Donald Trump Goes After Morning Joe Again

[Stonepounder]

Source: Huffington Post

President Donald Trump again criticized MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” just one day after tweeting attacks at hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

In an op-ed published by The Washington Post on Friday, Scarborough and Brzezinski addressed their ongoing feud with Trump, arguing he’s not “mentally equipped” to watch their show. They also claimed White House staff members once warned them that the National Enquirer was considering publishing a negative story about them unless they “begged the president to have the story spiked.”

“We ignored their desperate pleas,” the two wrote.

Trump denied that in a tweet Friday, claiming Scarborough did call him to stop the alleged Enquirer article:

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show
8:55 AM - 30 Jun 2017
12,898 12,898 Retweets 50,799 50,799 likes

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-national-enquirer-morning-joe_us_59564c26e4b0da2c7322e8ec?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

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Much more at link.

[Initech]

1. Keep digging that hole, Donnie.

And as I said before - who gives a flying fuck what's in the supermarket tabloids? Nobody reads that shit!

[SummerSnow]

27. Trump says tabloids are 'real news' lol

[unblock]

2. that comes very close to admitting that he could have arranged for the enquirer to kill the story.

if this wasn't a blackmail threat, why would they be calling the president of the entire united states to kill a rumored hit story in some newspaper???

"i said no" strongly suggests he could have said yes, rather than "you should just talk to the people at the national enquirer".

[Juliusseizure]

9. Yeah but he's joking (WH)

The tweets speak for themselves, unless they don't.

But he could be joking, or not.

They could be in response to a hypothetical, or a statement of fact.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

12. Exactly. If his underlings were stupid enough to implicate themselves in threatening tweets...

it could bring the whole house of cards down. They should have turned all evidence over to the FBI/Mueller. It's like some two-bit mob family runs the White House.

[Duppers]

22. "two-bit mob family runs the White House."

Exactly!

[Ms. Toad]

14. Being able to arrange to kill a story isn't the same as

threatening to arrange to publish a bad story in the first place unless they come beg him to stop it.

I'm mystified at the number of people who think this tweet is an admission of blackmail.

[unblock]

18. it does depend on facts not in evidence, true.

the tweet makes it *look* like it was all an orchestrated blackmail plot but it doesn't *prove* it.

it is possible that the enquirer independently decided to run the story.

but then, kushner (at least) somehow found out about the pending story and figured he'd use that as leverage to get the victims to grovel before donnie. kushner and donnie both rather strongly implied that they knew they had the ability to kill the story and would do so if the victims did as told.

they didn't appear to imply that they could *try* to pressure the enquirer to drop the story, appear to have implied that they *knew* they could kill the story. that suggests collusion with the the enquirer.


so, perhaps it's not proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but i'd certainly put it as more likely than not that kushner and the enquirer conceived this as a cooperative blackmail plan.


however, let's say the article was entirely the enquirer's idea, but kushner found out about it and asked, "hey, if i say to kill or not kill this story, will you do as i ask" and the enquirer say "yes", then kushner (at least) is still committing blackmail, even if the article wasn't his idea in the first place.

[Ms. Toad]

28. Even your strongest scenario still

requires team Trump to have made a threat. That's the essence of blackmail - do as I tell you, or else.

There is no admission by anyone on team Trump that a threat was made - all they've admitted is that Joe called and asked about killing a story. What they've admitted doesn't even hint that the call was made in response to a threat.

No threat = no blackmail.

I just don't get why anyone thinks that (if true) Joe calling Trump about killing a story in the Enquirer is an admission by Trump that he was blackmailing (i.e. threatenng) Joe.

[unblock]

29. The problem is Jared calling Joe

That's how Joe knew there was potential harm to him and something required of him to avoid it.

Donnie's tweet in isolation isn't much, but it lends credence to the whole blackmail scenario.

[Ms. Toad]

30. Your last line is my point.

There are a number of threads, indicating that Trump admitted (via his tweet) blackmailing Joe. That's nonsense.

I'm not saying blackmail is out of the question - I'm just questioning the reasoning ability of anyone who declares that Trump's tweet admits blackmail.

[unblock]

31. right, that's why i merely said it comes very close.

[FarPoint]

3. I think it's all a HUGE, PLANNED DISTRACTION.

Let's no forget...cable news media Never held tRump accountable during campaign...GOP blood is thicker than water...


Let's focus on the tRump Russian Mafia connection... Keep our focus at the Target goal.

[elleng]

6. Right. He distracts, maybe the only thing he does.

[FarPoint]

10. Duck and Cover Donnie...

He's a master of manlipulation

[MontanaMama]

21. He is distracting

from Kris Kobach's efforts to acquire our voter roll information - every state - call your state SOS office and/or governor's offices and object!

[grantcart]

17. Planned? Joe told networks execs about it while it was happening months ago.

The idea that they are cleverly planning everything undermines the obvious:

These guys are just not that smart.

The President is having a slow motion mental breakdown in front of us.

[blue neen]

24. Yep.

Agreed.

[onit2day]

4. Our president is an embarrassment

He debases the office with his petty vindictive squabbles. The world and the country has lost any respect for the president already but now they are also losing respect for the "office" as it is being used to enrich its holder and threaten its critics. BAD NEWS

[Hieronymus]

5. Trump said he didn't watch their show .. another lie.

[Angry Dragon]

7. When he comes out with the truth for once.......... let the world know

It will be HUGE and the BESTEST

[CincyDem]

8. He too dumb to know that a real denial would be...

...he asked me to kill the story. I said "I can't do that".

asshat. can't even summon up two brain cells to rub together into a coherent denial.

[unblock]

11. exactly. but that would imply that he's not all-powerful.

he's more likely to say "i -- and i alone -- can kill that story"

[BHDem53]

13. Low Rated?

Have you seen your poll numbers lately, tee rump?

[Bengus81]

15. YES!! Keep it up ButterNUT!! Don't let anyone in your party tell you to stop Tweeting!

[Duppers]

23. He keeps digging that hole deeper.

Last edited Fri Jun 30, 2017, 08:50 PM - Edit history (1)

More and more evidence. Morning Joe is baiting him and, of course, it works.

[Achilleaze]

16. republican a-holery is massively distasteful

they totally need to shitcan thier so-called "republican family values" and adopt some American values like honesty, decency, respect, integrity. But that level of maturity seems to beyond republican reach.

[blue-wave]

19. For The Love of...sigh...

This situation reminds of a quote from another place in time when America was being tested.

"At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
Joseph Nye Welch

[Gothmog]

20. From the DNC

:large

[beachbum bob]

25. karma, gotta love it

[SCVDem]

26. It wasn't just the story

Mika's kids were being followed by Enquirer (reporters).

Killing the story was only part of it. Backing off the kids was the real point.