Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:17 pm
Don’t even get too comfortable with the idea that MSNBC’s Morning Joe crew of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have finally see the light on Donald Trump. They are still more than willing to excuse his deplorable behavior.
Take The New York Times‘ revelation about Trump’s taxes. Most are shocked. Trump has been proven an absolute hypocrite by attacking those who pay no taxes (or not enough) while paying exactly none himself.
Yet on Morning Joe we hear that it is us, who are horrified, who are the real hypocrites, because, as Scarborough reasons,
“This tax thing, I’m sorry, this tax thing, please, find me one person that pays more taxes than they have to pay. You can’t do it. So everybody that’s acting so shocked that he did what he was legally entitled to do is a freaking hypocrite.”
Watch courtesy of Media Matters for America:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: So I’ve just noticed a confidence here that I don’t think should be there among the [Hillary Clinton] campaign, I’m sorry. But I mean, you think about this tax thing and were laws broken and did The New York Times find any laws were broken? Were any laws broken?
MARK HALPERIN: No.
BRZEZINSKI: OK so [Donald Trump] talks about brilliantly using this system, great. Hillary Clinton could have had that same reaction to her speech money, that she says she’s going to change Wall Street, but you know what, I used the system to make millions of dollars. But instead she hides it. Donald Trump just doesn’t hide it. He’s very comfortable with the fact that he followed the law and made a lot of money. She also followed the law and made a lot of money and for some reason it’s OK to look at that speech money and somehow we just let it go because she’s — her campaign keeps it kind of under — it’s the same thing and that’s what people see. People see somebody being honest about it and somebody kind of like, not mentioning it but still doing it. What’s the difference? Does anybody want to explain to me, because I think voters like what they saw from Donald Trump and I’m very worried about that.
[…]
JOE SCARBOROUGH : This tax thing, I’m sorry, this tax thing, please, find me one person that pays more taxes than they have to pay. You can’t do it. So everybody that’s acting so shocked that he did what he was legally entitled to do is a freaking hypocrite.
BRZEZINSKI: And the media —
SCARBOROUGH: That’s why Warren Buffett goes, “Oh, rich people need to pay.” Well, pay more money, Warren Buffett.
[…]
BRZEZINSKI: I think the reaction to this New York Times story on Donald Trump’s part was brilliant, and the thing is he didn’t even think twice about it, he just went there, while she has been hiding this speech money, hiding this foundation stuff, hiding this email stuff, and trying to get around it, mistakes were made. And I’m telling you people don’t, they are not feeling a complete connection with her and this didn’t help to get all high and mighty. Get off your high horse about this tax thing. Unless laws were broken, it’s not an issue. You guys cancel each other out.
Scarborough and Brzezinski are making the case that because 1) Trump broke no laws by not paying taxes, and 2) did what any red-blooded American would do when given the opportunity to pay 0 taxes, he did nothing wrong.
On top of that, they appeal to the Trump/Clinton false equivalency thing so popular among the mainstream media. There is no equivalence to be made between the Trump Foundation and the Clinton Foundation. None.
Brzezinski is accusing Clinton of being guilty of a collection of right wing talking points and invented scandals. And then saying that as a result of this false premise, she is no different than Trump. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Clinton Foundation saves lives. The Trump Foundation buys expensive knick-knacks for Donald Trump. The Clinton Foundation gets very high marks from watchdog groups. Donald Trump’s only charity is himself.
They are missing the point entirely on Morning Joe, the point being that Trump has made repeated attacks on others for not paying taxes while paying none himself. He has put nothing into the system; rather, he has leached off the system like a welfare queen, expecting the rest of us to foot his bill.
He has made comment after comment that now condemn him as a hypocrite and prove his repeated claims that he supports our troops to be empty and meaningless.
Brzezinski says Trump didn’t lie, but Clinton did. That is a lie. Trump has lied knowingly and openly about paying taxes he never paid. Trump’s actions were deplorable, and there is no sugar coating it, particularly by employing tired old and debunked right wing tropes about the non-existent misdeeds of Hillary Clinton.
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