Scarborough Slams ‘Shameless’ GOP for Covering Up Trump’s Crimes

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:32 pm

Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough slammed House Republicans for “shamelessly” covering for President Donald Trump as his former attorney Michael Cohen set forth a nicely detailed road map of his alleged crimes.

Scarborough other panelists today agreed that GOP lawmakers exhibited absolutely no curiosity about Trump’s misbehavior and malfeasance during Cohen’s testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee yesterday.

Cohen about his past work for the president, whom he implicated in multiple criminal conspiracies.

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A visibly upset Scarborough said:

“It was another sorry, self-defeating step to political oblivion, crassly covering up for a commander in chief who is unworthy of their loyalty, and they did it shamelessly in plain sight for all the world to see.”

“You had Republicans on that committee so either unaware or uncaring of the fact that potential crimes and misdemeanors that the president may have committed were being brought up before them, and none of them sought to go down those lines of inquiry.”

Co-host Willie Geist agreed with Joe, saying that Republicans did not show any interest in following up on  Cohen’s disturbing claims about the president. The claims were corroborated with documentary evidence brought to the hearing by the former Trump “fixer” who was in Trump’s inner circle for over 12 years.

Cohen, for example, was able to show that Trump had committed a campaign finance violation with his payoff to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

According to Geist:

“That would be the biggest scandal in the history of presidential scandals, but there’s not a single follow-up question about that fact.”

“I know the objective was to undermine the credibility of Michael Cohen, and they tried to do that with every question, but do you have no curiosity about some of the questions that Michael Cohen raised?”

Vanity Fair reporter Emily Jane Fox, who speaks often with Cohen, added that in her opinion it was a very compelling moment when Cohen warned Republicans that he too had once protected the president at all costs, and it cost him everything.

Fox said:

“Him pointing out that, ‘I was in your shoes and it leads to great consequences,’ was one of those moments where you are kind of felt an exhale in the room.”

“The hypocrisy was on full display yesterday.”

“It was brought up several times in the hearing, the thousands of times that the president has lied since he has taken office, it came up a number of times.”

Fox then added:

“What I thought was an effective strategy of credibility for Cohen is every time it was brought up, ‘You lied,’ he said, ‘You’re right.’ He made the point of saying, ‘This is why I brought the evidence, this is why I brought all of these documents.’”

Scarborough then pointed to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as an object of particular  derision, saying the committee’s ranking Republican attacked Cohen for lying while at the same time repeating a lie of his own.

“How incredible that you did have Republicans — they don’t give a damn when Donald Trump lies 6,500 times or however many times the fact-checkers have shown he has lied, and it’s obvious lies,” Scarborough said. “People try to undermine the fact-checkers, they make fools of themselves because there are so many lies.”

Scarborough then concluded the segment by saying:

“The lies are constant, and these Republicans so shocked that Michael Cohen may have lied.”

“It’s outrageous. I’ll tell what you else is outrageous. Jim Jordan lied repeatedly about the chairman, about Elijah Cummings, saying this is the first hearing you’ve had. Elijah thundered back at the end.”

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Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.