Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” is no fan of Donald Trump; in fact, he’s one of the president’s most vocal critics, who has made quite clear that he wants to see him fail. But his anti-Trump lens hasn’t blinded Scarborough to some glaring problems with how the Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media handled the uncorroborated allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
In a searing critique of the media’s coverage of the allegations, particularly how the content of Christine Blasey Ford’s confidential letter was leaked to the press despite her desire to remain anonymous, Scarborough called out multiple mainstream outlets that portray themselves as committed to reporting the truth without partiality for failing to dig into the matter.
“What New York Times reporter, what Washington Post reporter, was assigned a story by their editors to go see what really happened with Dianne Feinstein, and ask Dianne Feinstein and her staff the sort of questions that would have happened if the Republican Party had done the same thing?” Scarborough asked, the Free Beacon reports. “Not one.”
He then issued a direct challenge to the Times, the Post and The Wall Street Journal to do what they should have done in “real time.”
“I challenge New York Times reporters this morning — not reporters, editors. I challenge Washington Post editors. I challenge Wall Street Journal editors. I challenge editors across America: Write that story,” he said. “What happened with Dr. Ford’s agreement … with Dianne Feinstein? Why did they leak that story? And more importantly, look at yourself and ask yourself the question, ‘why didn’t we report on this in real time?’ when you sure as hell would have reported on it if [Republican Sen. Chuck] Grassley and his office had done the same thing.”
Scarborough’s guest, who made clear that he generally sides with the Democrats, couldn’t help but agree that the Democrats’ and the media’s handling of the allegations were extremely problematic. Scarborough later returned to his question again and hammered his premise more directly.
“The question is, why didn’t they focus on the allegations before them and why didn’t they ask the same tough questions of Dianne Feinstein and her staff that they should have, rightly asked, of Chuck Grassley and his staff? You held the letter for a couple of months, you waited until Kavanaugh’s hearing was over and then you released it at the very end,” Scarborough said.
In her testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ford said she contacted Democratic Sen. Anna Eshoo of California in July and that her confidential letter reached Feinstein’s office on July 30. For six weeks, Feinstein did nothing with the letter. Just as the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing wrapped up, however, reports of the allegation leaked, and Feinstein issued a cryptic statement saying she’d handed allegations against the nominee over to the FBI. Ford testified that she wanted to remain anonymous, but after the story leaked, she felt compelled to come forward. During the explosive hearing with Kavanaugh and Ford, Feinstein insisted that her office did not leak the letter.
Video below via WFB: