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On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski said of Ben Carson "I want to be very careful with my words, but he just doesn't sound completely connected with everything." Judging from her halting cadence, Mika clearly seemed to realize that she was treading on some very controversial mental-health ground. The lead-in to her "connected" comment was her observation "he tried to kill his mother for God's sake! . . . we have been listening to this man talk in a flat monotone tone about taking a hammer to his mother's head." View the video here.

Two days ago, as we reported here, Joe Scarborough and Nicolle Wallace excoriated Ben Carson, accusing him of telling "one lie after another" and "bald-faced lies." Today, it was Mika Brezinski's turn to denounce the good doctor. On Morning Joe, Mika said "there's this slipperiness to him that nobody will just say. He's slippery. He doesn't tell the truth, and he doesn't make sense." View the video here.

It was like a mother trying to lead her naughty son through an apology . . . Last week, Joe Scarborough predicted he would "get in trouble" for calling John Harwood's biased performance as debate moderator "embarrassing." On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski tried, in what seemed perhaps to be a pre-arranged mea culpa, to force Joe to say "I really respect everyone I work with." Joe didn't play along with the script but did ultimately mutter "of course I do" before quickly moving on. So was this something the MSNBC suits cooked up? Had Joe agreed to mouth the...

Joe Scarborough had to prod her into it, but once she got going, Mika Brzezinski unleashed a blistering tirade against Hillary on today's Morning Joe for accusing Bernie Sanders of sexism. Hillary has ginned up great feminist umbrage at Sanders' statement at the debate that people need to stop "shouting" about gun violence and do something about it. A clip was played of Hillary at two stump events saying that when women talk some people think they're shouting. In an extended riff, Mika repeatedly called Hillary's shtick "pathetic," adding that she was "cringing" at the "stupidity" of it. Mika said...

It might be apocryphal, but the famous quote attributed to Pauline Kael, the late film critic of the New York Times, is along the lines of "how could Nixon have won? Nobody I know voted for him." Mika Brzezinski had her Pauline Kael moment on today's Morning Joe. Mika declared herself "really surprised" by poll numbers showing there are more Americans dissatisfied with Hillary Clinton's response to Benghazi than there are people who think the congressional investigation into Benghazi is too partisan. Said Mika: "it's sort of like a disconnect I guess that I have with the people I talk...

They really are coming for your guns . . . After the Charleston church shootings, President Obama praised Australia's draconian gun laws, which included a mandatory buy-back program, AKA confiscation. On today's Morning Joe, Mika wondered "why" we couldn't institute a similar gun ban in the United States, throwing in support for a database of all gun ownership for good measure. Joe Scarborough was actually obliged to explain to Mika that her gun ban was never going to happen because we have the Second Amendment here. That left Mika grimacing in regret [see the screengrab]. View the video here.

In the view of this NewsBuster, Hugh Hewitt is the ablest conservative interviewer on radio. So it was surprising to see him serve as such a loyal CNN soldier on today's Morning Joe. Hewitt, a member of the CNN panel at Wednesday's GOP debate, refused to complain about the paltry opportunities he was given to question the candidates. And defending the fact that Donald Trump had been given twice Scott Walker and Mike Huckabee's airtime, Hewitt said that while "unfortunate," Jake Tapper had done a "marvelous" job of allocating time. That was too much for Mika Brzezinski, who bluntly told...

It's one thing for conservatives to concur that Carly Fiorina was outstanding at last night's debate. But to hear a string of superlatives about Fiorina coming from committed liberal Mika Brzezinski was breathtaking. Over the course of today's Morning Joe, a stream of praise for Fiorina flowed from Mika, capped by this: "my God, I have never seen anyone like her. Ever." View the video here.

Mika Brzezinski: fired up and ready to go . . . for Donald Trump? Not exactly. It isn't that Mika's jumping on the Make America Great Again express. It's just that she wants "intellectual honesty" from her peers when it comes to admitting that Trump has gone from amusing sideshow who's sure to eventually crash to true frontrunner who is now likely to be the Republican nominee. You might not think of Brzezinski as being particularly data-driven, but on today's Morning Joe she repeatedly argued that there is no data supporting a Trump meltdown scenario. Going around the table with...

Like someone looking for the first robin of Spring, this NewsBuster has been on the prowl for the first media person to suggest that Hillary Clinton is going to have to quit the race. Joe Scarborough didn't go quite that far, but let's just say his shirtfront was taking on a distinctly robin-red hue on today's Morning Joe. After lambasting her "dismal" performance on the stump, Scarborough--quoting an unidentified panel member--said that Hillary is "getting into Rick Perry 2012 territory right now." View the video here.

Mika Brzezinski: fired up and ready to go . . . for Donald Trump? Not exactly. It isn't that Mika's jumping on the Make America Great Again express. It's just that she wants "intellectual honesty" from her peers when it comes to admitting that Trump has gone from amusing sideshow who's sure to eventually crash to true frontrunner who is now likely to be the Republican nominee. You might not think of Brzezinski as being particularly data-driven, but on today's Morning Joe she repeatedly argued that there is no data supporting a Trump meltdown scenario. Going around the table with...

The occasional dust-ups between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on the Morning Joe set seem largely made-for-TV. But there appeared to be some authentic antagonism on today's show on the issue of the motivations of those who oppose the Iran deal. Scarborough passionately condemned supporters of the deal who cynically suggest that opponents are controlled by the Jewish lobby. "Why don't you guys talk about the Elders of Zion?" suggested Scarborough sarcastically at one point. When Mika tried to shut Scarborough down, claiming "we get the point," Scarborough shot back "you're the last person on the face of the earth...

85 On Wednesday, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski said that “Just like Fox” Univision and Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos was lecturing GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, not asking him questions. After fellow co-host former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough stated, “he gave a lecture, he wasn’t asking a question. And i don’t know what politician would have been — actually I wouldn’t have been that patient with him. I would have said, ‘You got a question?'” Brzezinski added, “Just like Fox, the debate.” Panelist Mike Barnicle added that Ramos was engaging in a “debate” with Trump, not a Q&A. Scarborough...

Finally! Something from a New York Times reporter you can absolutely, positively believe: that no matter the mounting evidence, he will not condemn Hillary Clinton for her email malfeasance. On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough repeatedly tried to get Jeremy Peters to state whether he agreed with the federal judge who yesterday declared that Hillary had not "followed government policy" regarding her email. After haplessly trying to do anything but answer the question, an exasperated Peters finally sputtered: "you want, you want me to indict and damn Hillary? I'm not going to do that." View the video...

Did Rush Limbaugh force Fox News, in the wake of the Donald Trump/Megyn Kelly dust-up, to back down and welcome Trump back on its network? That's what New York Times reporter Nick Confessore suggested on today's Morning Joe. Asked by Mika Brzezinski who was the most powerful person in the media today, Confessore responded: "I think Fox or Rush Limbaugh [whose last name Confessore pronounced "Lim-bow], right? In this primary, right? There were two institutions that could have put a stop to Trump, talk radio and Fox. And talk radio likes him and Fox backed down." View the video here.

Yesterday, this NewsBuster was gobsmacked by the spectacle of senior Hillary aide Jennifer Palmieri suggesting that the FBI would be happy to discover that Hillary's infamous email server had been scrubbed clean. We wrote about it here. Today's Morning Joe picked through the smoldering ashes of that interview with the participation of John Heilemann, who conducted it. Joe Scarborough said that "everybody" he talked to called the interview a "disaster." Heilemann suggested that top Hillary staffers are "in the dark." The cruelest cut came from Mika Brzezinski, who said "there are no good answers." So where does Hillary go from...

Partisanship oozing out of Howard Dean's wherever! On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski, exasperated by Howard Dean's dead-ender defense of Hillary on the email scandal, told him "your partisan whatever is just ooz[ing.]" You know Hillary is in hot water when even Andrea Mitchell had to report that there are "big" problems for Clinton on the email front. But Howard Dean has apparently decided to go down with Hillary's ship, clinging to his claim that the email scandal is "hooey" and declaring "you're just not going to get me to give on this." View the video here.

Well, she did stop short of saying Chuck Schumer was worried about losing donations from co-religionist contributors . . . But on today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinksi repeatedly accused Schumer of acting out of politics in his opposition to the Iran deal. Battling with Bill Kristol, an unusually animated Brzezinski broke out the over-the-top adjectives, branding opposition to the deal "ludicrous," "crazy" and "calamitous." What explains Mika's exceptionally emotional outburst on this subject? View the video here.

The screencap shows New Yorker editor David Remnick, on today's Morning Joe, raising his hand to proudly plead guilty to condescending to Donald Trump, whom he had just called a "comical blowhard" in regretting that he was "conceivably a player" in the presidential race. Mika Brzezinski is no fan of The Donald on the issues, so give her extra credit for sticking up for his relevance to the race. Schooling Remnick, she said that Trump has the guts, which many lack, to "liquefy" the likes of George Stephanopoulos and others with one line. Mika was alluding to Joe Scarborough's statement...

Yes, what could be better for an already-troubled network than to be saddled with a disgraced hand-me-down from the mother ship? On today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski gushed "I think that it's great for the network" that Brian Williams will be joining MSNBC as its anchor of breaking news. As dutiful employees, it's understandable that MSNBC people would greet Williams impending arrival respectfully, as did Joe Scarborough in saying--without excitement--that he was "very excited." But Mika went beyond the call of duty with her "great for this network" line. View the video here.