentioned that a moment ago. That's absolutely true.  It's an ongoing concern. Because essentially, he's like a caged animal. And that's a dangerous situation. He's feeling very threatened. He's out of control. And so we do expect him to lash out. Anybody who has covered him over the past decade can expect that.

CNN's Acosta Worries Team Anti-Trump Won't Get a Perfectly Nasty Jury, But Analyst Counters

Happy Tax Return Deadline Day to all who celebrate! Such an empathetic guy, that Jim Acosta! As NewsBusters has documented, Acosta is a hard-left "journalist" and a Trump antagonist to the bitter end. On today's CNN This Morning, Acosta expressed a touching concern for the prosecutors in Trump's hush money trial. In particular, Acosta fretted over the tough job the prosecutors face in selecting jurors. After all, he said, it would take only one juror refusing to vote for conviction to cause a hung jury and thus a mistrial. True. But that possibility is something prosecutors face in every trial in every locale across the country. And if there's one place in all America where that could be the least likely to happen, it's the site of this trial—the liberal hotbed of Manhattan! As CNN legal analyst Elie Honig pointed out: "It's gonna be a challenge both ways. First of all, from Trump's perspective, this is not a great jury pool for him, right? This is Manhattan-only. No Bronx, no Brooklyn, no Queens, no Staten Island. Manhattan only. A borough, a county where Donald Trump got 12% of the vote in 2020. So he's worried about that." Exactly. Biden carried Manhattan by 87% to 12%. It's a dream jury pool for prosecutors. In contrast, how would you like to be a Trump defense lawyer trying to get 12 impartial jurors in Manhattan's seething, anti-Trump political environment? Naturally, Acosta's solicitous concern was only extended to the prosecution! Note: Honig, a former assistant US attorney, has a history of diverging at times from CNN's liberal line.  For example we've noted him arguing that the charges against him in this case are either misdemeanors akin to a shoplifting crime, or the lowest level of felony, which wouldn't result in prison time. On another occasion, Honig ripped into Stacey Abrams when she claimed that Fani Willis's investigation of Trump was "meticulous and very thoughtful." Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 4/15/24 6:06 am EDT JIM ACOSTA: Guys, busy morning, busy day.  Elie, we got a look last week at the jury questionnaire. How are they looking to root out the candidates? I mean, this is gonna be a challenge, I mean, for these prosecutors. It just takes one person to, to grind this to a halt. ELIE HONIG: It's gonna be a challenge both ways. First of all, from Trump's perspective, this is not a great jury pool for him, right? This is Manhattan only. No Bronx, no Brooklyn, no Queens, no Staten Island. Manhattan only. A borough, a county where Donald Trump got 12% of the vote in 2020. So he's worried about that. But you're right, prosecutors—I've been in this situation—are terrified about one lone juror sneaking through who could hang a jury. You need all 12 in order to convict.  The questionnaire is really interesting, because what the questionnaire is trying to do is get at is, first of all, which way do you lean. It doesn't come out and just ask it. I kinda wish it did, just say like, did you vote for A or B or are you Republican or Democrat?  But there's all these other proxies for that. Have you ever participated in political activity for or against Trump? Have you ever contributed? That kind of thing. But it asks a couple of important questions. It says, wherever what you lean, can you still be impartial in this case? Now, some people are going to say, I can't be impartial. I just lean too strongly. That's it. And they're going to be out. But then there's gonna be a lot of people who say, I do have feelings, but I can put those aside and still be impartial. And that's where the instinct kicks in. That's where the judge is going to have to ask, do I believe this person? And more importantly, the parties, who have a limited number, ten each, ten strikes each. They're going to have to make the decision, do we use one of those ten precious strikes to remove this particular person? It's a guessing game. 

No, Symone! A Third-Party Candidate Won't Deprive Biden or Trump of 270 Electoral Votes

I don't mean to pick on Symone Sanders Townsend. But for the second time in as many weeks, the co-anchor of MSNBC's The Weekend has exposed a disturbing knowledge deficit. Last week, we caught Symone accusing Donald Trump, in his inaugural address, of "promising carnage." In fact, he promised to "stop" carnage, of the sort that keeps "mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities." Today, in a segment devoted to trashing third-party candidates because of the likelihood that they would take votes from Biden, Sanders revealed her unfamiliarity with the way that Electoral College votes are awarded. Sanders: "I think now more than any of our past recent elections, that third-party candidates are a true, true threat to Joe Biden, but also to 270, period. Our Constitution says, to be the President of the United States, you have to win 270 Electoral College votes. Not 269, not that majority rules all . . . Now, what if Joe Biden is denied 270? Or Donald Trump? Well, according to the 12th Amendment, the House gets to pick who the president is."  What Sanders fails to grasp is that in every state but Nebraska and Maine, whoever wins a plurality of the popular vote wins all of the state's Electoral College votes. So even if a third-party candidate denied either Trump or Biden an outright majority in a given state [or in one of Nebraska or Maine's electoral districts], so long as either Trump or Biden got more votes than any other candidate, they'd get all of the state's electoral votes [or the electoral vote in the Nebraska or Maine district.] Thus, the only way that Sanders' nightmare scenario could come to pass would be if one of the third-party candidates actually won a state, or one of Nebraska or Maine's districts. And not even the most fevered conspiracy-mongers have suggested that RFK, Jr., let alone Cornel West or Jill Stein, have any hope of pulling off such a miracle. So Symone can sleep easy. But before next week's show, it would truly behoove her to study up on the topics at hand! Note: Steele told Symone that there wouldn't be a problem "if the Democrats win the House in November." That's not necessarily true. Per the 12th Amendment, "Rather than voting individually, House members vote as state delegations. Each state delegation gets a single vote, and a candidate becomes president with the support of a majority (26) of state delegations." So, even if in November Democrats won a majority of House seats, it's possible that Republicans would have the majority in more state delegations, and thus could have the power to elect the president. It's called a "contingent election." Here's the transcript. MSNBC The Weekend 4/13/24 8:19 am EDT JOE WALSH: [Third-party candidates are] so dangerous. MICHAEL STEELE: And it's just, if enough of those people to go to that place, to their happy place, where they can, where they think that that vote is going to do what? SYMONE SANDERS TOWNSEND: Let me say this. Because I think that there is a, I think now more than any of our past recent elections, that third-party candidates are a true, true threat to Joe Biden, but also to 270, period.  Our Constitution says, to be the President of the United States, you have to win 270 Electoral College votes. Not 269, not that majority rules all. Now, the ballot access matters here, okay. So, RFK, Jr., Dr. West, Jill Stein. What does the ballot access program look like? RFK, Jr. is someone who is definitely -- STEELE: He's on one state right now.  SANDERS TOWNSEND: He just gained ballot access in North Carolina.  STEELE: So it's two states. SANDERS TOWNSEND: Two. And that is a -- that's an issue. Because the margins matter here. Now, what if Joe Biden is denied 270? Or Donald Trump?  STEELE: It goes to the House. SANDERS TOWNSEND: Well, according to the 12th Amendment, the House gets to pick who the president is. I just watched that episode of Scandal the other day. STEELE: Which version of the House? Is it the existing House or is the new House that is sworn in? SANDERS TOWNSEND: It is the, tt is the new House. STEELE: So if the Democrats win the House in November, you don't have a problem. SANDERS TOWNSEND: Well, that means people have to vote down ballot. STEELE: Well, there you go.

CNN Anchor Kasie Hunt Runs Two Free Democrat Ads In Lecture on Trump, Roe Repeal

On today's CNN This Morning, host Kasie Hunt danced on the latest media party line, that Donald Trump can't pose as a "moderate" on abortion now after appointing Supreme Court justices that repealed Roe vs. Wade. But then Hunt unleashed a series of pro-abortion messages, airing for free 30 seconds of a new Biden-Harris campaign ad, as well as an ad for Democrat Gov. Steve Beshear of Kentucky, and a teary interview with Texas native Kate Cox from NBC News. Hunt emphasized women telling sympathetic stories about how the overturning of Roe impaired their ability to destroy their babies. The Biden ad, in which a sobbing Amanda Zurawski displays a tiny blanket for her child, ended with this blunt attack: "Donald Trump did this." Zurawski and Kate Cox have both been hosted in First Lady Jill Biden's box during State of the Union addresses, underlining how Kasie Hunt seems like a Biden campaign surrogate.  They can't interview pro-life doctors who argue the pro-abortion forces mislead the public about state laws and miscarriage treatment. Hunt could only talk about abortions as "the care she needed." One thing CNN didn't do, and can't do, was to interview unborn babies. But if CNN could, you would hear heartbreaking stories of children who wanted to live, but had that possibility ripped away from them in unspeakably cruel fashion in states that won't protect them from abortion. Hunt talks about "protecting" abortion rights, not protecting babies. Hunt ended her pitch for Biden by dramatically claiming that "these are just three stories of countless stories like them, no doubt, unfolding across the country because of the fall of Roe vs. Wade." Perhaps. But what is undoubtedly true is that under Roe, tens of millions of unborn babies perished, babies whose stories will never be told.  Now with the overturning of Roe, some babies who otherwise would have died have been born, and in years to come will be able to express how thankful they are that the overturning of Roe gave them the chance to live. The balance between the rights of mothers and the unborn will be determined on a state-by-state basis. But CNN, like the rest of the liberal media, will only present the issue from the most heart-wrenching women's perspectives--never of that of babies whose lives have been saved.  Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 4/11/24 6:00 am EDT KASIE HUNT: This morning, Republicans in the Arizona state legislature blocking attempts to repeal the 1864 law banning all abortion there with just a single exception for the life of the mother. As outrage grows, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is trying to convince voters that he doesn't support the Arizona law, and now says he would not sign a national abortion ban if he is elected president. DONALD TRUMP [responding on the tarmac to a question]: Yeah, they did, and that'll be straightened out. As you know, it's all about states' rights, and it'll be straightened out, and I'm sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason, and that will be taken care of, I think, very quickly. REPORTER: Would you sign a national abortion ban if Congress sent it to your desk? TRUMP: [Shakes his head in the negative.] No. Hunt: No. Trump is trying to sound more moderate on an issue that has galvanized voters from Ohio to Kansas, to Kentucky to vote to protect abortion rights. But this Arizona law, and restrictions similar to it in other states, they are in force because of Donald Trump.  Recall: how did he win the Republican nomination in the first place? Back in 2016, he released a list of 11 Supreme Court Justices he would consider appointing, to convince skeptical evangelical voters, who are the bedrock of the Republican base, that he, Trump, was one of them, or at least that he would act like one of them. Then, to hammer that home, he picked the very publicly pious Mike Pence as his running mate. And then, he was elected president, and he transformed the Supreme Court TRUMP: Today, I am keeping another promise to the American people by nominating Judge Neil Gorsuch. I will nominate Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Judge Amy Coney Barrett. HUNT: In June of 2022, after nearly 50 years, the Court struck down Roe versus Wade. And Trump, who is now trying to say that he doesn't support the strictest restrictions that have been exploding in red states across the country, he has repeatedly bragged about how he made that possible. TRUMP: We ended Roe v. Wade. We terminated Roe v. Wade. I was able to terminate Roe v. Wade after 50 years of trying.  HUNT: The results have been stories like this one, told in a Biden campaign ad, yes, but about a woman, a family. who wanted their child, wanted a child, and were devastated by the consequences of the fall of Roe. BIDEN CAMPAIGN AD: [As mother speaks in the background, screen reads] At 18 weeks, Amanda's water broke and she had a miscarriage. Because Donald Trump killed Roe v. Wade, Amanda was denied standard medical care to prevent infection: an abortion. the outfit she was gonna maybewhere home from the hospital. Doctors were forced to send her home.  WOMAN IN AD: [Sobbing] This is the blanket that she was on. AD: Donald Trump did this. HUNT: There's also Kate Cox. She's the Texas woman who also desperately wanted a baby. When she was told that her baby likely wouldn't live for more than a few days outside the womb, she sought an abortion to try to protect her ability to try again, to have a child. Here's what she told NBC News in December. KATE COX: It's a hard, hard time, you know, even with, you know, being hopeful with the decision that came from the hearing this morning. There's, there's still, we're going through the loss of a child. There's no outcome here that I take home my healthy baby girl, you know. So it's hard, you know. Cox had to leave her home state of Texas to get the care that she needed. Then there was this woman, Hadley Duvall, who told her story in a campaign ad for Kentucky's Democratic governor. BESHEAR CAMPAIGN AD: I was raped by my stepfather after years of sexual abuse. I was 12. Anyone who believes there should be no exceptions for rape and incest could never understand what it's like to stand in my shoes. HUNT: These are just three stories of countless stories like them, no doubt, unfolding across the country because of the fall of Roe versus Wade.

On Abortion, MSNBC Star Joe Scarborough Slurs 'Old, Fat, White Men In Mississippi'

UConn has notched a notable double: back-to-back NCAA men's basketball championships. But that achievement pales in comparison to the quintuple-header that Joe Scarborough has pulled off. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough slammed, for what he called their radicalism on abortion: "old, fat, white men in Mississippi." Let's see: in one phrase, Scarborough managed to engage in ageism, fat-shaming, racism, sexism, and negative Southern stereotyping! Even for the liberal media, that could represent a landmark first! Somewhere, Joy Reid is dying of envy! Scarborough also seemed to say that back in the day, it was easy for him to call himself pro-life, since he knew Roe v. Wade was in place to prevent his views from being made into law. In other words, Scarborough was thus admitting to being a cheap, unprincipled, political opportunist. Scarborough suggested that seeing the aftermath of the overturning of Roe has in effect turned him into being pro-choice. Yet he has the chutzpah to condemn Trump for being an opportunist on the issue? Note: Mika described the taking away of abortion rights as "a matter of life and death."  The irony is lost on her that yes, it's a matter of life and death . . . for the unborn child. Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 4/9/24 6:16 am EDT MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Support for abortion was always there, and it was growing over the past decade. I think, since the overturning of Roe, it has crystallized the issue for anybody who was on the fence about it, or didn't feel they had any, any men, perhaps, who didn't feel as connected with it.  Now, we are seeing the consequences of these rights being taken away. 50 years of rights that our daughters and sons, as families, don't have. And, they're brutal; they're very specific. They're a matter of life and death. And Donald Trump is on the wrong side of every position that exists, practically, on this. In a moment, we're going to show you -- JOE SCARBOROUGH: Can I go to Charlie real quickly on this before we go, go to the Lindsey clips? MIKA: Oh, yes, okay. SCARBOROUGH: Charlie, really quickly. I'd just say, and Mika is so right. There are so many people that now are, are -- that were pro-life before Dobbs that now understand the importance of Roe because of the radicalism in the states.  I always, you know, it cost me nothing to just take the position, yeah, yeah, I'm pro-life, and da-da-da, because there was that right there [via Roe]. And when, when I formulated my thoughts over it, the governors were like George Voinovich in Ohio, Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, Jeb Bush in Florida. And the thought was, well, you know, maybe it'll be 15, 16, 17 weeks with exceptions. That's just not the world we live in anymore. And I must say, this is post Dobbs, you look and you see the radicalism of—I'll just say it— these old, white, fat men in Mississippi or somewhere else that, that are driving women out of, out of, out of medical care. Because they want to appeal to the most extreme elements of their base.  Yeah, there are a lot of people, and I would guess you're like me, there are a lot of people who, who have really been transformed by the radicalism of the last three, four years.

No Symone, Trump Didn't 'Promise' American Carnage—He Promised To Stop It!

Was Symone Sanders Townsend woefully misinformed—or was she intentionally trampling the truth? On Saturday's edition of MSNBC's The Weekend which she co-anchors, Sanders Townsend said: "In his remarks during his inauguration, [Trump] promised American carnage. He is now making -- he tried to make good on that promise throughout his presidency, on January 6th after he lost. And now, if he is afforded another term by the American people, he is going to triple down on that. " Sanders Townsend then asked: "Am I making it up?" Answer: Yes, Symone: you were making it up. Because what Trump actually said during his "remarks during his inauguration" [otherwise known as his Inaugural Address], was the absolute, diametrical, total and complete OPPOSITE of what you claimed! Rather than "promising" American carnage, Trump promised to "stop" the carnage--"right here and right now." And the carnage Trump promised to stop was that of "mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities," of our "young, beautiful students" being poorly served by our education system, and crime that has "stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential." In other words, Trump was expressing the desire to help, above all, the very Americans that Sanders Townsend would most want to see helped. Both of the guests on the show dutifully agreed with Sanders Townsend's egregious misrepresentation of Trump's statement on carnage. Rashawn Rae, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland, replying to Sanders Townsend's "am I making it up?," assured her, "not at all." Later, substitute co-anchor Alexi McCammond said: "Symone's right. From that inauguration speech, we all were like, wow, American carnage! This is what we all signed up for." Note: For the edification of Sanders Townsend, or anyone else unfamiliar with Trump's inaugural address, here's the complete transcript. His promise to stop carnage right here and right now comes in the fifth paragraph. Here's the transcript. MSNBC The Weekend 4/6/24 8:14 am EDT MICHAEL STEELE: Donald Trump is leaning into a dark and dystopian version of America. And his distorsion of reality is reaching a new low when it comes to immigration. He's now embracing the word bloodbath to falsely blame migrants for crime waves that, guess what?, just not happening. And he described President Biden's economic record as, quote, a migrant job fair. . . .  SYMONE SANDERS TOWNSEND: When Donald Trump announced -- not even that, when he, on his inauguration, we're just steps from the Capitol, um, over here. In his remarks during his inauguration, he promised American carnage. He is now making -- he tried to make good on that promise throughout his presidency, on January 6th after he lost. And now, if he is afforded another term by the American people, he is going to triple down on that.  STEE{E: Who's that to? SANDERS TOWNSEND: Anybody! Cause I'm -- am I making it up? STEELE: Who do you want to send that to? RASHWAN RAE: Not at all. . . .  JOE WALSH: Immigration's a big issue. And the Biden team needs to know that. And Trump is going to go lower and lower and lower to appeal to the worst of us. This is not normal. And Biden's gotta call that out. ALEXI MCCAMMOND: I'm curious what you think, or Dr. Ray. It's certainly perpetuated by Donald Trump. I mean, he is saying the craziest stuff. Symone's right. From that inauguration speech, we all were like, wow, American carnage! This is what we all signed up for.

Wild-Eyed Scarborough: Netanyahu Intentionally Starving Gaza, Like STALIN Starved Ukraine

Joe Scarborough is notorious for his incessant Trump = Hitler analogies. Now, for purposes of smearing Benjamin Netanyahu, Scarborough has devised an analogy to another mass-murdering dictator. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough began by claiming that Netanyahu "had a plan to force famine on the Palestinian people, on the Gazan people." Scarborough then upped the ante, claiming that Netanyahu's plan is "calculated, and let me say, it's calculated just like Stalin's starvation of Ukrainians was calculated. This is calculated by Benjamin Netanyahu." Scarborough's mention of Stalin's starvation of Ukraine was a reference to the Holomodor, a famine imposed on Ukraine in 1932-33 by Stalin in which an estimated 3.9 million Ukrainians perished. As the maxim goes, in war, truth is the first casualty. Various anti-Israel organizations have accused Israel of intentionally starving Gazans, but hard facts are hard to find. Often, headlines are cleverly couched: starvation "looms," starvation is "stalking." Consider that here at home, left-wing groups regularly push nonsenical notions like "More than 44 million people in the US face hunger, including 1 in 5 children." In fact, in the Unites States, as worldwide, by far the bigger health threat is not hunger, but obesity. Note that Scarborough offered no evidence in support of his scurrilous accusation that Netanyahu is intentionally starving Gazans. By implication though, he could be buying into the insinuation that MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire made on Morning Joe earlier this week, that Israel's strike on the World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza was intentional. And Scarborough also repeated today his cynical twist on a phrase fashioned by those seeking the total destruction of Israel, which we noted yesterday, that Netanyahu's plan is for an Israel, "from the river to the sea."  Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 4/5/24 6:17 am EDT JOE SCARBOROUGH: It is increasingly looking like Benjamin Netanyahu had a plan to force famine on the Palestinian people, on the Gazan people, to amp up the pressure on Hamas. Of course, it seems to me that the hostages aren't even secondary in his mind because, of course, and people say, well, Hamas could release hostages. Yeah, they could! They're terrorists! They're terrorists! And they're not going to release the hostages unless the conditions are right. Which the conditions most likely are a cease fire and the allowing of the worst terrorists to escape out of Gaza with their lives. But, but this whole idea that if we starve the Gazan people, that's going to somehow help Israel in the long run, that's going to help the hostages? No! It's hurting the hostages, it's hurting Israel. And of course you're, you're starving women and children in Gaza, and as Katty said yesterday, they're now having to grind up dog food and cat food and, and eat that, and, and drink salt water. I mean, it's savage conditions, and it's calculated.  And let me say, it's calculated just like Stalin's starvation of, of, of Ukrainians was calculated. This is calculated by Benjamin Netanyahu, and somebody needs to ask me, why the hell the United States shouldn't intervene with a guy that has a 20% approval rating and knows that when the war is over, he could be going to jail.

Scarborough: Netanyahu Wants An Israel 'From The River To The Sea'

Every time the issue of Israel's war with Hamas arises on the Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough touts his pro-Israel record. But now that Biden's support for Israel is costing him in battleground states and among certain demographics, Scarborough has become a fierce critic of Israel's conduct of the war, and of Benjamin Netanyahu in particular. During a long, angry, rant on Thursday's Morning Joe, Scarborough, in a grotesque variation of the slogan of those calling for the destruction of Israel, claimed that Netanyahu's vision is for "an Israel from the river to the sea." Careful, Joe: Rashida Tlaib might sue for copyright infringement! And speaking of Squad members, Scarborough is sounding increasingly like them, as he also accused Israel of "the systematic killing of [Gaza] civilians." What's next, Joe: accusing Israel of genocide? Macho Joe Scarborough also put in an appearance. First, after warning parents to put earmuffs on their kids, Scarborough declared that it is time for Biden and others to "call bull----" on the choice that Netanyahu is supposedly offering.  Next, Scarborough said that anyone disagreeing with his recommended approach on Israel "can go straight to Hell." Then, commenting on Israeli minister Ron Dermer reportedly yelling at U.S. officials during a virtual meeting yesterday, Scarborough said: "I'll tell you what, yell at me on the phone, and I'm a U.S. official -- I hang up on you. Seriously. They can call back and apologize and keep talking." Tough talk, Macho Joe! Scarborough did stop short, though, of claiming that he would have reached through the ether and made Dermer eat his phone, as Joe once claimed he'd do if he found a Capitol tourist taking photos somewhere Scarborough didn't like. It's been reported that Scarborough has become a frequent Biden phone buddy, and an informal adviser to the president. Do we think Scarborough advised Biden to break out the "river to the sea" line against Bibi? Wonder how that'd go down? Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 4/4/24 6:31 am EDT JOE SCARBOROUGH: His dream has been an Israel from the river to the sea. You know, Israelis rightly, Israeli rightly are offended when people talk about the need for a Palestine that's from the river to the sea, because it's talking about wiping out Israel. Well, the shoe's on the other foot here. Because this is Benjamin Netanyahu's vision, to push Palestinians out, and have Israelis from the river to the sea. And he presents the United States a false choice. You either support my twisted vision of what I'm doing in Gaza and what I've been doing in the West Bank now for over a decade, robbing Palestinians of their homes. Allowing religious extremists to set up illegal settlements. Running roughshod over all Palestinian rights in the West Bank, because it helps Benjamin Netanyahu politically with those religious extremists.  Either do that, or you're not a true defender of Israel. It is time, moms, dads, please, put earmuffs on your children right now. It is time for Joe Biden! It is the time for the United States Congress. It is time for Americans to call bullshit on that. Because that has led us to where we are today. And enough is enough. We can have two things at once.  You know, if Netanyahu wants to do this, he has his choice. If he wants to continue taking Israel off a cliff. He has a choice. He can do that. But we Americans, we have a choice, too. And our choice is not defined by what Benjamin Netanyahu says our choice is. Our choice is to say, we will continue to support Israel, but we're not going to continue to support the systematic killing of civilians. And if you want our support, you're going to need to do this, this, and this. And anybody that says, after what we've seen, Willie, over the past couple months. Anybody who says that that's anti-Israeli, they can go straight to hell, because they're dead wrong. . . . You know, Ron Dermer was the guy yelling on the phone yesterday at administration officials. I'll tell you what, yell at me on the phone, and I'm a U.S. official -- I hang up on you. Seriously. They can call back and apologize and keep talking.

MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire Suggests Israel's Strike On Gaza Aid Workers Was Intentional

"This 'mistake' hit comes a day after the precision strike that killed the Iranian general in Syria. It's hard to reconcile those two things." That was Jonathan Lemire on today's Morning Joe. In saying that it's hard to "reconcile" Israel's "mistake" hit on the World Central Kitchen aid workers with the "precision" hit on the Iranian general, Lemire is hinting strongly this wasn't a mistake at all, but rather, an intentional act by Israel. As Israel has acknowledged, the strike was a "grave mistake." But while Lemire focused on the vehicles being well-marked with logos, he failed to mention that the strike happened at night -- when logos would be less visible, if visible at all.   MSNBC Republican Elise Jordan reacted angrily after Lemire said that, behind the scenes, Biden is furious at Netanyahu.  Said a visibly upset Jordan: "I'm so sick of hearing how upset President Biden is. The buck stops with him. If he wants to stop arms sales, if he wants to stop the bombs that are indiscriminately killing civilians, he can. He has the power. We don't need him and his aides going to reporters and talking on background about how upset they are." Meanwhile, Joe Scarborough claimed he was staunchly pro-Israel and then called for a "permanent cease-fire," while also calling for two things that a permanent cease-fire would make unlikely: the release of hostages and the elimination of Hamas.  If a permanent cease-fire were declared, the pressure on Hamas to release hostages would dissipate. And how would Scarborough expect Hamas to be eliminated if a permanent cease-fire—which would leave about one-quarter of its battalions intact—were declared?  Scarborough also called for a two-state solution. That is another practical impossibility, given the implacable rejection of the idea by an overwhelming proportion of Palestinians.  Just two days ago, the New York Times published an op-ed by Tareq Baconi, the president of the Palestinian Policy Network, entitled: "The Two-State Solution Is an Unjust, Impossible Fantasy."  Baconi ended his piece by declaring that the only solution is "A single state from the river to the sea." That equates to a call for the total destruction of the Jewish state of Israel. Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 4/3/24 6:08 am EDT JOE SCARBOROUGH: Israel, and the supporters of Israel, which I am, have been, always will be, will be fooling themselves if they don't think that the overwhelming number of Americans agree with Jose Andres, that this is just enough, and they need to focus on, on a permanent cease-fire. They need to focus, focus on getting the hostages home, and they need to focus on creating a world moving forward, without Hamas, and of course in Israel it will be without Benjamin Netanyahu, and maybe, just maybe then, we can take the first step of a thousand steps toward a two-state solution. . . .  JONATHAN LEMIRE: Those vehicles couldn't have been better marked. In fact, it looks like, from the footage of the destroyed van, one of the missiles went right through the logo of the World Central Kitchen. [Image of van displayed] Right there, and just killed everyone inside. And it should be noted to Richard's point earlier, this mistake hit comes a day after the precision strike that killed the Iranian general in Syria. It's hard to reconcile those two things. . . .  And now, Elise, we have a moment where the president, and this has been bubbling up behind the scenes for a while. President Biden, frankly, is furious at Prime Minister Netanyahu. But yet, still, his administration has not conditioned sales, weapons sales, has not conditioned aid. They haven't done it yet. Now, maybe,  this is the moment that comes. This also happens, we think, a week or two perhaps before this Rafah offensive, which really could be a flash point. ELISE JORDAN: Okay, I'm so sick of hearing how upset President Biden is. The buck stops with him. If he wants to stop arms sales, if he wants to stop the bombs that are indiscriminately killing civilians, he can. He has the power. We don't need him and his aides going to reporters and talking on background about how upset they are. What happened yesterday is still going to happen. 

Ex-Biden Flack Bedingfield on CNN: Israel Bombing Aid Workers Is 'Good' for Biden

"I personally think it's good for them." Kate Bedingfield couldn't possibly have meant what that sounded like, even though she's a communications professional--Biden's former communications director. Surely she's not so heartless as to describe the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza in an Israeli strike as being "good for" the Biden administration. But however she meant her shocking line, one thing was clear: Bedingfield did see the tragedy as a good opportunity for the Biden administration [read, campaign] to distance itself from Bibi Netanyahu and his policies. As Bedingfield put it in an appearance on Tuesday's CNN This Morning: "Every instance of horror like this gives the Biden administration more opening to put clear contrast between what they're trying to do, what they would argue they're trying to do responsibly in the region, and what Netanyahu has been unwilling to do.  I, I personally think it's good for them." Even seen in the most forgiving light, that is some stone-cold realpolitik. Could the vulture not have waited a bit longer before swooping down to exploit the tragedy for its maximum political benefit for her former boss?  Far from pushing back on Bedingfield's callous take, Hunt accused Israel of "starv[ing]" Gaza's population. Panelist Jonah Goldberg refuted Hunt's accusation, saying, "It's very difficult to feed a population that is being used as essentially human shields by a terrorist organization," and that "there's this expectation that Israel should be actually carrying more about Palestinians than the supposed leadership of Gaza. And that expectation puts Israel in an impossible situation."  Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 4/2/24 6:14 am EDT IDF SPOKESMAN DANIEL HAGARI: The work of WCK is critical. They are the front lines of humanity. We will get to the bottom of this, and we will share our findings transparently. KASIE HUNT: Well, the IDF launching an investigation into the death of seven aid workers from José Andrés' World Central Kitchen. They were killed in an Israeli air strike, in an Israeli strike, excuse me, in central Gaza. The organization says that they had coordinated their movements with the IDF, and that they were in marked vehicles with their logo on them.  World Central Kitchen is one of the few aid organizations providing desperately needed food to those in Gaza. The organization now pausing operations there. The White House this morning calling this tragedy deeply troubling. . . .  Kate Bedingfield, I want to start with you, because look, this, the World Central Kitchen, José Andrés' operation, has become world renowned for showing up in the moments when humanity is having some of its toughest experiences, and helping people. They are known throughout the country in this way it, it's clear from that video that we showed at the top, the IDF just put that out as this is unfolding, that they understand just how horrible this is. And certainly just how horrible also that it looks.  KATE BEDINGFIELD: Oh yeah. HUNT: What is the impact here for the Biden administration? Because the politics of this are already so tough for them. BEDINGFIELD: Yeah, well look, obviously this is a horrific tragedy, a true humanitarian disaster, I mean, it's fair to say. You know, for the Biden administration, obviously, this is an incredibly fraught issue. I think the more space they can continue to draw between themselves and Bibi Netanyahu, and Netanhyahu's government, the better for them politically. From a policy perspective, I think they've been trying to drive toward a longstanding, sort of post-conflict plan. I think Bibi's own domestic politics have made it so that he is unwilling to engage in that in a serious way. And so every instance of horror like this gives the Biden administration more opening to put clear contrast between what they're trying to do, what they would argue they're trying to do responsibly in the region, and what Netanyahu has been unwilling to do. I, I personally think it's good for them. So, I think they need to be clear that this was unacceptable. It was horrific. They need to move to support Israel's investigation into what happened happened, and to take a very tough line on this. And I think this is a moment for them to do that.

CNN Women Praise Burgum PR Man for Being 'Evolved' on the Press and Female Coaches

Aww: isn't he sweet? Good boy! On Monday's CNN This Morning, CNN's Dana Bash and Kasie Hunt gave Republican Lance Trover a pat on the head for being "evolved" about the supposedly disparate press treatment of male and female sports coaches. The matter arose in the context of a long Washington Post profile of LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey. After noting that the article "details her kind of pugnacious coaching personality,"  Hunt skeptically wondered: "Would we talk about that with a male coach? I don't know." Republican strategist Lance Trover, who recently toiled for Doug Burgum for President, replied:  "I completely agree with you  . . . I read it and I thought, man, would a man have gotten the same treatment, right?" That warmed the feminist cockles of Bash's heart.  But first, she had to double-check Trover's truthfulness: "Did you really read that and think to yourself, would this be written about a man?" When Trover confirmed that he actually did, "absolutely," think that, Bash responded: "That is very 2024. The fact that you did that. I mean, I want to be hopeful to think that other men are as evolved as you are. But the fact that you did is pretty cool." Hunt pitched in: "Yeah, for sure: props for that." So Hunt and Bash are skeptical that articles profiling the pugnacious style of male coaches would be written? Hello?  For starters, for every such Mulkey article, there have surely been many more ripping the late Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight for his pugnacious/combative style. Even upon his death last year, prominent sports columnist  Mitch Albom wrote that the normal rule of not speaking ill about the dead should be waived!   Indeed, trashing the allegedly unpleasant personalities of male coaches has become a sport in itself, the subject of many listicle articles, as in: 20 Most Despicable Coaches, The 20 Angriest Coaches in Sports, and The 10 angriest coaches in college basketball. And every single coach mentioned in those articles was of the XY chromosome ilk. To offer some examples, would the names of these oft-reviled coaches ring a bell with Hunt and Bash: Bill Belichick, Lane Kiffin, Nick Saban, Billy Martin, Woody Hayes, Earl Weaver? The patronizing condescension of the CNN pair was off the charts. Imagine the feminist outrage if a couple of male sportswriters had similarly condescendingly congratulated a female political operative on her understanding of, say, the intricacies of the infield fly rule? Note: Bash even managed to somehow work in a shot at Donald Trump, saying that Mulkey's approach of preemptively criticizing the WaPo article before its publication represented the "Trumpization" of dealing with such situations. Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 4/1/24 6:54 am EDT KASIE HUNT: Mulkey has been out there, Lance, basically pushing back ahead of a story that came out over the weekend which was in the Washington Post, was a long profile of her and looking at her personality in away that clearly Mulkey thought, she ahead of time called it a hit piece, attacks the journalist in the Washington Post. I think if you read the story, I'm not sure that the things that she said might be in there ended up being in the story. It was kind of a portrait of how Mulkey came to be. But, you know, I kind of go back and forth, because on the one hand, it details her kind of pugnacious coaching personality. Would we talk about that with a male coach? I don't know. On the other hand, we are getting a massive profile in a national publication of a women's basketball coach. And I actually think that's pretty good. LANCE TROVER: I completely agree with you on both counts. I sometimes, I read it and I thought, man, would a man have gotten the same treatment, right? But at the same time, it's bringing attention to it. I also think this is a lesson, PR 101 in 2024. Get in front of a story that's coming that you think is bad, and if you don't like what's in it, get out there and talk about it. Look what happened. She got a [inaudible.] DANA BASH: I mean, it is the Trumpization of the way to approach--and I'm sure you think about this in your line of work all the time. But the way to approach something that's coming is just to get out there and own it, and, frankly, appropriate it and, or to try to quash it in this case. I just want to co-sign, as the kids say, what you said about the fact that we're talking about women's basketball and women's sports in general. I mean this is really great. HUNT: I freaking love it.  BASH: It really great. It's the Caitlin Clark of it all. It's -- LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: They're making money. They have fans. They have controversies [laughter]. HUNT: It's happening, it's happening. Guess what? It's just like men's, but again, I mean, look Lance, I'm sorry, you're the you're the man at this table for TROVER: I'm all in! BASH: What Lance said, what Lance said: that you actually. Did you really read that and think to yourself, would this be written about a man? TROVER: Yes, I did. Yeah, absolutely. BASH: First of all, that is very 2024. The fact that you did that. I mean, I want to be hopeful to think that other men are as evolved as you are. But the fact that you did is pretty cool. HUNT: Yeah, no, for sure. Props for that.

MSNBC Analyst Fantasizes Trump Reading His God Bless The USA Bible In Prison Next Easter

What better way for the Trump haters at MSNBC to celebrate Easter than to fantasize about Donald Trump spending next Easter in "a prison cell," reading his God Bless the USA Bible? As we've noted here, former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross loved to fantasize about Trump being subjected to a COPS-style arrest: "dragged out on the White House lawn," and his head pushed down to shove him into the back seat of a cop car. On Easter Sunday's episode of The Weekend, MSNBC legal analyst Kristy Greenberg perpetuated Cross's inglorious tradition. Discussing Trump's criticisms of Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over Trump's trial in the Stormy Daniels hush money case brought against him by far-left Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and Mercham's daughter, Greenberg said: "It's just so dumb for this defendant to antagonize judges. He got a $464 million judgment against him the last time he tried it. And now, he's antagonizing a judge who could, you know, have his liberty at stake.  Next Easter, he could be looking at reading his -- having nothing to do but read his God Bless the USA Bible in a prison cell if he keeps this up." Greenberg's snarky shot about the God Bless America Bible that Trump has been promoting reflects her animus, and the anticipatory schadenfreude she was experiencing at the prospect of Trump behind bars. Co-anchor Michael Steele was sadly pessimistic that any judge would have the courage to jail Trump, demanding to know, "at what point do we say enough is enough?" Later, co-anchor Symone Sanders-Townsend suggested that Trump should be accosted by the Secret Service in connection with his posting of an image of President Biden tied up in the back of a pick-up truck. She also called on Senate Democrats to take related action against Trump. Tim O'Brien, another MSNBC analyst, agreed, saying "what he says isn't just speech, and it isn't just criticism. In a sense, he is inciting people to commit violence and to erode the system of governance and the rule of law, and he should be held accountable immediately." Here's the transcript. MSNBC The Weekend 3/31/24 8:01 am EDT ALICIA MENENDEZ: Let's start this hour with MSNBC political analyst and Bloomberg senior executive opinion editor Tim O'Brien. Also joining us, former federal former prosecutor and MSNBC legal analyst Kristy Greenberg. Good morning to you both. SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Good morning, guys. Look, I think what was most concerning for me in the most recent post from Donald Trump is that the post that we -- and we obviously didn't put this up on the screen, but the post that we showed, he also included pictures of the judge's daughter there. And the question that I had is why? Why would he include the photos of his daughter? Why does Donald Trump continuously attack the judge? And it, perhaps it just boils down to that he is trying to intimidate them. Intimidate the judge. Intimidate the court and legal system. But that's just my theory. Kristy, what say you?  . . .  KRISTY GREENBERG: So, I think what you'll see is the imposition of a condition to his pre-trial release, saying you cannot threaten or incite violence against anyone. And if you violate that pre-trial condition, then you are going to get the stiffest sanction that I can impose, and that would include jail time. I mean, again, it's just so dumb for this defendant to antagonize judges. He got a $464 million judgment against him the last time he tried it. And now, he's antagonizing a judge who could, you know, have his liberty at stake.  Next Easter, he could be looking at reading hus -- having nothing to do but read his God Bless the USA Bible in a prison cell if he keeps this up. . . .  MICHAEL STEELE: Tim, on that last point, I'm sorry, I just don't believe it. I don't believe Donald Trump, none of these judges are gonna put this man in jail. I mean, for me, at what point do we say enough is enough? . . .  SANDERS-TOWNSEND: We brought up the Secret Service a couple of times. And I think it's worth noting that this is -- and someone can, feel free to fact check me on this but I feel confident in stating, this is the first time that it is a current protectee the of the United States Secret Service, i.e., Donald Trump, who is issuing the real threats against another protectee of the United States Secret Service, the current President of the United States, Joe Biden. And I would just note, the Secret Service doesn't have to go visit Donald Trump, because he is currently under Secret Service protection. Now, the folks on his detail, those are the people who are with him all the time, you cannot possibly expect his own detail to reprimand him. But I think this begs the question, what is the director the Secret Service, the folks at the top, what are they doing? Because Joe Biden is the President of the United States of America. Not Donald Trump. It is Joe Biden, the President of the United States, who is being directly threatened by someone that -- sure, you can say Donald Trump is not going to carry out the attack, but someone else potentially could. And they have visited folks for less. So, like, Tim, I don't know what the view is from Trump -- you know Trump world better than anybody that I know here. What do you think the view is from Trump world on this, and frankly, do you think we're going to see anything from the director of the Secret Service? Congress maybe should place a call? Hello: calling Dems in the Senate. . . .  TIM O'BRIEN: We should just be very clear that given his power, his rank, and his past, what he says isn't just speech, and it isn't just criticism. In a sense, he is inciting people to commit violence and to erode the system of governance and the rule of law, and he should be held accountable immediately.  

Scarborough: January 6 = Kristallnacht, Female Fox Hosts Played With 'Eva Braun' Barbies

Who calls MSNBC a "news" channel? Joe Scarborough dug deep into his bag of Trump-Hitler analogies on today's Morning Joe. Scarborough began by analogizing the January 6 riot to Kristallnacht, the 1938 anti-Jewish pogrom led by the Nazi SS. He claimed "you can hear on Fox News people saying that nothing was wrong with January 6th." They're like Nazi newspapers: "Were there Nazi newspapers in the 1930s, saying, you know, Kristallnacht, there's some people that actually think that was a bad thing?!" Kristallnacht was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Jews, and the damage or destruction of hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses. It is seen as the precursor to The Final Solution--the Holocaust. To in any way equate this riot to a pogrom is wildly inaccurate and repulsive. But this is MSNBC, where they air lunatic pundits who claim "9/11 is nothing compared to January 6."   Later, Scarborough unloaded his usual braggadocio about how he reacts when "somebody makes the mistake of saying, I used to like you when you were a conservative." Mika said "Please don't do that." He bragged that he'd tell conservatives that they're liberal if they're voting for Trump and all his big spending (as if Democrats opposed massive pandemic relief, and other spending).  He boasted to George Conway: "You and I were conservatives, and are conservatives, but we were conservatives when some of these women on Fox News who call us liberals were still playing with their, their Barbies. Of course, Eva Braun edition." Conway found Scarborough slurring Fox News women as proto-Nazis hilariously funny. He kept on bragging: "We were fighting for conservative values. We were fighting to balance the budget, to reform welfare, we were fighting to hold Democratic administrations accountable when they were in grade school and have done it our entire life." So, sexism, ageism, and a Nazi slur -- quite the three-fer, Joe!  It's a little much to hear these people still mocking the conservatives because Ronna McDaniel said sometimes you "take one for the team" and don't state your own opinion. "No convictions....no core values," said Mika. Joe and Mika backed Trump enthusiastically in 2015, and then turned and ran the other way. Now, every day, they aim to please their number one fan, President Biden. But they think other people are just saying what the boss wants to hear.  Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 3/28/24 6:26 am EDT MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I think, first of all, the reason for these gag orders, as Jonathan Lemire pointed out, is because of the fear of violence, of retribution. And Donald Trump is proven on that point in many different ways. We could talk for four hours about all the different ways he has threatened people. And then, of course, we have January 6th. And I just have to say, I was watching one of his networks, cause I like to see what Trump voters are hearing from places that call themselves news networks. And they were talking about January 6th in a discussion, in a discourse -- about us, actually. And saying that we want to put out there that January 6th was more than just a little thing. And that is the problem with the discourse. JOE SCARBOROUGH: I, I, I: let's just come out and say it. You hear, you can hear on Fox News people saying that nothing was wrong with January 6th. MIKA: You can have some -- yeah, if someone believes it was a little thing, you can still talk about it. SCARBOROUGH: It wasn't a big deal. And others saying, that network, you know, they actually sit there and people who watch that network think January 6th was an important event.  And you're, you're sitting there going, wait a second!  MIKA: More than a little thing. SCARBOROUGH: Were there Nazi newspapers in the 1930s, saying, you know, Kristallnacht. There's some people that actually think that was a bad thing?! The fact that Donald Trump has numbed people so much that the same people who said it was a horrible thing on January 7th are now coming back into the cult, back into the folds, going, you know, some people actually are stupid enough to say that that was a really terrible thing. Mind-blowing to me. MIKA: That can't be the debate. SCARBOROuGH: Mind-blowing to me that they are actually able to say that on a network that has paid dearly for election lies. . . .  MIKA: Their crime, in their party, is that they spoke their mind. And the problem we're seeing right now is, you have a lot of people on the media that leans to the right, and has that take, is that they are right now cutting down people for speaking their mind. They are right -- SCARBOROUGH: -- But they don't really know what -- MIKA: They are right now cutting down people who speak their minds despite who pays them. SCARBOROUGH: They -- MIKA: And they are -- SCARBOROUGH: [Getting annoyed by Mika] Yeah. MIKA: And they proving that they take one for the team every day. [Scarborough repeatedly jams ballpoint pen against chin in frustration.] You don't know what you're watching. SCARBOROUGH: And, and, and they actually admitted over the past week. They said -- MIKA: Time and time again. SCARBOROUGH: They said, I would never say anything that my boss doesn't want  -- MIKA: Insubordination. SCARBOROUGH: -- me to say. I would never speak my mind --  MIKA: Wait.  SCARBOROUGH: They literally are on the air -- MIKA: [Extended but unintelligible interruption.] I'm so confused. SCARBOROUGH: And they assured the viewers -- MIKA: [Unintelligible interruption] -- SCARBORuGH: -- That  they would never speak their mind -- MIKA: Ever! SCARBOROUGH: -- if their boss didn't want them -- MIKA: No convictions! SCARBOROUGH: -- speaking their mind. MIKA: No core values. SCARBOROUGH: And that's, [points back and forth to Mika and himself] we're speaking serially here, because we believe it a lot.  That's one of the reasons why -- MIKA: Please keep talking about it. [Joe stares angrily at Mika.] Sorry, go ahead. I was just talking to my friends over there. SCARBOROUGH: That's one of the reasons why -- . . .  If I'm walking through an airport, and somebody makes the mistake of saying, I used to like you when you were a conservative -- MIKA: Please don't do that. It's not good. SCARBOROUGH: I'm like, really, really? All right. And then I go down the list of issues. Where are you on this? Where are you on this? Well, I'll tell you what, you're, you're a liberal on spending if you support Donald Trump. You're a liberal. And you just go down the list of things.  It is so funny, George. You and I were conservatives, and are conservatives, but we were conservatives when some of these women on Fox News who call us liberals were still playing with their, their Barbies. Of course, Eva Braun edition. [George Conway laughs hysterically.]  We were fighting for conservative values. We were fighting to balance the budget, to reform welfare, we were fighting to hold Democratic administrations accountable when they were in grade school and have done it our entire life.  What's the difference? When an anti-democratic, fascist-leaning guy wants to be President of the United States -- you know what? We're Americans first. Let's work with other people who support democracy.

CNN's Ashley Allison Panics on Trump Bible Sales: He'll Impose His 'Theology' On Us!

Amidst all the liberal outrage over NBC's hiring of Ronna McDaniel, CNN offered an example this morning of what passes for a perfectly acceptable revolving-door hire. CNN commentator Ashley Allison was on a CNN This Morning panel to discuss Trump's hawking of a God Bless America Bible. Allison was the National Coalitions Director for Biden-Harris 2020 and deputy director and senior policy advisor for the Obama White House Office of Public Engagement, where she strategized on running campaigns during "the Resistance." Her bio features her commitment to "equity."  Hunt played an old clip of Trump talking about "Two Corinthians" and pressed David Frum and Jonah Goldberg to mock Trump's marketing push. When it came her turn to comment, Allison displayed a combination of fearmongering and ignorance about America's founding. Allison claimed that the U.S. was "founded on the separation of church and state." Hunt echoed that misstatement of the First Amendment, which, of course, says nothing about "separation," prohibiting only the "establishment" of a state religion. Allison went on to claim that if elected, Trump will try to impose a theocracy. As she put it, "This is a preview again of how Trump sees the way he wants to rule the world, through an authoritative theology, which is one way, which is. I'm a Christian, but Trump's governing approach will be, "The Bible is the route in which we are going to govern this country." Then, in what might or might not have been an attempt at humor—though she seemed rather serious—Allison claimed that Trump will take credit for having written the Bible. She predicted that if the Bible sales don't go well, he will say: "Why aren't people buying it? You know, they asked me what to put in the Bible . . . 'I helped write this thing.' That's the kind of fraudulent behavior that this, this exhibits to me. And he's just willing to say whatever he can to seem like he's the center of the story, even when we know it's so extreme." This is CNN, which claims it's devoted to facts, but traffics in wild speculation about the future to scare its viewers to stay glued to the screen. Jonah Goldberg expressed some disagreement with Allison, suggesting Trump doesn't want to impose a theocracy....but a lot of his allies do:  GOLDBERG: I don't think at all, truly that Donald Trump wants to impose a theocracy. I think there are a bunch of people in his orbit who do, right? There are people who, really -- Donald Trump, we talked about going to Communion, he says, and when they give me my little cracker. I mean, like this is a guy who's not religiously literate in the slightest. But the people who are most invested in him, surrounding him, and want to fill the federal bureaucracy, they actually take this theocracy stuff very seriously. Note: This wasn't the first time that Allison's less-than-encyclopedic command of the facts has been exposed. Earlier this month, our Nicholas Fondacaro caught Allison absurdly suggesting that before the latest proposed legislation, there were no laws governing immigration on the books! Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 3/27/24 6:45 am EDT KASIE HUNT: All right, now there's this, which is really the one that everyone at this table is talking about this morning. Former president turned Bible salesman?  DONALD TRUMP: All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It's my favorite book. I'm proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We must make America pray again. HUNT: Make America pray again. After launching sneaker and cologne lines last month, the former president, okay, so he's selling this is, get this, the God Bless the USA Bible. That's in partnership with country singer Lee Greenwood. He takes the stage to Greenwood's music. It's only $59.99. And just for that, you get a copy of the Constitution, a copy of the Bill of Rights, a copy of the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Declaration of Independence. As well as the Bible, I guess. . . .  Ashley, do you want to weigh in here [chuckles]? ASHLEY ALLISON: Not particularly [laughter], but I guess, you know, to take a slightly more serious tone on this, is, this is a preview again of how Trump sees the way he wants to rule the world, through an authoritative theology, which is one way, which is. I'm a Christian, but the Bible is the route in which we are going to govern this country, even though this country was founded on the separation of church and state.  And so, it's funny, and yet it's not, because it is a tell that if he wins in November and becomes president, he could not just say like I'm selling Bibles, but I'm mandating that in our schools, everyone has a Bible, in these institutions everyone has a Bible. And that's not what America is about. There are people from all different faiths. And that's the beauty of this patchwork cloth that we have that Donald Trump doesn'treally seem to appreciate.  HUNT: And Jonah, pulling together to Ashley's excellent point, the founding documents of the country into the, I mean, they're the separation of church and state was a founding ideal for a country that was breaking away from Britain. And those documents that the founders wrote. To kind of put them together and then hawk, it does, I mean -- JONAH GOLDBERG: Yeah, but it's a great value in a bundle [laughter.] And they're all public domain now, so they can get them really cheap for printing purposes. But no, look, I mean, like I don't think at all, truly that Donald Trump wants to impose a theocracy. I think there are a bunch of people in his orbit who do, right? There are people who, really -- Donald Trump, we talked about going to Communion, he says, and when they give me my little cracker. I mean, like this is a guy who's not religiously literate in the slightest. But the people who are most invested in him, surrounding him, and want to fill the federal bureaucracy, they actually take this theocracy stuff very seriously, and I do think that this mixing -- it really is an interesting mix of God and Mammon isn't it that we're seeing? And I think, to your point, I think that's where the real threat is if you're concerned about that kind of thing. . . .  ALLISON: You know, I will, I think one thing that I could, two things I bet that Donald Trump will say if the Bible sales don't go: "Why aren't people buying it? You know, they asked me what to put in the Bible." That will be one claim that he makes. "And I helped write this thing." That's the kind of fraudulent behavior that this, this exhibits to me. And he's just willing to say whatever he can to seem like he's the center of the story, even when we know it's so extreme.  

Morning Joe To NBC: Fire Ronna McDaniel! We'll Never Have Her On The Show!

It wasn't enough for Mika Brzezinski to declare that Ronna McDaniel would never darken Morning Joe's doorway.  On today's episode, Mika, on behalf of the show, called on NBC to fire McDaniel. Or as Mika couched it, "we hope NBC will reconsider its decision," to have hired former RNC chair McDaniel as a political commentator. MIKA: To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage. But it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier. And we hope NBC will reconsider its decision. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on Morning Joe in her capacity as a paid contributor. Morning Joe hasn't attempted to have any actual conservative "balance" in years. Noah Rothman attempted to walk that "balance" line, but where did he go? Hilariously, Scarborough seemed to claim he was a conservative again. Nobody who's watched this show in the "Biden is obsessed with Joe" phase should buy that, but there he was:  SCARBOROUGH: It's not about not wanting conservatives on the air. I'm conservative. And, check my record, I'm probably more conservative, I'm a lot more conservative than so many people that criticize me from the Trump right. And, but I was in politics. I'm here. Jon, you help the president from time to time with speeches. You're here. We've had other people on that are involved. Jen Psaki is. Of course, Nicolle Wallace is, worked for George W. Bush. MIKA: They bring value to the table and expertise. SCARBOROUGH: And they bring value to the table. So, yeah. Again, we encourage people to be partisan and fight for what they believe in.   Let's review the other people who "bring value to the table." Value....for the leftist MSNBC base. Jon Meacham. Who serves as an occasional Biden speechwriter. Jen Psaki. A former Biden press secretary. And Nicolle Wallace! Scarborough had the chutzpah to describe her as having worked for George W. Bush -- as if that established her conservative bona fides. Scarborough knows full well that if Wallace was ever a conservative -- a dubious proposition -- she has turned into a flaming liberal and perhaps MSNBC's most ardent Trump antagonist! Meacham responded to all this talk of election denial by again proclaiming "I think there is a moral duty, if the choice is between Donald Trump and President Biden, to vote for President Biden, despite any policy disagreements you might have." These brave anti-Ronna dissidents at NBC and MSNBC have a very broad definition of "election denier" -- you can't say Biden won, but the election wasn't fair. You can't complain about Big Tech squashing the Hunter Biden laptop story, and you can't complain about ZuckerBucks flowing into liberal areas for turnout, or loosening all the voter eligibility rules for the pandemic.  If Joe wanted actual conservatives on the show -- the kind who would criticize Democrat policies in general, and Biden in particular, without being MAGA members, they abound. CNN, for example, managed to find and hire Scott Jennings, an actual non-Trumpian conservative. He's rare, but he's there.  Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 3/25/24 6:13 am EDT MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Let's talk about the hiring of former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, she was on Sunday's Meet the Press. It was her first appearance since NBC News hired her as a political analyst. I know you won't be surprised to know that we've been inundated ith calls this weekend, as have most people connected with this network, about NBC's decision to hire her.  We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday. We weren't asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons, including but not limited to, as lawyers might say, Ms. McDaniel's role in Donald Trump's fake elector scheme, and her pressuring election officials to not certify election results while Donald Trump was on the phone. MIKA: To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage. But it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier. And we hope NBC will reconsider its decision. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on Morning Joe in her capacity as a paid contributor. . . .  SCARBOROUGH: She really summed up the sickness in the Republican party. When asked by Kristen Welker, why did you go along with the whitewashing of political violence? Why didn't you speak out against those who tried to overturn American democracy, those who beat the hell out of cops, those who rioted at the United States Capitol at the instruction of Donald Trump, the guidance of Donald Trump, the inspiration of Donald Trump? Why not? She said, sometimes you have to take one for the team. . . .  JON MEACHAM: Taking one for the team is the problem. Because the team is not as important as the rule of law, the Constitution. . . .  SCARBOROUGH: The team, I guess it's how we define the team. For me, the team is a pyramid. It's God, country, Constitution, for me, conservatism. For others, it's being progressive. It's liberalism. That's how it goes. Politicians and parties, for me, have always been at the bottom of -- of that list.  And for some reason, it's been inverted. So instead of God, country, Constitution, conservatism, and then politicians and party, it's been inverted. And now, it is Donald Trump. MIKA: Personality. SCARBOROUGH: It's Donald Trump. And everything flows from that. So when -- I guess I shouldn't -- when I hear that, again, very clarifying, I guess I should -- I guess I shouldn't be staying up trying to figure out what happened to them. This is what happened to them. They completely -- their value system flipped, and Donald Trump's on top. And everything that's done goes through that filter. And everything is justified. Everything he does is justified. Political violence is justified. His lifestyle is justified. His hatred is justified. His racism is justified. All the things my friends would have spoken out about when I was growing up. When Bill Clinton was president, when they were so shocked, stunned, and deeply saddened by Bill Clinton. Now, the pyramid is flipped. . . .  MEACHAM: I believe -- and I never thought I would say this -- I think there is a moral duty, if the choice is between Donald Trump and President Biden, to vote for President Biden, despite any policy disagreements you might have. Because whatever else you want to say about President Biden, he believes in the Constitution. . . .  SCARBOROUGH: It's not about not wanting conservatives on the air. I'm conservative. And, check my record, I'm probably more conservative, I'm a lot more conservative than so many people that criticize me from the Trump right. And, but I was in politics. I'm here. Jon, you help the president from time to time with speeches. You're here. We've had other people on that are involved. Jen Psaki is. Of course, Nicolle Wallace is, worked for George W. Bush. MIKA: They bring value to the table and expertise. SCARBOROUGH: And they bring value to the table. So, yeah. Again, we encourage people to be partisan and fight for what they believe in.

MSNBC Blames 'Anti-Muslim Racism' For Rejection of Biden Judicial Nominee

President Biden nominated Adeel Mangi for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit -- the level just below the Supreme Court. But Senators Joe Manchin and Catherine Cortez Masto have announced they will not support him, and in a 51-49 Senate, it looks bad.  On Saturday morning's The Weekend show on MSNBC, they came rushing to Mangi's defense. They ran a clip of Sen. Cory Booker ranting "No matter what happens to his nomination, this is [voice breaks] a great American who should be proud of his work!" Co-anchor Symone Sanders-Townsend decried "politics is fueling a lot of the vitriol and misinformation against this nominee." MSNBC.com writer Hayes Brown said it's just "racism against a Muslim candidate."   HAYES BROWN: I mean, absolutely. Well, quickly, I just want to say that I love when Cory Booker gets on the pulpit. I love when he is on a mission to try to convince his colleagues about what right is. He does it amazingly. But yeah, this is a matter of politics. The fact that there any Democrats that are unwilling to support this nominee is about being afraid, really. Afraid of the sort of backlash that, oh, you supported this candidate for xyz when none of the rumors and vitriol that are being spread are actually true.  It's really just a matter of racism against a Muslim candidate that we are seeing. And that is something Senator Booker is standing up against. And I think all Democrats in the Senate should be willing to stand up against. Neither Brown, nor Sanders-Townsend cited any facts in an attempt to refute the allegations against Mangi. Fortunately, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has laid out, chapter and verse, the case against Biden's nominee. The full record is here, but among the lowlights -- Mangi is on the advisory board of the Alliance of Families for Justice. "One of the Alliance’s founders was convicted of murdering police officers in cold blood. . . . Now the Alliance [of] Families for Justice—on whose board Mr. Mangi [sat]—advocates for the release of people who kill cops.” -- Mangi also served on the advisory board of the Center for Security, Race and Rights. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the group held an event entitled: "Whose narrative? 20 years since 9/11." The purpose of the event was to blame America for 9/1 The director of the Center says she's "in awe" of the Palestinian's struggle against Israel and "Israeli settler colonialism." Could Mangi have been honestly unaware of the director's views? After all, she personally recruited him to serve on the advisory board. -- And when Sen. Tom Cotton [R-AR] asked Mangi whether Israeli Jews are "colonial settlers," Mangi made the lamest dodge, claiming he "didn't feel qualified to opine on that because it's not a region whose history I've studied, or where I'm from."   Riight.  Q. Mr. Mangi, is it raining?  A. Hey, who do you think I am—Jim Cantore? So Democrats are afraid for their careers, of the "backlash"? Cortez Masto is on the ballot this fall. But is Brown aware that, four months ago, Joe Manchin, the other Democrat opposed, announced that he wouldn't be running for re-election? If there's one thing Manchin doesn't have to worry about, it's backlash! Brown and Sanders-Townsend claimed that "politics" were behind the rejection of Mangi. Of course, politics had nothing to do with the Democrats' shameful attacks on Brett Kavanaugh.  And going back to 1991, there was a certain Democrat chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who angrily confronted Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. No politics there! Note: MSNBC describes Brown's job as "help[ing] frame the news of the day for readers." Now you've got us afraid! Here's the transcript. MSNBC The Weekend 3/23/34 8:23 am EDT SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Hayes, I want to play Senator Cory Booker last night or this morning, however you'd like to parse it.  The Biden administration has confirmed a record number of judges with diverse backgrounds and a number of firsts. And one of the firsts, Adeel Mangi, who would have been the first Muslim American on a federal appeals, on this particular federal appeals court, his nomination was imperilled because of a number of attacks. And this is Sen. Booker in defense of him, but I would also argue, celebration. CORY BOOKER: No matter what happens to his nomination, this is [voice breaks] a great American who should be proud of his work. We should celebrate him whether we vote for him or not. We should cherish a moment like this that makes history. SANDERS-TOWNSEND: Hayes, I have to wonder if the nomination of this particular nominee would be in danger if it were not an election year, and if were not so many things happening across the pond, if you will, particularly in the Middle East when it comes to the war between Israel and Hamas. And if politics is fueling a lot of the vitriol and misinformation against this nominee. HAYES BROWN: I mean, absolutely. Well, quickly, I just want to say that I love when Cory Booker gets on the pulpit. I love when he is on a mission to try to convince his colleagues about what right is. He does it amazingly. But yeah, this is a matter of politics. The fact that there any Democrats that are unwilling to support this nominee is about being afraid, really. Afraid of the sort of backlash that, oh, you supported this candidate for xyz when none of the rumors and vitriol that are being spread are actually true.  It's really just a matter of racism against a Muslim candidate that we are seeing. And that is something Senator Booker is standing up against. And I think all Democrats in the Senate should be willing to stand up against. SANDERS-TOWNSEND: I should have noted, it is two Democrats, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and, uh, West Virginia's senator who have noted they are not supporting the nomination. 

Ignore 'Stupid March Polls!' Joe Scarborough Goes Baghdad Bob For Biden

"I reassure you the Biden campaign is safe. There is no presence of the Trump campaign in the streets of America. None at all."  That paraphrase of Saddam spokesman Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf, aka "Baghdad Bob," at the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, with American tanks rumbling into Baghdad, could have been Joe Scarborough on Friday's Morning Joe. Scarborough claimed that Trump's financial travails "are the sort of things that may not show up in stupid polls in March." He rolled tape of Never Trumper Stuart Stevens analogizing the Trump to a bag filled with water. It might not be leaking, but there'd come a time when it would catastrophically collapse!  Scarborough said Stevens analogized the race to 1980 race between Carter and Reagan. It was considered a toss-up till the very end, until Reagan broke away in the last weekend. Which is really weird, because Biden is no Ronald Reagan. Biden is very much like Jimmy Carter: a man presiding over inflation and foreign-policy fecklessness.  Scarborough was clearly feeling defensive about his shameless shilling for Biden. At the end of his spiel, he imagined people out there saying, "he's whistling past the graveyard." "No I'm not," insisted Joe. "You look at the fundamentals! It doesn't make sense that, that Donald Trump is going to pull this out at the end." Riight. Bet Scarborough can't wait for that next call from his phone buddy Biden, praising his latest effort on behalf of the team. Note:  Jen Palmieri, a former Obama communications director who performed the same function for Hillary's 2016 campaign, committed some unintentional humor.  She kvetched that the media isn't sufficiently covering the facts that Trump has been having financial problems, and that he has been indicted 91 [sic, now 85] times! In fact, there has been wall-to-wall MSM coverage, brimming with schadenfreude, of Trump's difficulties in raising the half-billion bond in the NY civil fraud case. And it seems a virtual MSNBC requirement that any segment on Trump be prefaced with a description of him as the "twice-impeached, defendant in four criminal trials,  facing 91 [recently reduced to 85] felony charges, found liable for sexual assault" former president. But the media is going too easy on Trump. Yeah, that's the problem, Jen! Democrats think the media is "underdoing it" until they have a massive lead in the polls. They expect the media to magically make it "right." Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 3/22/24 6:03 am EDT JOE SCARBOROUGH: What a nightmare. I'm dead serious here. What a nightmare it has to be, being a part of Donald Trump's campaign, being grossly underfunded, and knowing that Trump has put his family in charge of the RNC, for being a Republican candidate down ballot. I've been one of those before. You're just praying that the RNC can help you out. And knowing all of that money is going for a guy who's just completely beyond cash strapped. I mean, for a  lot of legitimate reasons. Again, we said this yesterday. There are a lot of billionaires that wouldn't have $500 million lying around. But they really are, he has along, but they're really leveraging his campaign for his personal use. And it's -- these are the sort of things that may not show up in stupid polls in March. This is the shhh-- stuff [laughter on set] that as you make that final turn after Labor Day, this is when things -- and I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I thought Stuart Stevens had good a pretty good insight. Said everybody's talking about how this race looks right now, he said. To Stuart, and he knows a thing or two about campaigns, he says it's looking like 1980 in reverse. Where, you know, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, all year, too close to call. And things just flipped near the end. And that's what Stuart says. And if you look how things are lining up, we don't know what's going to happen the next six months, but, man, if, if you look any of the fundamentals about politics, this is -- this looks like -- this looks like Stuart may be onto something.  And Alex told me they got Stuart's bite here. Play Stuart real quick, and we'll talk about it. STUART STEVENS: My image of the Trump campaign is somebody walking around with a paper bag full of water. I don't think it's going to leak, but when this thing goes, it is going to go quickly.  And I think there's a good chance we're going to have a situation like 1980 in reverse, where Carter was tight with Reagan until the middle of October, and then kind of the bottom fell out for Carter.  . . .  JEN PALMIERI: You know, I think that we don't talk enough about Trump's weaknesses, and the fundamentals of his campaign are very weak. You know, it's like, he doesn't have any money. He has 91 counts against him, four indictments, trials that he's like trying to balance, and he can't raise any money. He's got to raise half-a-billion dollars by Monday.  And then, with the Biden, I think we need to brace for the -- I bet you'll agree with this. Like, the polls might not change in Biden's favor until the fall. SCARBOROUGH: Right! PALMIERI: Like, that's when people are going to start to pay attention. SCARBOROUGH: And just so people understand, we went into the final week, and I'm old enough to remember this. And I know Donny is. Final weekend. There was I think, you know, Time magazine came out, back when we had magazines, when we were younger people and had magazines to read. The Friday before the Tuesday election in 1980, nobody knew if Jimmy Carter was going to win or Ronald Reagan was going to win. And [blows out air], just a collapse over the weekend.  And you look [pounds table] at the fundamentals. You look at the fundamentals. You look at the economy. And wee're going to show an ad. Are you better off than you weref our years ago? Damn straight you are, unless you're Donald Trump. Like, the fundamentals in every way. The money, the economy, you name it. This week, we find out Jay Powell's doing three interest rate cuts.  And by the way, people are like, if anybody's out there going, he's whistling past the graveyard. No I'm not. I'm just telling ya. You look at the fundamentals! It doesn't make sense that, that Donald Trump is going to pull this out at the end.

Sharpton Laughs at Trump's Financial Woes, Scarborough Grows Skeptical of Letitia James

On today's Morning Joe, Al Sharpton gloated over Donald Trump's financial travails, and the prospect that he could be forced to declare bankruptcy. "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy," exulted Sharpton. Whatever happened to Christian charity, Rev? Meanwhile, Joe Scarborough expressed surprising skepticism about the civil fraud trial brought by elected Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James that has put Trump in the unprecedented position of having to post a half-billion-dollar bond. Scarborough noted: 1. James ran on a promise of going after Trump. 2. Her case relies on an arcane, little-used, law. 3. A billionaire friend of his said that he wouldn't be able to come up with a half-billion in cash on such short notice. 3. "What goes around comes around" -- Scarborough imagined the possibility of someone like Texas AG Ken Paxton putting Biden on the hook for half-a-billion after he leaves office.   SCARBOROUGH: Okay. Should he, should he have to sell properties and do all these other things just to reserve the right to go on appeal? HAASS: Couple things. One is, it reinforces the sense that's central to his campaign, that he's a victim. SCARBOROUGH: Is he, is he in this case? HAASS: I think the idea that he is being asked to come up with such a large amount of cash in such a relatively small amount of time. I don't know about you, Joe, what's the percentage of your investments that are liquid, as opposed to long-term, private equity. SCARBOROUGH: [Holds up coffee mug] This is the only thing I have to sell, this coffee mug now on sale for $15. By the way, I actually talked to a billionaire. I said, could you come up with this money? He goes, no!  HAASS: Of course not. SCARBOROUGH: It doesn't matter how much money you have, you're, you're not going to be able to come up with $500 million cash for a bond. Scarborough's worth $15? This from the guy who, together with wife Mika, reportedly makes something like $16 million per annum. But Haass agreed: "I think it's unrealistic to ask for that amount of cash in that small amount of time, yes." Scarborough [semi]-joked that he only dared criticize the James prosecution because he wasn't in the same studio as Mika, who later joked it was questionable whether Joe would "get to come home." Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 3/21/24 6:19 am EDT AL SHARPTON: I think he would rather do anything than file bankruptcy, but it may be the only option he has. We are talking about Monday, three days away, and the state Attorney General, Tish James, has said, I'm coming after him. And he knows that's no joke.  And you have to remember, he has to deal with this, and pay for lawyers and other legal expense, in four criminal cases. This is not even one of the criminal cases. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Right. SHARPTON: This is a civil case. So he has a lot he's got to do, because by the time he finishes arguing with the civil attorneys about try another entity to lend me money, he's got four different legal teams calling him saying, "And we need some more money for this court papers that we have to file. We need some more money." SCARBOROUGH: Right. SHARPTON: He's in a tough spot. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. SCARBOROUGH: Richard [Haass], let me go from one uncomfortable question about the [New York football] Giants to another uncomfortable question. What to you say to some Trump supporters but also some legal observers that say that you had an attorney general who ran, saying, "If I run [sic, win?], I'm going after Donald Trump?" She's gone after Donald Trump. The New York Times had an article saying that she's used an old law to go after him in this case. Now, he's not the first. She also went after Exxon and, and a couple of other entities. But because it's a bit unusual, there's  some people, some legal scholars, that say, he's got a good chance on appeal to at least, either, if not have the decision overturned, to at least modify the penalties as being excessive. So, should he have to pay that entire bond, should he have to start selling properties? I see you smirking. RICHARD HAASS: I'm not smirking. SCARBOROUGH: Okay. Should he, should he have to sell properties and do all these other things just to reserve the right to go on appeal? HAASS: Couple things. One is, it reinforces the sense that's central to his campaign, that he's a victim. SCARBOROUGH: Is he, is he in this case? HAASS: I think the idea that he is being asked to come up with such a large amount of cash in such a relatively small amount of time. I don't know about you, Joe, what's the percentage of your investments that are liquid, as opposed to long-term, private equity. SCARBOROUGH: [Holds up coffee mug] This is the only thing I have to sell, this coffee mug now on sale for $15. By the way, I actually talked to a billionaire. I said, could you come up with this money? He goes, no!  HAASS: Of course not. SCARBOROUGH: It doesn't matter how much money you have, you're, you're not going to be able to come up with $500 million cash for a bond. HAASS: Most people who are that wealthy are going to have their money, either like Trump -- SCARBOROUGH: It's going to be spread out. HAASS: Or things that are locked up: private equity, hedge funds, whatever. They're not, they're basically not keeping it in their JP Morgan banking, you know, checking account. It's not necessarily in stocks. So, yeah, I think it's unrealistic to ask for that amount of cash in that small amount of time, yes. SCARBOROUGH: Another way to ask it, would you be comfortable if, let's say, Joe Biden, former President Joe Biden was, was sued in Texas by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, after he got out of the White House, put in a position to have to come up with $500 million in bond money? HAASS: So let me make a -- the answer is two things. One, I am slightly uncomfortable at all these state things. They make up a larger --  SCARBOROUGH: I'm really uncomfortable about the state things. Mika's not going to talk to me. I could nnever say this when I'm, like, in the same studio with Mika, because she won't talk to me for a week. But I'm very uncomfortable with the state cases, because what comes around goes around. . . .  Mika, I've been saying this, especially in the federal cases, he appears to be above the law. Again, I do have some question about the state cases, but I'm sure at the end of the day, I'll defer to you, honey. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: If you even, you know, get to come home, but that's okay. SCARBOROUGH: Ooh, wow. That is -- MIKA: This has been fun. SCARBOROUGH: She does not like talking about the state cases. HAASS: That's cold. SCARBOROUGH: That is cold. I'm a little -- ooh, ooh. MIKA: I mean, you put it out there.