Joe Scarborough and the rest of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” panel mocked the Internal Revenue Service Thursday for “recycling” ex-official Lois Lerner’s hard drive and losing years of e-mails that could have shed some light on the organization’s targeting of conservative non-profits.
“Thats the great thing, that e-mails are forever, at least in advanced civilizations,” Scarborough said, obviously skeptical of the IRS’ claims. “Because, you know, if you go to, like, places that look like the scene out of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ where they’re, like, beating sticks, maybe their e-mails get lost.”
He continued, “Even I know that if you have a hard drive and can’t find an e-mail, you can get a little nerd to come in and they can find them for you.”
Scarborough ridiculed the IRS officials for throwing away Lerner’s computer after her hard drive supposedly crashed. “Who are these men? Who are these idiots?” he asked.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski attempted to continue with the news story, revealing that Orrin Hatch (R-UT) alleged that he was told Lerner’s crashed hard drive was specifically “recycled.”
“I like how they use the word ‘recycled,'” Scarborough laughed, “instead of ‘we trashed the evidence and tore it up and buried it,’ no. We were earth friendly, Willie. Have you ever heard that? Like what if a mobster went before a panel. ‘Where is the body? We recycled it!'”
Perhaps the IRS was only trying to conform to the environmentally-friendly attitude of the Obama administration.
Scarborough then took a more serious tone, suggesting that IRS officials responsible for the mess should be harshly punished.
“How does the Internal Revenue Service go to a taxpayer and say, ‘Oh, you can’t find the receipts? You either find the receipts and justify this or you’re going to jail,'” he questioned. “Shouldn’t somebody from the IRS go to jail if this is the standard they hold the rest of Americans to?”
Mike Barnicle chimed in, identifying himself as one of those very Americans who find themselves digging up items from past tax returns. He isn’t too worried about it, though; he said he would simply tell the IRS that he “recycled them.”
