Morning Joe Floats Conspiracy In Women Claiming Trump Abuse

I make a habit of avoiding Morning Joe, primarily because I can’t stand the way he treats Mika. But when I turned on the tube this morning, it was still on MSNBC from last night and Joe was pontificating, as usual, about how we should be skeptical of the timing of all these women coming forward to claim Trump had abused them. To be clear, Scarborough was not questioning the women’s claims, merely the timing of their coming forward, implying that there was some big grand conspiracy behind it all, that it all could be a result of opposition research. He posited that there were plenty of other triggers earlier in the campaign, such as Trump’s spat with Megyn Kelly, that could have easily convinced these women to speak out so why is it happening just now. He then criticized the media for being hypocritical in their coverage of Clinton in the 1990s versus their coverage of Trump today. And he ended the segment with one of the all time classic “both sides do it” lines by saying that, with all the problems facing this country, it is sad that what we will be subjected to over the next few weeks is women being put in front of the press to talk about their abuse, and that will be done by both sides.

As far as I know, the Clinton campaign has not formally aligned itself with any of these women and there is no indication that the Clinton campaign has ever contacted these women or had anything to do with them. And no one has come up with any information that would tell us otherwise. And none of these women has ever been part of a Clinton ad, much less a campaign press conference. So no, Joe, both sides are not doing it. Perhaps the reason these women are coming forward now is because during the debate on Sunday watched by millions of Americans, Trump vowed that he had never sexually assaulted women. And as far as the hypocrisy of the media is concerned, Bill Clinton’s affair with Gennifer Flowers was entirely consensual. That is far different than sexual assault. Yes, Clinton lied about the affair, but the voters clearly ignored that when they when to the polls, even as the media was burying his campaign.

I have to say I was furious and dumbstruck when I heard Scarborough’s remarks. In implying there is a vast conspiracy to pull an October surprise, he does a real disservice to the women who are giving up their privacy to come forward, probably knowing that they will be attacked. It just confirms my belief that Joe Scarborough is a sexist jerk.