Connect with us

News

‘Isn’t Going to Bring Audience Back’: Morning Joe’s Mar-a-Lago Meet a Ratings Hail Mary?

Published

on

The hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” are under fire after announcing Monday they visited President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, telling viewers it’s “time to do something different,” and that “threatening” the now-President-elect with prison (they did not name any of his crimes, alleged or convicted,) hasn’t worked. Some critics have suggested the visit by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski was an effort to shore up the network’s sagging ratings, while others blasted the attempt as “access” journalism.

Jeff Jarvis, the longtime journalism expert and CUNY professor (now retired) called the couple’s move a “betrayal of their colleagues, democracy, and us all. It is a disgusting show of obeisance in advance.” (Obeisance is generally understood to mean bow down, or offer deferential respect.)

Political commentator Craig Crawford responded, “Autocrat scholars call this Anticipatory Obedience.”

Jarvis appeared to sum up the Mar-a-Lago meeting as an effort to gain “access.”

“Oh, Lord. Joe and Mika went to Mar-a-lago. ‘What we did agree on,’ Mika said, ‘was to restart communications.’ Access. ‘He seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats.’ Credulity. They revert to their mean.”

READ MORE: Trump: Prepared to Declare ‘National Emergency,’ Use Military for ‘Mass Deportations’

Jarvis also blasted Scarborough and Brzezinski for not having on their Monday morning panel any pundit who would push back against them: “Of course, there is no one on the panel to ask, ‘How the fuck could you?’ as we all are at home.”

He also declared the couple created “The Scarborough doctrine,” which he described as, “You can’t root against the president of the United States without rooting against America.”

Scarborough, Jarvis declared, “won’t root against authoritarianism, racism, misogyny (against his own wife), fascism. He won’t root for the people and our Constitution. There you have it.”

“Was there any journalism to come out of this?” Jarvis asked. “No. The meeting was ‘on background.’ Joe assures they asked for an interview. Of course, they did: giving Trump just what he wants–airtime and attention. This is how they helped get him elected in the first place.”

“Right after that pathetic display, Mika reads headlines about attacks on LGBTQ people and Trump drawing up a list of military officers to court martial and there is no nod to the irony. Oh, yes, let’s get along–with the destruction of the nation.”

Nodding to a number of top MSNBC hosts, Jarvis remarked, “I try to envision Joy Reid, @maddow, @Lawrence, @NicolleDWallace, @chrislhayes, alongside frequent guests @esglaude, @MollyJongFast, and others watching @JoeNBC & @morningmika’s betrayal this morning. Did they throw coffee at their TVs or merely shake their heads, knowingly?”

MSNBC host, and legal contributor and correspondent Katie Phang, without naming names, posted on social media: “Normalizing Trump is a bad idea. Period.”

Scarborough and Brzezinski told viewers that at Mar-a-Lago, “we talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents, and media outlets.”

And while they “didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so,” they “did agree” to “restart communications.”

They described Trump as “cheerful,” and “upbeat,” claiming that “he seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues.”

READ MORE: GOP Senator Says Gaetz Investigation Report Can Be Subpoenaed After Johnson Tries to Block

“And for those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back: why wouldn’t we?”

“Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country,” they said, not blaming Trump.

“What also does not work is threatening political opponents with arrest, harassment and even jail. That is a failed path,” they said—appearing to blame Democrats for wanting allowing the justice system and the rule of law to rule the day, while ignoring that Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened his political opponents with arrest, harassment and even jail.

“Recent history has proven that impeachments and trials turned those on trial into political martyrs and only make them more popular with the American people, just ask Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.”

“We’re not here to defend our normalize Donald Trump,” they concluded. “We’re here to report on him.”

Democratic strategist Max Burns lamented, “Don’t need to crack down on the free press when the free press will crack down on itself.”

Philadelphia Inquirer national opinion columnist Will Bunch added: “‘Morning Joe’ capitulation is another of my worst fears about life under Trump 47 – that those of us who plan to keep writing against Trump’s autocratic ways are going to be marginalized as ‘dead enders’ who aren’t getting with the program, which will make it easier to shut us up.”

Some have suggested the couple went to Mar-a-Lago to help the network’s ratings.

Puck’s Dylan Byers had shared some dismal statistics last week:

“CNN, MSNBC ratings plummeted after elections,” noted SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile. He warned, “Morning Joe bowing to Trump, & the rest doing finger-pointing & both sides coverage, isn’t going to bring audience back.”

Similarly, Mediaite editor-in-chief Aidan McLaughlin observed, “The thing about this is that it comes as MSNBC’s audience has collapsed. Imagine if a Fox News host announced they met privately with Biden when the network saw its audience flee after the 2020 election?”

Indeed, some on social media suggested they may be done with “Morning Joe.”

Political podcaster and progressive commentator JoJoFromJerz, who has nearly one million followers on X, offered up a profanity-laced response that effectively urged MSNBC to take “Morning Joe” off the air.

Media critic Susan Bordson explained:

“There are a few news shows I keep as standard in my dvr settings in case I want to check out segments or audit them later. @Morning_Joe was one of them. Today, I eliminated it from my @MSNBC recording list. Ethical news commentary does not require ACCESS practices.”

Podcaster Keith Olbermann, a former MSNBC host, also blasted Scarborough, writing: “Why is anybody surprised? Since 1998 I’ve said Scarborough was the worst person I’d ever encountered in this business. He proves me right, year after year. Today it has become Vichy MSNBC.”

“Let’s face it,” wrote former editor John McIntyre. “Morning Joe and Mika were self-important and tedious. Now we know that they are also craven, and there is no need to give them our attention.”

Watch the videos below or at this link.

READ MORE: Backlash as Trump Skips FBI Background Checks — One Nominee Called ‘Likely Russian Asset’

Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

Torture? Shoot Protesters? Greenland? Question After Question, Hegseth Refused to Answer

Published

on

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial and, many say, unqualified nominee to lead the millions of people serving in the U.S. Armed Forces and oversee the Pentagon’s $842 billion budget, refused to give straight answers to numerous questions posed by U.S. Senators during his short, four-hour-and-fifteen-minute confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

Democrats on the committee had requested multiple rounds of questions so they could follow up with the nominee, a former Fox News weekend host who has been accused of sexual assault, “aggressive drunkenness,” sexism, mismanaging two veterans’ non-profits, and an apparent embrace of Christian nationalism. Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) refused, despite precedent with multiple nominees before the committee over many years. Wicker also refused to allow the FBI’s report on Hegseth to be made available to all members of the committee.

Hegseth, at times combative, frequently battled Democratic Senators, talking over them and refusing to answer numerous questions, while often praising Donald Trump — and invoking his name as a shield. Questions he did answer often came from Republicans on the committee. They included questions like, How many genders are there? How many pushups can you do? What do you love about your wife?

But Hegseth refused to give straight answers to a large number of basic questions, such as: Would you submit to an expanded FBI background check? Agree to use the military to seize Greenland or the Panama Canal? In each of your weddings you’ve pledged to be faithful to your wife? Should allegations of spousal abuse be disqualifying?

One question Hegseth initially refused to answer was what his use of the apparent slur, “jag off” means.

“I don’t think I need to, sir,” he told the Ranking Member, Jack Reed, when politely asked.

“Why not?” Reed, surprised, asked.

“Because the men and women watching understand,” Hegseth replied.

He only explained it when Reed reminded him that “perhaps some of my colleagues don’t understand.”

READ MORE: ‘Loyalty to a Tyrant’: Cheney Invokes Jack Smith’s Report to Warn Senate on Trump Nominees

“It would be a JAG officer who puts his or her own priorities in front of the war fighters,” Hegseth finally said. (JAG is Judge Advocate General, a military attorney.)

Hegseth’s history of comments against women and LGBTQ service members is well-documented. U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) repeatedly pressed him on his beliefs on women in the military.

“Will you commit to preserving the Women, Peace, and Security Law at DOD and including in your budget the requisite funding to continue to restore and resource these programs throughout the DOD?” Senator Shaheen asked, referring to this law.

“I, Senator, I will commit to reviewing that program and ensuring it aligns with America First, national security priorities, meritocracy, lethality and readiness. And if it advances American interests, it’s something we would advance,” Hegseth smugly replied. “If it doesn’t, it’s something we would look at.”

“Well since former President Trump signed it into the law, I hope that he agrees with you,” Shaheen responded.

At one point, when Hegseth grew combative, he talked over U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), forcing her to repeatedly say, “I’m not hearing the answer to my question.” He then refused to answer if he would “resign if you drink on the job, which is a 24/7 position?”

Senator Hirono also asked Hegseth if he would comply with an order from the Commander-in-Chief, who will be Donald Trump, to shoot protestors. He refused to give a straight answer.

“In 2020, then President Trump directed former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to shoot protesters in the legs in downtown D.C., an order Secretary Esper refused to comply with. Would you carry out such an order from President Trump?” she asked.

Hegseth launched into what appeared to be a defense of Trump’s order, but would not answer, leading Hirono to say, “Sounds to me that you would comply with such an order, you will shoot protesters in the leg.”

Asked, again by Hirono, if he would “carry out an order from President Trump to seize Greenland, a territory of our NATO ally Denmark, and, “comply with an order to take over the Panama Canal,” Hegseth again refused to give a straight answer.

“Senator, I will emphasize that President Trump received 77 million votes to be the lawful Commander-in-Chief —” Hegseth replied.

“We’re not talking about the election,” Hirono reminded him.

“Senator, one of the things that President Trump is so good at is never strategically tipping his hand,” Hegseth, again lavishing praise on Trump, replied, again not giving a straight answer.

In a similar vein, Hegseth refused to give a straight answer to U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who asked if there are any orders a Commander-in-Chief could give that would be unlawful and violate the Constitution.

“I reject the premise that President Trump is going to be giving illegal orders,” he exclaimed.

He also refused to give a straight answer when asked if he has been in conversations about using active duty military within the U.S., and using active duty military in U.S.-based detention camps.

RELATED: FBI Report on Hegseth ‘Insufficient’ Says Top Dem: ‘I Do Not Believe You Are Qualified’

Hegseth’s back-and-forth with U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) however were among the most damaging, as veterans’ advocate Paul Rieckhoff noted.

At one point, Hegseth refused to answer if spousal abuse would be disqualifying for someone to be Secretary of Defense, after refusing to say he would release his former wives from NDAs if there were any.

“Did you ever engage in any acts of physical violence against any of your wives?” Kaine asked.

“Senator, absolutely not,” Hegseth replied.

“But you would agree with me that if someone had committed physical violence against the spouse, that would be disqualifying to serve as Secretary of Defense, correct?” Kaine continued.

“Senator, absolutely not have I ever done that,” Hegseth stressed.

“You would agree that would be a disqualifying offense, would you not?” Kaine pressed.

“Senator, you’re talking about a hypothetical,” Hegseth responded, again refusing to answer.

“I don’t think it’s a hypothetical. Violence against spouses occurs every day,” Kaine insisted. And if you as a leader are not capable of saying that physical violence against a spouse should be a disqualifying fact, for being Secretary [of Defense] of the most powerful nation in the world, you demonstrating an astonishing lack of judgment.”

The liberal Super PAC American Bridge put out this clip, saying, “Pete Hegseth refuses to say he doesn’t support waterboarding, torture, or abandoning the Geneva Conventions. This guy has dangerous ideas that have no place at the Department of Defense.”

In that exchange with Senator Angus King (I-VT), Hegseth also declared, “what an America First national security policy is not going to do is hand decisions over to international bodies.”

And when asked to give just true or false answers to questions about numerous alleged instances of intoxication, Hegseth repeatedly replied, “anonymous smears.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Marxist’ Agenda: Hegseth Says Gay Troops ‘Erode Standards’ in ‘Social Engineering’ Push

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

FBI Report on Hegseth ‘Insufficient’ Says Top Dem: ‘I Do Not Believe You Are Qualified’

Published

on

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s vetting of Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s highly controversial nominee to head the U.S. Department of Defense, an $842 billion entity that employs more than 2.8 million people, was “insufficient,” Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee warned at the start of his confirmation hearing Tuesday.

The FBI’s report on Hegseth was made available only to the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee, not the rank-and-file Senators on the Committee. Ranking Member Reed asked that the report be made available to the entire committee, but the Republican Chairman, Roger Wicker, refused.

Critics have noted that, similarly to how the FBI conducted its investigation into sexual harassment allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Bureau reportedly did not interview the person who allegedly was sexually abused. In October 2018, as ABC News reported, the FBI did not interview Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

READ MORE: ‘Loyalty to a Tyrant’: Cheney Invokes Jack Smith’s Report to Warn Senate on Trump Nominees

ABC News also, on Tuesday, reported the FBI did not interview the woman, whose name has not been made public, who “told investigators in October 2017 that she had encountered Hegseth at an event afterparty at a California hotel where both had been drinking and claimed that he sexually assaulted her.”

The New York Times on Tuesday published a report detailing concerns Democrats have voiced about Hegseth and the FBI’s report.

“Quite a few of the women with significant allegations against him have not been interviewed by the F.B.I. investigators,” Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said on MSNBC on Monday evening, The Times reported, “adding that some of those women feared for their safety and that of their children.”

“My understanding is that some of them would like to be contacted by the F.B.I. investigative team, or the vetters, and they have not been talked to,” Duckworth also told MSNBC.

“One missed opportunity,” The Times reported, “came when the bureau did not interview one of Mr. Hegseth’s ex-wives before its findings were presented to senators last week, according to people familiar with the bureau’s investigation.”

Another Democratic Senator on the Armed Services Committee, Richard Blumenthal, told The Times: “There are significant gaps and inadequacies in the report, including the failure to interview some of the key potential witnesses with personal knowledge of improprieties or abuse.”

READ MORE: LA Mayor a ‘Communist’ Alleges Fox News Host With Ties to Trump Nominee

Tuesday morning, Ranking Member Reed told Republican Chairman Wicker: “You and I have both seen the FBI background investigation, as they have said, and I want to say, to the record, I believe the investigation was insufficient.”

“Frankly, there are still FBI obligations to talk to people, they have not had access to the forensic audit, which I referenced, and the person who had access to was quite critical of Mr. Hegseth, and I think people on both sides have suggested that they get the report.”

“I know your colleagues have asked for it, [Senate Republican Majority Leader] Thune assured me personally that he thought it was the appropriate idea.”

Reed noted that another of Trump’s nominees, “had similar, very complicated personal issues,” and the “report was made available for all the members.”

Chairman Wicker refused Ranking Member Reed’s request.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Reed went on to tell Hegseth, “I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Marxist’ Agenda: Hegseth Says Gay Troops ‘Erode Standards’ in ‘Social Engineering’ Push

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

‘Loyalty to a Tyrant’: Cheney Invokes Jack Smith’s Report to Warn Senate on Trump Nominees

Published

on

Republican former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, who served as vice chair of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, on Tuesday cited the Special Counsel’s just-released, 174-page report on Donald Trump’s involvement with the January 6 insurrection, and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, to deliver a prescient warning to members of the Senate. Starting today, the Senate begins confirmation hearings on the President-elect’s highly-controversial cabinet nominees. Focusing on Justice Department nominees, she warned Senators that those “compromised by personal loyalty to a tyrant” should not be confirmed.

Jack Smith, who resigned as Special Counsel on Friday ahead of the President-elect’s inauguration next week, emphasized in his report that there was sufficient evidence to warrant prosecuting Donald Trump. He also noted that if those cases had proceeded to a jury trial, the evidence was strong enough to secure convictions.

Smith wrote, “after conducting thorough investigations, I found that, with respect to both Mr. Trump’s unprecedented efforts to unlawfully retain power after losing the 2020 election and his unlawful retention of classified documents after leaving office, the [Principles of Federal Prosecution] compelled prosecution.”

READ MORE: LA Mayor a ‘Communist’ Alleges Fox News Host With Ties to Trump Nominee

His final words in his report state that the Special Counsel’s office “assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”

Cheney says that Smith’s report makes clear that Trump’s nominees, specifically, Justice Department nominees, had anything to do with his efforts to overturn the election, they must not be confirmed by the Senate: “if those nominees cooperated with Trump’s deceit to overturn the 2020 election, they cannot now be entrusted with the responsibility to preserve the rule of law and protect our Republic.”

“The Special Counsel’s 1/6 Report,” her statement begins, “made public last night, confirms the unavoidable facts of 1/6 yet again. DOJ’s exhaustive and independent investigation reached the same essential conclusions as the Select Committee. All this DOJ evidence must be preserved.”

READ MORE: Senator Suggests Unusual Interpretation of ‘Advice and Consent’ Responsibility

“But most important now, as the Senate considers confirming Trump’s Justice Department nominees: if those nominees cooperated with Trump’s deceit to overturn the 2020 election, they cannot now be entrusted with the responsibility to preserve the rule of law and protect our Republic. As our framers knew, our institutions only hold when those in office are not compromised by personal loyalty to a tyrant.”

“So this question is now paramount for Republicans: Will you faithfully perform the duties the framers assigned to you and do what the Constitution requires? Or do you lack the courage?”

Sarah Longwell, a Republican and the publisher of The Bulwark, responded, writing: “This. Donald Trump has revealed how shallow the vast majority of the current GOP’s commitment is to the constitution and the American experiment. These confirmation hearings will be another inflection point for the few who claim they value their oath. I hope some rise to the occasion.”

READ MORE: Trump Trying to Buy Back His DC Hotel Seen as ‘Magnet’ for Conflicts of Interest: Reports

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.