A decision by Department of Justice officials to rush to the defense of a senior adviser who attended the Jan. 6 insurrection and urged fellow rioters to kill Capitol police officers left an MSNBC panel flabbergasted on Friday morning.
After "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski reported on the DOJ having hired and placed Jared Wise, who screamed at police officers, calling them "Nazi" and "Gestapo," and then exclaiming "kill 'em," co-host Joe Scarborough called the DOJ's response to the controversy "very bizarre."
As was noted, the DOJ curtly responded to inquiries about Wise with, "Jared Wise is a valued member of the Justice Department and we appreciate his contributions to our team."
"This is very bizarre coming from a political party holding up such a person that is calling for the killing of cops," Scarborough told the panel. "Very bizarre that he's working in the preeminent law enforcement agency in America for a president and a party who claim to be supporting law enforcement officers and claiming it's the liberals that don't support law enforcement officers."
"What can you tell us about this, this person who, at really the most heated time on January 6th, was calling for the killing of law enforcement officers?" he asked MSNBC's Ken Dilanian.
"It's mind-boggling, Joe," he replied. "I will say that Mr. Wise did express contrition for those comments during his trial which was cut short when Donald Trump ended all the prosecutions of January 6th defendants and pardoned them all."
"But I think what we're seeing here is the consequences of an administration that has rewritten history, rewritten the history of January 6th, and as I, you know, Donald Trump pardoned all the defendants including those who assaulted police officer and is now going about firing FBI agents who worked on those cases and FBI supervisors and then hiring people who were part of the riot."
He then added, "And, you know, to your point Joe, I suspect if you polled most Americans, even most Republicans, they're not necessarily on board with this."
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