MSNBC host and former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough argued that “Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer “could go off to Vegas and go on an eight-year bender, and it wouldn’t change the fact that it’s The New York Times now that Howard Dean and James Carville, and Clinton Inc. Are calling right wing operatives” and further dubbed some of Clinton’s defenders “hacks” on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe.”
Scarborough said that the Clintons’ allies were “just trying to go after the author,” and that “Peter Schweizer, right now, he could go off to Vegas and go on an eight-year bender, and it wouldn’t change the fact that it’s The New York Times now that Howard Dean and James Carville, and Clinton Inc. are calling right wing operatives. The Washington Post. I mean, it was the Post that came up with the 1,100 donors that weren’t disclosed. It was the New York Times that’s come up with one story after another on this.”
New York Times Political Reporter Nick Confessore added, “his book is a series of sort of correspondences, that this happened and this money came in right? He’s actually been pretty modest in his claims about how much he has, which, actually, I kind of respect. He hasn’t proven a lot about actual influence-peddling. But the book stands on its own, for some of those things that — the lines that it draws between the money and the policy” and that “Clinton Cash” covers a “legitimate subject.”
Scarborough continued, “the fact that they’re going after the Times instead of Rush Limbaugh, you know, like they did in the past. The fact that they’re going after the Washington Post instead of the Koch Brothers, the fact that — there’s no Newt Gingrich boogeyman or Ken Starr. These are the most respected papers in America that are investigating this.”
Confessore said the Clinton’s strategy is to first attack the “presumed source,” even though “there’s a lot of reporting on the Clinton Foundation that has nothing to do with Schweizer.” And that the Clintons also argue “you haven’t caught us at anything really bad, so stop talking about it,” and also point to the foundation’s good works.
Scarborough further stated, “they’ve helped themselves, while they’ve helped people around the world. They’ve accumulated a net worth of well over $100 million. And a lot of times, it’s from the same sources that are giving money to the foundation, and then they have Bill Clinton go over and give speeches.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski argued that the Clintons were “deflecting,” and then continued, “were there 1,100 donations that were not disclosed. Was the White House supposed to approve or deny them? And did that happen or did it not?”
Confessore added that the Clintons were “very sloppy about their own ethics agreement on this.”
Scarborough concluded, “there’s one after another after another incident of this where they don’t report when they should report, and they’ve got all of these hacks out there going around trying to knock down stories anyway they can.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett