In response to this and other whiny media hot takes on "we were all so wrong about Russian collusion," Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough went off on a tear this morning. He seemed to be responding to Matt Taibbi in particular.
"What would you have had us do? I don't just say this to people on the right who have found common cause with conspiracy theorists over Seth Rich or Sandy Hook, I'm saying this to established journalists who are wringing their hands and saying this is worse than WMDs. Is it really? Is that why George Papadopoulos lied to the FBI and got sent to jail? Is that why the national security advisor lied?
"His campaign 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 see him on the lower right-hand corner. Yeah, you know, the guy with the Nixon tattoo on his back got caught lying to the FBI about what? Bowling? Huh? The best places to get sangria in San Diego? No! The Russians. They lied about the Russians nonstop for two years. Oh, let's see, 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 Junior 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 'no, wait a second, I better contact the FBI,' because that's what everybody else would have done. I love it. Maybe they should have ignored the fact that the president called everybody around on Air Force One and concocted a lie. 'Let's say it's about adoptions.'
"Now, I just ask, what was the media supposed to do at that point? Shrug it off? No. You know the answer. and just because you're sucking up to Donald Trump and just because power is all that matters to you and just because you will justify everything that man does and corrupts, just because you're not a journalist, just because you have sold your soul to a personality cult, don't knock reporters at the New York Times" or the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal or the broadcast networks for doing their job right."
He called out "bad actors" and said he wouldn't have them on his show.
"But there are bad actors -- guess what, I've got bad news. There are bad actors in your house. and a lot of you that were bitching and moaning last night and being morally self-righteous, you are the bad actor. So save your breath. we're not going to divert our eyes. This president lies more than any other president in the United States. He's lied about universal health care, he promised he'd give it. He didn't give it. He lied about the wall. He said Mexico was going to pay for it. The Mexicans wouldn't pay for it -- hell, the Republicans wouldn't even pay for it when they owned Washington!
"We're going to keep talking about that. Tax cuts. He said he was going to help the working man, then he went down to Mar-a-Lago that night and said to Robert Kraft, I don't know if Jeffrey Epstein was down there, but whoever the hell was around his table down there, he said, 'I just made you all a lot of money today.'
"No, we're not going to avert our eyes. Damn the torpedos, full steam ahead. Follow the story."
