As discussed, Tuesday on-air on the Morning Joe broadcast.
Last night I was watching some news.... the commentary from people, who push the Seth Rich conspiracy murder, the commentary from people on journalism, who've said some of the most vile things about women, some of the most vile things about immigrants, some of the most vile things in defense of Donald Trump at all costs. Unbelievable.
So I just pose this question to you. I pose this question to everyone watching, either now or later on the Internet, what would you have had the media do over the past two years when Donald Trump lied throughout the 2016 campaign about his contacts with Russia? Now why would
Donald Trump lie about Russia? Why would the man who was coming in to have the most powerful foreign policy position the national security adviser, General Flynn, why did he lie to the FBI in December about his contacts with Czechoslovakian, Swedes? No! No, No! But Russians!!
Why in January would Mike Pence go on a Sunday show and lie and say actually nobody in the Trump campaign ever talked to any Russians during the campaign? Why would he do that? When telling the truth would have been so much easier. Why would the attorney general of the United States, before becoming attorney general, lie to members of his own senate about having contacts with the Russians? And let me just stop you right here and ask a question: What should the media have done when everybody, it seems, who was close to the president, everybody who I was told were the president's closest advisers in 2016, everybody who I was told flew on the plane with Trump all across america — what was the press to report on when all these lies were tumbling out of the mouths of all of these trump aides. Should we have reported on horse farms in Kentucky? Or done investigations into how maybe eating tree bark would lower our cholesterol? What would you have had us do? And I don't just say this to people on the right who have found common cause with conspiracy theories over Seth Rich or Sandy Hook, I'm saying this to established journalists who are ringing their hands and saying, “This is worse than WMD.” Is it really? Is that why George Papadopoulos lied to the FBI and got sent to jail? Is that why the national security adviser lied? His campaign manager not only got caught lying to the FBI, but after he was in talking to the FBI, got caught lying again.
Donald Trump's second in command, behind Paul Manafort, got caught lying to the FBI. And then when he was delivering his proffer, he got caught lying to the FBI. The man that Donald Trump knew longer than anybody else in politics. You know... the guy with Nixon tattoo on his back, got caught lying to the FBI about what? Bowling? The best places to get sangria in San Diego? No! The Russians. They lied about the Russians nonstop for two years. Maybe the press, maybe the New York Times, maybe the Washington Post, maybe the Wall Street Journal, maybe they should have just ignored the fact that Don Jr. met with a bunch of Russians who said they were going to give him info, dirt on Hillary, and he said, “I love it.” Not like, “Wait a second, I better contact the FBI,” cause that's what everybody else would have done. He said, “I love it!”
Maybe they should have just ignored the fact that the president called everybody around on Air Force One and concocted a lie. He said, “Let's just say it's about adoptions.” I just ask, what was the media supposed to do at that point? Shrug it off? No. You know the answer.
Click the video, above, for the full commentary.