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

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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."

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Missing Republican will return June 30 but questions remain

Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) will return to Congress on June 30 after months of unexplained absences, according to his spokesperson Harrison Neely.

Neely revealed, "the 57-year-old lawmaker plans to attend the June 30 House session," according to Politico.

Kean's office attributed his extended disappearance to an undisclosed health issue but provided no details despite repeated promises of an imminent return.

GOP leaders on Capitol Hill remained in the dark about his absence, and reporters visiting his home found neighbors equally mystified.

Neely pledged Kean "plans to be fully transparent regarding the nature of his health issue" during his in-person appearance. The Congressman's prolonged unexplained absence and vague health claims have raised questions among constituents and colleagues about his fitness to serve.

The 57-year-old congressman faces a competitive re-election battle against Democrat Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot and Air National Guard officer.

Watch the video below.

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Wikipedia burns Trump by declaring his military misadventure an 'Iranian victory'

President Donald Trump got yet another piece of humiliation about the conclusion of the Iran war — and it came in its entry on Wikipedia.

As of press time, the Wikipedia page for "2026 Iran War" states that the outcome of the war was "Iranian victory."

As evidence, the article provides a number of citations from political analysts, including a piece in The Atlantic by Graeme Wood titled "Iran Has Humiliated Trump," and a piece in The Independent by Sam Kiley, titled, "Trump has achieved none of his aims in Iran. His ‘ceasefire’ can’t work and won’t work."

Trump, for his part, continues to tout the memorandum of understanding that suspended hostilities in Iran as a victory, claiming those who don't like the deal are "fools."

However, Trump is facing opposition not just from Democrats, but a number of conservative Republicans who are generally on his side, like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Wikipedia outsources its content to a collective of online volunteer editors and, by its own rules, avoids partisan and opinionated entries.

Despite this, Republicans have sometimes come after Wikipedia for what they perceive to be unfair bias. Last year, when Trump loyalist Ed Martin was running the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington, D.C., he sent a threatening letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia's parent organization, accusing them of violating their nonprofit status to push "propaganda."

Trump tipped his hand and revealed the new 'big lie' he's trying to sell: analyst

President Donald Trump has already revealed the next big lie that he plans to sell to Americans, a foreign policy analyst said.

Robert Kagan, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a foreign policy analyst, said during an appearance on CNN that Trump will try to frame his deal to end the Iran war as "regime change" and "unconditional surrender."

He added that Trump will deny that the money going to Iran is "reparations" for the war.

"He's all about the big lie," Kagan said. "And this is going to be his big lie. I just don't think that even he, who is one of the great con artists of all time, can sell the American people on this being anything other than an American surrender."

Kagan also pointed out, "The one thing we're confident is happening is that Iran is going to get billions of dollars, tens of billions, and probably hundreds of billions of dollars in return for nothing," and described it as "an easy tell" that gives away Trump's lie.

"Now, that's called reparations, and if you look at history, reparations are paid by the loser to the winner," Kagan explained. "In World War I, Germany paid reparations to Britain and France. If Germany had won the war, Britain and France would have paid the reparations, so that's how you know what happened in this war."

In other words, "Trump essentially paid the Iranians to give him a fig leaf that would allow him to come home and tell the Americans that everything is fine," Kagan summed up.

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