Morning Joe's @JoeNBC mocks the IG report debunking the media's widely circulated claim that U.S. Park Police removed Lafayette Sq. #BLM protesters for a Trump "photo op," claims it didn't debunk the story
@JoeNBC Scarborough: “You talk about a lack of perspective in the panting and the over-reporting here from Trump apologists. It’s laughable on its face. You just need to read the report and read what the IG says and what the IG does not say."
@JoeNBC "There’s a reason they were cleared with the urgency that they were cleared w/ ... They could have actually scheduled repairs on scaffolding at the same time, before knowing, of course, that Donald Trump, who was humiliated after news broke that he scrambled down to the bunker "
@JoeNBC “If it makes you feel better seizing on to a report that doesn’t cover the entire event and completely ignoring what [Bill Barr] said, you go with that. But that’s awfully thin gruel, if that’s what you’re relying on, awfully thin gruel. Good luck with that."
@JoeNBC Interior Dept. IG: “We did not find evidence that a potential presidential visit to the park or St. John’s church influenced the Park Police’s decision-making or deployment."
@JoeNBC CNN’s @Acosta on the IG report debunking CNN’s “reporting” on Trump’s visit to Lafayette Square Park: “Raises more questions than it answers”
“As I read the report you wondered if [the IG] was auditioning to become inspector general at Mar-a-Lago. This was almost a whitewash"
Toobin explains his infamous Zoom call: "I didn’t think I was on the call. I didn’t think other people could see me … I thought that I had turned off the Zoom call. Now, that’s not a defense. This was deeply moronic and indefensible. But I mean, that is part of the story."
Cont’d: "I have spent the seven subsequent months, miserable months in my life, I can certainly confess, trying to be a better person. I mean, in therapy, trying to do some public service, working in a food bank, which I certainly am going to continue to do"
NYT/MSNBC’s @MaraGay: In Long Island last weekend, I saw “dozens of American flags,” which was “just disturbing”
@MaraGay "I was on Long Island this weekend ... and I was really disturbed. I saw, you know, dozens & dozens of pickup trucks w/ expletives against Joe Biden ... Trump flags, and in some cases, just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing"
@MaraGay “Essentially the message was clear: ‘This is my country. This is not your country. I own this.’"
Fauci refuses to go after China for destroying evidence & refusing to cooperate with investigators; says the U.S. shouldn’t be “accusatory” as it will make them “pull back more”
Morning Joe Q’s to Fauci:
— Did you think lab leak theory was a “conspiracy theory”?
— What do you think now about the lab-leak theory?
— Which theory has more evidence?
— Why isn’t China cooperating w/ investigations?
— What’s your Covid forecast for the summer?
CNN's interview w/ Fauci this AM:
10 questions about Covid/vaccines
3 question about emails (John Berman almost apologized for getting into it)