Over the weekend, reports emerged that President Obama was unaware the U.S. had spied on world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Does anyone really believe the president was kept in the dark?” Scarborough asked on Monday’s Morning Joe.
“The idea that he doesn’t know about these things over and over again,” Politico’s Maggie Haberman remarked. “I imagine that people around him think it’s a better explanation domestically than saying he did know. It’s very hard for me to see how this is a positive, even if it sounds good to say. If it is true, that is alarming.”
The damage is unknowable but deep, Haberman added.
“Think about the damage this has done, this is one of those Bush-Cheney programs that has just been taken to massive lengths,” Scarborough said. “Five, six years ago when the president was running, everyone said if he just gets in there our reputation will get so much better, why everybody just hates George W. Bush, this is just what we need. Little did we know when he was giving that speech in Berlin, his people were bugging every office they could.”