'Morning Joe' Shreds Trump's 'Fake News' Answer for Flynn Fallout: 'You Keep Lying, We'll Keep Reporting About It'
Investigators determined Trump campaign aides were in constant contact with the Russian government during the presidential campaign, just 48 hours after Michael Flynn's resignation. Meanwhile, as bipartisan heads of the Senate Judiciary Committee pursue further investigation, President Trump is, once again, blaming the media, and leaks, for the Flynn fallout.
"Michael Flynn, General Flynn is a wonderful man, I think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it, the fake media, in many cases and I think it's really a sad thing that he was treated so badly," Trump said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.
"That was, in the words of [conservative commentator] Pat Buchanan, a 'big fat nothing burger'," "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough remarked on Thursday.
"I'm not exactly sure what [Trump] was saying there... he was the one who fired General Flynn," Scarborough added, a point made by other network hosts in the past day such as Jake Tapper.
Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski then laid waste to Trump's "fake news" charge by noting his own administration's perpetuation of falsehoods.
You have [Trump adviser] Kellyanne [Conway] spreading 'alternative facts'," Brzezinski began, "...saying things that aren't true, selling clothing, you have [senior White House adviser] Stephen Miller describing the powers of the presidency in a incorrect, inappropriate [manner] and lying―"
"Also lying this weekend about New Hampshire being stolen," Scarborough cut in. "Miller [was] also lying this weekend about the three million [illegal] votes...one lie on top of another lie on top of another lie and then the president goes out and says 'what a great job he did'."
President Trump also doubled down on a favorite lie last week with regards to the murder rate, which he falsely claimed was at a 47-year high.
"Here's a message to the White House," Scarborough warned. "You keep lying, we're going to keep reporting about it. You stop lying we'll actually do what every Republican on the hill told me quietly, 'I wish you would shut up, so you guys could talk about policy.'"
But Brzezinski believes the bar had been lowered long before Trump, by both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
"The versions of lies that came out of both of those administrations have brought us to Trump,” she theorized. “But he’s taking it to a whole new level, where I’m not sure the presidency can sustain it.”
And neither can the average American.
“You can’t expect everybody who’s working and raising three, four kids to be sitting glued to the TV set — and they’re not,” Scarborough remarked.
“This is the Kellyanne problem, and I think the president is coming very close to having it,” said Brzezinski, who had banned Conway from the show this week. “I say that with all due respect, but Kellyanne Conway got to the point where she talked about fake news and alternative facts, but there is absolutely no credibility. People watch it, and they don’t hear it anymore because she says things that aren’t true.”
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