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.

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"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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The one thing Trump 'ignored' is now back to 'seek its revenge' in Iran: analyst

A typical position for wartime government operations has been dismissed by Donald Trump, with an expert calling the change-up a worrying consequence of his administration.

The president appears to be calling shots on the fly when it comes to the Iran war, and The Atlantic columnist Franklin Foer believes this is now an intentional strategy, rather than ill-advised planning. Strikes against Iran were carried out earlier this month, with the US joining Israel in firing a series of missiles at the Middle Eastern country.

This decision has been roundly criticized, but the administration has pressed on all the same, and it appears there is little in the way of planning from Trump or his closest allies.

Foer wrote, "The lesson that the Trump administration seemed to learn from the failed planning for postwar Iraq is that planning isn’t worth the effort at all. When asked what comes next, Trump can manage only several contradictory answers, sometimes in the course of a single sentence.

"But the most plausible of these answers is that the administration finds a faction in the government willing to cut a deal favorable to the United States, an Iranian version of Delcy Rodríguez—the Venezuelan official who quietly negotiated her government’s survival after U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro.

"Such an outcome would undercut every promise that Trump made to protesters about help being on the way. It’s hardly encouraging that the administration doesn’t have a plausible candidate for this job after nearly two weeks of conflict—and that the existing regime hasn’t begun suing for peace, even though it’s fighting for survival."

This situation for Trump means countries he strikes or threatens can claim a victory even if there is total domination from the US. Foer explained, "By trumpeting unachievable objectives—unconditional surrender, regime change—as his war aims, Trump has given his enemies the opportunity to claim survival as victory.

"He’s left himself with no evident end point to what he recently called a 'short-term excursion.' If he had wanted to weaken Iran’s ballistic-missile threat—a worthwhile aim—he could have focused U.S. strikes on launchers and production sites.

"Much as he did after attacking Iranian nuclear facilities last year, Trump could have declared that limited goal and walked away a victor a few days later. Or he could have allowed Israel to carry out attacks, with U.S. support, which might have limited fallout in the Gulf.

"If he wanted to topple the regime, he could have helped organize and support the opposition, nurturing and supplying the movement to better equip it to succeed. Instead, Trump ignored the obvious and went to war. Now the obvious is seeking its revenge."

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'Most dangerous moment': Expert says Trump caught in 'trap' that will escalate Iran chaos

President Donald Trump's current strategy in Iran is leading him into a "trap" of his own making, terrorism expert and legal scholar Robert Pape warned in a segment on CNN Wednesday morning.

This comes amid a growing fear and division among Republicans on the ethical and political advisability of following Trump on his Iran plans.

"Your take on this has been very, very interesting, but let's start here," said anchor Kate Bolduan, referencing his recent Substack post, "The Escalation Trap." "You say that the United States is now entering the most dangerous phase in this military campaign so far. Explain why."

"Thanks for having me on, Kate," said Pape. "For 30 years, I have studied air power and escalation. I've taught for the U.S. Air Force for 20 years. I've modeled the bombing of Iran, taking out [nuclear facilities at] Fordow, Natanz, and regime change."

The bottom line, Pape continued, is that "President Trump is up against the weight of history. For over 100 years states have been trying to topple governments with air power alone. And, and — I'm choosing my words carefully — it has never worked."

"We are now about to enter the most dangerous phase of the escalation trap, as I call it, where initial success with precision weapons, which are tactically effective — and you see, we killed the Supreme Leader — lead to strategic failure, which then suck us deeper and deeper into a conflict," said Pape. "We didn't plan to go deeper and deeper, and we kept saying we would not. And we are about to enter that phase in the next week or two."

In other words, he added, "This will be the most dangerous moment of the crisis."

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Fired Kristi Noem's DHS mess will take 'weeks, if not months' to untangle: report

Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s experience as a plumber may come in handy when he arrives at the Department of Homeland Security as the new director, when he see the mess left behind by his fired predecessor Kristi Noem.

According to a report from Axios, the highly unpopular Noem, who was unceremoniously booted from the Trump administration cabinet almost two weeks ago will be leaving behind stacks of unpaid bills and unfinished contracts that will need to be resolved before the Oklahoma Republican can make his own mark on the troubled agency.

Dozens of pending contracts are accumulating on desks as vendors wait for payments and essential projects languish. Trump's signature priorities—mass deportations and border wall construction—have been delayed. Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief has also stalled due to Noem foot-dragging.

"There's a mountain of backed-up contracts and invoices on her desk that the new guy will just have to deal with," a DHS insider told Axios.

The dysfunction predates even the partial government shutdown that began February 14 over immigration policy disagreements. A source familiar with FEMA operations described the situation bluntly: "From everything that I've heard, it's still a giant s--- show up there."

The long-term consequences could prove severe. "The ramifications of her tenure are going to be felt for years and years and years and years," the source warned. "We're not really going to know exactly how bad it is until we have a major hurricane that unfortunately impacts someplace in the United States."

Reversing Noem's system won't provide quick relief. According to officials familiar with the situation, even if her review process is completely dismantled, "it's going to take weeks, if not months, of constant work" to restore vendors' funding and resume normal operations.

Mullin has not indicated whether he plans to continue or abandon the departing DHS head's contracting system, which Noem chief of staff Corey Lewandowski declined to recommend.

You can read more here.

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