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Right, Donny. Because who could ever come up with an argument against Hillary Clinton, possibly the most corrupt, scandal-ridden, jaded candidate in the history of presidential politics? On today’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, to his credit, fulminated against anti-Trump MSM reporters who are supposed to write stories down the middle but are instead “openly cheering for Hillary Clinton.” That’s when Donny Deutsch defended media bias, saying that reporters have a “conscience” and that “sometimes there’s no other side to an argument.” View the video here.

We’ll admit it up front: there’s not much redeeming social value in the story we’re about to present you. Let’s just call this political entertainment of the pugilistic sort between two people who clearly have little use for each other. Over the course of a longish segment on today’s With All Due Respect, Trump surrogate Boris Epshteyn and Gary Johnson backer Liz Mair engaged in a running battle. The barbs came fast and furious, with, among other things: Mair—playing the sexism card—ripping Epshteyn for interrupting her; Boris noting Mair’s fascination with the word “butt” and taunting her over not having...

Still disloyal after all these years . . . Eight years after being a putative aide to Sarah Palin, Nicolle Wallace can’t stop trashing the woman she supposedly worked for. On today’s Morning Joe, Wallace suggested that if ignorance of foreign policy were an asset, “Sarah Palin would be Vice-President of the United States.” Wallace’s unworthy remark came in the context of a discussion of Libertarian president candidate Gary Johnson’s claim that his own ignorance of foreign policy was an asset since it makes him less likely to get involved in foreign wars. View the video here.

How well did things go for Mike Pence and the Trump-Pence ticket tonight? Even Chris Matthews—no doubt to the horror of Rachel Maddow who was helping oversee the post-debate commentary on MSNBC—had to declare Pence the “winner.” Perhaps even worse for the denizens of MSNBC and its viewers, Matthews said Pence looked “strong” and like a “grown-up,” whereas Tim Kaine came across as “desperate.” Ouch! View the video here.

Joe Scarborough was probably just trying to make the point that Donald Trump is very unpopular with black voters, but he wound up saying something that some might view as insulting to African-Americans. Interviewing Al Sharpton on today’s Morning Joe, he asked about the Rev’s view that Hillary has not been doing enough to appeal to black voters. As Sharpton prefaced his remarks by observing that Hillary is way ahead of Trump among black voters, Scarborough interjected “my dog’s way ahead of Trump among black voters.” Watch the video and note how Scarborough trails off at the end, possibly realizing...

This Insurrectionist finds Mark Halperin to be among the most cautious and level-headed of pundits. The With All Due Respect host typically avoids wild speculation and is generally of the one-the-one-hand and on the other school of analysis. So it was striking that on today’s Morning Joe, Halperin, with some prodding from Joe Scarborough, suggested that Donald Trump might be planning a big October surprise in the nature of a “revelation” about Hillary Clinton. One sensed that Halperin had some inside knowledge of the situation, though all he mentioned in support of his theory is that Trump is surrounded by...

Make up your mind, Jonathan! Appearing on today’s AM Joy, the Washington Post‘s Jonathan Capehart, accused Donald Trump of “cheat[ing] the government” on his taxes . . . despite unequivocally stating precisely 29 seconds earlier that “what he did is legal.” So is every person and entity that takes legal deductions on his tax return “cheating the government,” Jonathan? Does that make the New York Times a tax cheat, too, in your view? After all, as per Forbes, “for tax year 2014, the New York Times paid no taxes and got an income tax refund of $3.5 million even though...

Mika Brzezinski prefaced her remarks by saying she wanted to phrase them “carefully,” but then, in the most careless way, Brzezinski clearly accused Donald Trump of being mentally ill. On today’s Morning Joe, reacting to a depiction of Trump by New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters that Trump is unable to take criticism of his performance, leading his advisers to communicate with him via the media, Mika said that was “very sick” and “it sounds like they’re dealing with someone who, doesn’t—how do I say this carefully—is very troubled, is very disturbed.” View the video here.

Mika Brzezinski went on an epic feminist rant on today’s Morning Joe, condemning not just Donald Trump for his comments about a former Miss Universe, but raging against the entire beauty pageant culture in which women are judged on their . . beauty. Mika summed up her intellectual argument this way: “you stupid men.” Brzezinski considers it unfair that beauty pageant contestants are expected to be trim, whereas men like Trump and Newt Gingrich “can walk around as rotund as all get out.” But if those guys had entered the Mr. Universe contest, every inch of their oiled bodies would...

Perhaps John Warner’s biggest claim to fame is a distinction he shares with a good-sized chunk of older American men: having once been married to Elizabeth Taylor. But the former Republican senator from Virginia found another way to get himself some attention today: by endorsing Hillary for president. Interviewed by Andrea Mitchell on her MSNBC show this afternoon, Warner managed to make his endorsement mainly about himself. In the course of their brief conversation, Warner let it be known: that he had been on the lawn for the famous handshake between Rabin and Araft; that he had served in both...

Kasie Hunt seemed almost reluctant to report it, but something she said this evening might make you think that the Clinton campaign remains worried about Hillary’s health. Appearing on With All Due Respect, Hunt—MSNBC’s Clinton campaign embed—was asked whether she expects Hillary “to have a lot of down days” in preparing for the next debate, or whether she’d be out on the campaign trail like Trump. Here’s Hunts’s response. “My sense is that they do feel like they need to make sure that she is out there, on the one hand. But I think they think it’s very important that...

Mika is Woman: hear her roar! Mika Brzezinski had a suggestion for Donald Trump on today’s Morning Joe. After Hillary, in the debate, “cleaned his clock” and “wiped the floor” with him, Mika suggested that Trump might want to “bow down” in acknowledgement of the strength of women. Mika was still furious after an opening segment in which she and the other panelists trashed Trump for having, among other things, “weight shamed” a former Miss Universe. Admitted Mika “just to be shallow, I have to say given all his comments about women . . . I’m really glad that a...

The screencap says it all . . . on today’s Morning Joe, reacting to last night’s presidential debate, Mika Brzezinski was nothing short of despondent. Brzezinski repeatedly argued that although Hillary was “amazing,” did “great,” etc., it is Donald Trump who walked away the winner politically because he was able to “connect” with the concerns of broad swaths of the electorate. Readers are encouraged to view the video to understand the depths of Mika’s despair. View the video here.

Donna Brazile has been a fixture for years on talking-head shows. This Insurrectionist has always thought of her as an affable but relatively reserved soul. Reserved? There’s another side to Donna that I was obviously missing! Right from the beginning of her Morning Joe appearance today, in which she swayed gracefully in her seat while greeting “brother Ben” Ginsburg, Brazile was a one-woman show of expressive gestures and phrases. Just sit back, roll the video, and appreciate Donna’s very animated performance, which ends with her telling Joe Scarborough “I love you—thank you boo.” View the video here.

You know that feeling when during an interview or a debate your guy is hit with a question, and you sit there just praying that he will give a certain answer? Wish fulfilled for this Insurrectionist during Joy Reid’s MSNBC show today. Reid asked conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt whether he doesn’t “worry” about how a President Donald Trump would make a life-or-death decision given his “comportment and demeanor.” Shot back the nimble Hewitt: “No. I am much more worried about Secretary Clinton fleeing the State Department at 1:00 A.M in the morning on the night of Benghazi.” Zing! View the...

Heading into the weekend, how about a real rib-tickler to go along with that half-price Happy Hour beverage? On today’s With All Due Respect, guest host Donny Deutsch actually said of Hillary Clinton “she does not lie.” Hope you didn’t spit out that drink! As soon as “does not lie” left Donny’s mouth, he had to start semi-backtracking: “well, we’ve seen instances as far as the email where she was not forthcoming and she actually did lie, but on a day-to-day basis as part of her campaign DNA it’s not in there.” How ironic of Deutsch to claim that lying...

Mika Brzezinski used an unfortunate metaphor on today’s Morning Joe to describe Hillary and Trump’s different approaches to preparing for Monday’s first presidential debate. Said Mika: “you think of like the two law students preparing for the bar. The guy is polishing his car to calm down. And the girl is studying up to the last minute.” Mika is apparently unaware that Hillary flunked the DC bar exam after graduating from Yale law school in 1973. 67% of the people taking the exam at the same time passed, putting Hillary in the bottom third. Maybe instead of studying, she was...

Of all the words to misspell . . . A segment on voter demographics on today’s Morning Joe focused on the phenomenon of Trump doing less well among college-educated white voters than past Republican presidential candidates. So it was amusing to note that the MSNBC screen graphic read [emphasis added] “Why Trump is Losing Colleg–Educated White Voters.”

Richard Haass is the quintessential member of the foreign policy establishment. Long-time President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Haass has served in Republican and Democrat administrations and advised candidates from both parties. In this election, he has been very critical of Donald Trump. So no taint of partisanship can be applied to the normally mild-mannered Haass’ scathing comments on today’s Morning Joe about President Obama’s UN speech of yesterday. After calling the speech a “major disappointment,” Haass unleashed the unkindest cut, saying of Obama’s detached attitude to the crises of the day “this is not the faculty lounge.” Ouch....

Andrea Mitchell has her unmentionables in major undulations over the fact that Donald Trump, Jr. posted a tweet analogizing terrorists hiding among bona fide refugees to a few poisonous Skittles in an otherwise okay bowl. And so on her MSNBC show today, Mitchell teed up Dem Rep. Adam Schiff to take a big swing at the Trump campaign. Schiff was only too happy to oblige, piously denouncing Trump, Jr., whom he described as a “rotten apple” falling not far from the tree. Schiff accused Trump, Jr. of saying “essentially, children who are fleeing the war and violence are like poison...