Any hopes the White House had of shielding Donald Trump (or themselves) from further self-inflicted wounds over Russia were dashed on Monday. While appearing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a photo-op with reporters, the president said he “never mentioned the word or the name Israel” while reportedly discussing classified intelligence with Russian officials in the Oval Office. Secretive intel regarding ISIS operations in the Middle East and elsewhere that, as a subsequent report revealed, came from an Israeli source. Needless to say, Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough was furious.
“If you are scoring at home and you’re trying to divide the actions between malicious and just plain stupid, you can put this on the stupid side,” Scarborough told fellow co-host Mika Brzezinski and contributor Mike Barnicle. “This is like the husband that runs down to the police station and says, ‘Hey! My wife is missing and it’s not my gun that’s at the bottom of the pond, in the back of our house, by her body.'”
“Admitting to something that nobody charged him of, and yet in so doing, revealed himself as the jackass that leaked top secret Israel intel,” Scarborough continued, adding his own speculation regarding Monday’s devastating suicide bombing in Manchester. “By the way, intel about somebody on the inside of a terror organization that killed 20 little girls and their mothers last night.”
Although ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, Scarborough’s final jab at Trump takes quite a leap when he tries connecting the two separate incidents. Even so, the damage the president caused by his apparent revelations to Russian officials, and his subsequent “confirmation” of sorts, is unquestionable. So too is the all too common penchant of pundits and other celebrities to call Trump various, insulting names.