Friday, June 30, 2017

In the Immortal Words of James Comey

"Lordy, I hope there are tapes."


Here's exactly what the co-hosts [Jose Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski] alleged on Friday's "Morning Joe."

"We got a call that, 'Hey, the National Enquirer is going to run a negative story against you guys...' And they said, 'If you call the president up, and you apologize for your coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike this story," Scarborough said.

[...]

Scarborough says he has proof of White House threats earlier this year -- he replied to Trump and said "I have texts from your top aides and phone records."

And an NBC News spokesman told CNN that Scarborough kept several executives apprised of the alleged threats "contemporaneously."

[...]

Scarborough and Brzezinski are essentially alleging a form of blackmail.

[...]

[A] White House official suggested to CNN that nothing untoward had occurred. The official told CNN that Scarborough called Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, about the Enquirer story before it was published. Kushner, the official said, told Scarborough to call the president. The official denied there was ever any offer from Kushner of a quid pro quo -- in other words softer coverage in exchange for spiking the Enquirer story.

[...]

What's definitely true is this: Trump and the publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, are friends and allies.

[...]

The Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid, frequently promotes the president's agenda.

[...]

And the Enquirer did publish a negative story about Scarborough and Brzezinski back in early June.

[...]

Scarborough and Brzezinski are now engaged. The negative article was about their past marriages and the beginning of their relationship.

[...]

The president himself weighed in via Twitter a few minutes later. He said he heard what Scarborough said on "Morning Joe," but claimed that it's untrue: "He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show."

Scarborough responded quickly to Trump's tweet with one of his own, writing, "Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoken with you in many months."

  CNN
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.


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