Morning Joe conducted a shamefully soft interview of DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison on Wednesday morning.
For starters, how do you interview the head of a party as disastrously down in NBC's own polls as are the Dems, facing potential obliteration in November, and never mention that grim reality?
Somehow the word "poll" never crossed Joe or Mika's lips, nor did anything about the party's dire straits. Instead, they noted Barack Obama said at the White House that the Democrats need to tell their story, and Scarborough asked the DNC chair "What's the story?" They let Harrison wax on for two and a half minutes about Biden's supposed accomplishments.
Things turned absolutely disgraceful at the end. After Scarborough and Harrison castigated Tom Cotton for his criticism of Biden SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's defense of Guantanamo terrorist suspects, Mika asked Harrison what he thought of Cotton. His response:
HARRISON: In a Senate where there's Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton is the lowest of the low. You know, a few years ago, when Barack Obama was the President of the United States, there was a person he appointed to be the ambassador to the Bahamas. A friend of his, Cassandra Butts. Cassandra worked on Capitol Hill. We all knew her. She was brilliant. Cassandra had leukemia. She was up for confirmation, and Tom cotton blocked her confirmation. 835 days she waited to be confirmed, Ambassador to the Bahamas. And when asked why he was holding up her confirmation, he said, because he wanted to hurt Barack Obama.
It shows you who this little maggot-infested man is. He does not deserve to have that pen. He doesn't deserve to be in the United States Senate, representing the good people of Arkansas. He doesn't deserve and doesn't know. And Joe hit the nail on the head, he put his hand on the Bible, took an oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and he use it as a play toy.
Cotton's spokesperson has denied he said he was holding up the Butts nomination to inflict pain on Obama. And even liberal New York Times columnist Frank Bruni has acknowledged that Cotton had a "legitimate gripe" that led him to hold up the Butts nomination. Also, Butts was apparently unaware of her leukemia until very shortly before her death--not at the time Cotton put his hold on her nomination.
Then Harrison's diatribe continued: "That is the Republican Party we see today. It is a party built on fraud, fear, and fascism. And they don't deserve to be in power."
Rather than confronting Harrison about his incredibly ugly depiction of Cotton, Mika interjected a "yeah" during Harrison's diatribe, and ended the segment by thanking Harrison: "Thank you very much for being on this morning to talk about the state of our politics today."
They went to a commercial break, and when Scarborough came back, he said "certainly understand the passion of it," but said "I thought he said MAGA-infested man, but it was harsher than that." Willie Geist explained this wasn't a sudden outburst: "He was echoing a tweet he wrote last night about Tom Cotton." He said Cotton had a maggot-infested heart.
I’m speaking to a group of preachers in the morning & I can’t say what I would like, but Bless the tiny, mold and maggot infested space where @TomCottonAR heart is supposed to be. https://t.co/HRfl80ThWR
— Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@harrisonjaime) April 6, 2022
On Morning Joe, DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison calling Republican Sen. Tom Cotton a "little maggot-infested man" was sponsored in part by Discover and Amazon.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
4/6/22
6:49 am ETMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Jaime Harrison, your thoughts on Tom Cotton.
JAIME HARRISON: You know, in a Senate where there's Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton is the lowest of the low. You know, a few years ago, when Barack Obama was the President of the United States, there was a person he appointed to be the ambassador to the Bahamas. A friend of his, Cassandra Butts. Cassandra worked on Capitol Hill; we all knew her. She was brilliant. Cassandra had leukemia. She was up for confirmation, and Tom cotton blocked her confirmation. 835 days she waited to be confirmed, Ambassador to the Bahamas. And when asked why he was holding up her confirmation, he said, because he wanted to hurt Barack Obama.
It shows you who this little maggot-infested man is. He does not deserve to have that pen. He doesn't deserve to be in the United States Senate, representing the good people of Arkansas. He doesn't deserve and doesn't know. And Joe hit the nail on the head, he put his hand on the Bible, took an oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and he use it as a play toy.
MIKA BREZINSKI: Yeah.
HARRISON: That is the Republican party we see today. It is a party built on fraud, fear, and fascism. And they don't deserve to be in power. And not because Democrats should, but because they don't deserve to be in power of this great nation.
MIKA: And the nomination of Cassandra Butts?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Did she ever --
HARRISON: No, she died waiting to be confirmed.
MIKA: DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, thank you very much for being on this morning to talk about the state of our politics today.
