MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough opened his show today with a blistering attack on Donald Trump and how his 2016 campaign was manipulated by Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence agents.
Speaking with a great deal of anger and passion, the Morning Joe co-host pointed out how Attorney General William Barr had let down the American people by issuing a misleading “non-summary” summary of Bob Mueller’s report.
The lawyer and former congressman said that even if Trump didn’t commit the crime of conspiracy (or collusion), if he was compromised and infiltrated by Russian intelligence, then America needs to know that. And the only way we can know that is for us to see the full Mueller report.
But Barr has been working for Donald Trump and not the American people. Scarborough pointed out that Trump has always wanted a “Roy Cohn,” type of lawyer who ”put his personal interests ahead of the interests of the country.” And Barr is doing just that.
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But according to the Morning Joe host:
“There are far more important standards than just legal standards. There is a standard of what is best for the public interest. There are standards that involve what the public mass a right to know.”
“If the president coordinated with Russia, it could be legal. It could be morally wrong, but more important than that, it could be dangerous.”
“We Americans . . . are you listening, Mr. Attorney general? Are you listening, Mitch McConnell? We Americans have a right to know if our president was compromised in any way and we have a right to know the nature of the relationship between the government of Russia and oligarchs outside of Russia and attorneys connected with the Russian government and our and just because it doesn’t reach a certain legal threshold does not mean for one moment that every single American has a right to see that report.”
Scarborough’s comments came the day after it was reported that members of the special counsel’s team have been publicly expressing significant concerns that Barr’s short, poorly-written summary did not accurately represent the report, which is 400 pages long and represents nearly two years of intensive investigative work.
Several media outlets, including NBC News, the New York Times and the Washington Post all published reports from anonymous sources which say that the full Mueller Report contains a great deal of strong evidence that there was a conspiracy to collude with Russian election interference efforts. They say it also contains evidence of obstruction of justice by the president.
Scarborough has joined the chorus of influential Americans who are now demanding that the full Mueller Report be released.
Even Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tweeted “I support release of the Mueller report”
I support release of the Mueller report
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) April 4, 2019
There is nowhere left to hide for either Bill Barr of Donald Trump. The full Mueller report must be released. The full Mueller report WILL be released. And when it is, we will learn the truth about how Donald Trump betrayed his country and how his attorney general betrayed the American people.
CLICK HERE to see the Morning Joe video, courtesy of MSNBC.
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.
