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Trump's 'twisted and demented' salute to Jan. 6 rioters wrecked by Morning Joe

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Trump's 'twisted and demented' salute to Jan. 6 rioters wrecked by Morning Joe

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough condemned Donald Trump for celebrating jailed Jan. 6 rioters as patriots and hostages.

At a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, the former president saluted the J6 Prison Choir's alternate rendition of the national anthem, calling them "unbelievable patriots," and pledged to help those "hostages" on his first day in office, and both the "Morning Joe" host and co-host Mika Brzezinski called his comments "twisted."

"Donald Trump, again, the Republican frontrunner who basically clinched the nomination, addressing one of the first things he'll do in office, is free the – and I say this in quotes – 'hostages,'" Brzezinski said. "It's beyond twisted for him to use that word. Not surprised but as disturbed as we'll ever be."

Scarborough said the ex-president's remarks were insulting to Americans who have loved ones held as hostages by Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

READ MORE: MAGA’s Christian nationalism excludes a vast majority of Christianity

"What if you were an American family with hostages still being held in tunnels underneath Gaza, people who actually are hostages, who were doing nothing but being in their home or at a musical festival, minding their own business, when Hamas terrorists came and seized them and beat them, raped them, abused them, took them underground," Scarborough said. "Donald Trump comparing those people in name to others that drove from across the country, came to the Capitol, used bear spray on police officers, beat the hell out of cops, beat the hell out of other people who got in their way, wanted to hang Mike Pence, were looking for Nancy Pelosi, destroyed a lot of offices, defecated in the United States Capitol. Again, jammed cops' heads in doors and tried to hurt as many people as they could."

"You know, Donald Trump, I remember the day after, Donald Trump and members of his family getting in trouble for calling these rioters patriots," Scarborough continued. "They backed off, some of them backed off. Donald Trump wading straight in, saying these people were patriots and that, you know, others saying this wasn't a bloodbath. I would suggest that you talk to the wives, sons and daughters of those police officers who lost their lives as a result of Jan. 6, and they will tell you that their loved ones lost their lives as a result of Jan. 6. Donald Trump continues to praise these people. He says, he says, everybody knows they're patriots. No, everybody doesn't, in fact. You have to be twisted and demented in your head if you can look at can rioting, people beating the hell out of cops, with police officers with American flags, trying to kill them, and call them hostages after they went through the court system. That is a sickness and a twistedness, and the continued -- you have people continuing to try to apologize for this behavior, starting with Donald Trump, trying to minimize what happened on Jan. 6."

"For those who say, why do you talk about Donald Trump?" he added. "We talk about Donald Trump because, yes, democracy is on the line. When Donald Trump says this is normal political behavior, the RNC said it was normal political behavior, Donald Trump says it, he says those people abusing police officers are patriots. Those that got sent to jail for trying to overrun the U.S. Capitol and for beating the hell out of cops are hostages, nothing – there is nothing normal about this. For those weak-kneed wimps that say we should never mention Donald Trump's name and just turn our faces from this and talk about something else, I would suggest there are Germans who tried that with Hitler – didn't turn out well."

Watch the video below or at this link.


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Pentagon gripped by 'frustration, anger and downright confusion' aimed at Trump: report

Outside of Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, there is little excitement within the Pentagon and among former defense officials to see the Department of Defense (DOD) renamed as the Department of War (DOW) with worries about cost, confusion and also how other nations will use the change for propaganda purposes.


According to a report from Politico, the long-anticipated rebranding landed with a thud on Friday as the president and the controversial Hegseth discussed it in an Oval Office press availability.

Trump told reporters, “We won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything before that and in between, and then we decided to go woke, and we changed the name to DOD. So, we’re going Department of War.”


That was greeted with “frustration, anger and downright confusion at the effort, which could cost billions of dollars for a cosmetic change that would do little to tackle the military’s most pressing challenges — such as countering a more aggressive alliance of authoritarian nations,” wrote Politico’s Jack Detsch, Paul McLeary and Joe Gould.

One former defense official scoffed, “This is purely for domestic political audiences. Not only will this cost millions of dollars, it will have absolutely zero impact on Chinese or Russian calculations. Worse, it will be used by our enemies to portray the United States as warmongering and a threat to international stability.”

“I see there being a million small headaches and annoyances if this actually happens. It’ll eat up time and effort,” a current Pentagon official added.

Going on the record, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) cautioned on X, “If we call it the Dept. of War, we’d better equip the military to actually prevent and win wars. Can’t preserve American primacy if we’re unwilling to spend substantially more on our military than Carter or Biden. ‘Peace through strength’ requires investment, not just rebranding.”

Politico is reporting, “The seemingly ad hoc rollout of the name change has caused confusion within the building. One Pentagon official, who independently decided to squat on the Department of War LinkedIn page to prevent a foreign adversary or Trump administration critic from taking it over, openly asked on the social network to whom he should hand the page.”

Another official pointed out that the Pentagon, during Trump’s second term, has already been dragged into making major changes at Hegseth’s request, when they were forced to scrub any mention of DEI initiatives, explaining, "That was just taking down photos. The seal will have to change and thus anything with it.”


The Department of War changes would be significantly more labor-intensive.“On a tactical level, it would mean having to rebrand a mountain of contracting, marketing, business development materials, you name it, both digital and otherwise, that specifically cite the Department of Defense or DOD,” a defense analyst warned.

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Only one group of people would truly mourn Trump

I guess I was doing something right last weekend. I had no idea that the internet had blown up with speculation over the president’s poor health. I try to unplug at least once a week, for my own health reasons, and apparently I succeeded.

As far as I can tell, Donald Trump is not dead, but on Tuesday he was an hour late to a White House presser, where he announced something. It doesn’t matter what it was, because the purpose of the announcement was proving he’s alive, though he’s clearly in a state of steep decline.

I think Garrett Graff’s piece this week says pretty much what needs saying about the newsworthiness of the subject, but I will take it a step farther: the reason Trump’s health has not made the leap from “news story” to “news event” is because the Washington press corps, especially the people who cut checks, doesn’t have the incentive.

The press corps needs attention. It’s the kind of need normal people cannot understand, nor should they, for their own sake. Trump, meanwhile, provides attention, especially when he says insane things.

So the incentive is not toward revealing the truth about Trump’s failing health but concealing it, even going so far as to accept uncritically the preposterous claim that he’s the fittest man to ever hold the office. If there’s nothing to see, even though it’s happening in front of television cameras, the gravy train can continue, and “everyone” is happy.

Here’s an example. At that presser, Trump was asked by one of the Fox chodes whether he would send National Guard troops to Chicago and other major cities. Trump hemmed and hawed, as he usually does, searching for an answer. He was clearly not trying to make an announcement, just saying whatever popped into this demented head.

Then the Associated Press pushed this breaking news alert, in effect giving an improvised response the look and feel of serious presidential thought: “President Donald Trump said he will order federal law enforcement intervention in Chicago and Baltimore, despite local opposition.”

Joe Biden did not do that. He did not bring mindless attention to himself. He did not invite reporters into the White House every day. He did not say crazy things in front of cameras, though he could mangle the English language like few others could. He did not speak with absolute contempt for facts and the truth. And he did not provide attention-seekers with what they needed more than anything else.

So like junkies, they went looking for what Biden would not give them. They accepted as true Trump’s allegation that the Afghan withdrawal was the worst disaster in history, even though Trump negotiated the disastrous terms of it. Reporters also accepted as true allegations made by a federal prosecutor who said Biden was old and tired.

These are two examples of dozens of stories that generated enormous public interest, that is, enormous attention for the attention-seekers. Along with Biden’s terrible debate performance, these stories paved the way for Jake Tapper’s post-election book alleging a secret and massive cover-up of Biden’s health, especially his mental decline, and even that Biden is somehow responsible for Trump’s victory.

If reporters like Tapper (and co-author Alex Thompson) really believed what they said about a massive cover-up of Biden's infirmities, you would expect them to never, ever, make that mistake again. You would think professional integrity and service to the public would compel them to chase down every tip as to the well-being of the current president.

But here we are in the middle of the near-total absence of any serious and sustained reporting on Trump's visible infirmities – as Graff said, the bruised hands, the swollen ankles, the changes to his personal habits (since when does he spend a holiday weekend at the White House?) and, most of all, the utterly confabulated things he says daily.

This near-total absence is reason alone to believe that Tapper, Thompson and others did not themselves believe what they said about Biden, only that saying it brought them the attention they needed.

And this near-total absence is reason alone to believe something else: that they don’t need to go out looking for attention because the president already provides it. As long as he does, the public may never know what shape he’s really in, perhaps not until the day he dies.

And even then, we may never know.

Trump’s death would trigger a power vacuum full of infighting and backstabbing between contentious factions of his fragile coalition, especially between his family, which wants the grift to keep going, and anyone who might get behind Vice President JD Vance.

In life and in death, Trump is good news for the news business. And it’s because the demagogue and the press are in a symbiotic relationship that the evidence of our eyes – the daily decay of the oldest man to take the presidential oath – is not nearly enough incentive for beltway reporters to set aside their self-interest for the good of the people.

Donald Trump is the most miserable person on God’s earth. He’s never known a moment of joy. He steals it from those around him. The only people he’s ever made happy were those who need attention like you and I need air. For this reason alone, they might mourn his passing.

Maybe.

Expert reveals why this simple anti-Trump tactic is so effective:  Really broken through'

One arena in which President Donald Trump's administration has been consistently stymied is the federal judiciary. And an attorney currently leading a prominent lawsuit against the White House is now giving new details on why his efforts have borne fruit.

During a Friday interview on MSNBC's "The Weeknight," Norm Eisen — who was U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic during former President Barack Obama's administration — expanded on his simple strategy of filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests compelling the Trump administration to release documents pertaining to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Eisen previously shed light on his successes in the judiciary with The Atlantic in an article entitled "The Anti-Trump Strategy That's Actually Working." The article reported on "a legal resistance led by a patchwork coalition of lawyers, public-interest groups, Democratic state attorneys general, and unions has frustrated Trump’s ambitions."

"Hundreds of attorneys and plaintiffs have stood up to [Trump], feeding a steady assembly line of setbacks and judicial reprimands for a president who has systematically sought to break down limits on his own power," the report read. "Of the 384 cases filed through August 28 against the Trump administration, 130 have led to orders blocking at least part of the president’s efforts, and 148 cases await a ruling, according to a review by Just Security. Dozens of those rulings are the final word, with no appeal by the government, and others have been stayed on appeal, including by the Supreme Court."

"The tenacity and the ability to sort of go at these things really is coming into focus," MSNBC host Michael Steele said of Eisen's efforts. "... The Trump-Epstein story is the story of the Trump administration's corruption benefiting his rich and powerful cronies at the expense of vulnerable people. You explained it that way. That's the nub of this, and it's now coming home to roost, if you will."

"This is one — as I explained to The Atlantic — that has really broken through. And it's not just because it's salacious," Eisen responded. "What I think the American people are getting is a theme of the Trump administration too close to the rich and powerful, and as a result, who gets hurt? The most vulnerable people in our society."

The Atlantic reported that while FOIA requests are "normally a weak tool for unlocking investigative records gathered for criminal investigations," Eisen saw an opening based on an argument Attorney General Pam Bondi's Department of Justice made in a legal filing. He believed that because the DOJ claimed that extraordinary public interest in the Epstein controversy necessitated the release of grand jury transcripts, Eisen used that same rationale to force the administration's hand through the FOIA process.

"We've done 11 FOIAs. We're in court litigating. We're keeping the pressure on ... how did [Epstein accomplice] Ghislaine Maxwell get moved from a prison where she deserved for her involvement in these terrible crimes against young women, to a country club prison? We're going to get that information out there."

Watch Eisen's segment below, or by clicking this link.

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