MSNBC “Morning Joe” host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough said the Trump White House, engulfed in questions over its ties to Russia, is inadvertently preventing the news media from covering stories that would otherwise be positive.
Scarborough said Thursday that President Trump and his senior staff are the reason the national media aren’t more focused on the administration’s agenda.
“Just for one second, let’s live in an alternative reality and pretend the president didn’t tweet,” he said. “Pretend that [counselor] Kellyanne [Conway] decided to take a job outside the White House. Pretend that the 31-year-old [policy adviser Stephen Miller] acted like a 31-year-old and didn’t get ahead of his skis and say really disturbing things. If that were the case — a big stretch — we would actually have headlines about the president breaking down boundaries between Republicans and union members; a great meeting with the prime minister of Japan; closer relations with Israel than we’ve had in probably a decade or so; actually him putting things back together with Mexico.”
Since last week, the White House has been on the defense as a steady stream of reports have come out that show top Trump associates having had contact with Russian officials, though details of those communications are unclear.
Mike Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, was ousted Monday night amid the controversy and the White House has struggled to provide a consistent reason for his resignation.
Trump’s top spokesman, White House press secretary Sean Spicer, said Flynn resigned because he broke “trust” with the president and vice president. But Trump on Wednesday during a press conference blamed the whole matter on the media’s coverage of Flynn, who he described as “wonderful.”
“There are so many positive headlines… that they don’t let us cover because they won’t get out of the way with one lie, after another lie, after another lie,” Scarborough said. “Here’s a message to the White House: You keep lying, we’re going to keep reporting.”
