Joe and Mika show how it’s done
by digby
Trump gave a “press conference” today in which he basically reiterated his Trump speech and insulted everyone. Yawn. But he repeatedly claimed that the Democrats were thrown softball questions in their debate while the Republicans were tormented by rude gotchas. (He also complained that the Republicans were asked about “fantasy football” so there’s really no pleasing him …)
Anyway, if anyone wants to see what real softball questions are all they have to do is look at the smarmy love fest between Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and the Koch brothers this morning. This really is equivalent to “which of you are more handsome and why”
BRZEZINSKI: Let’s talk about the book and start with the title. How do you define Good Profit?KOCH: Well, Good Profit, I define just that way, is profit — a good profit is profit that becomes [sic] from contributing to society, from helping other people improve their lives. And for a business, this means producing products and services that your customers value more than the alternatives while more efficiently using resources and being among the safest and environmentally protective producer. And so when you do those, you create good profit. And so this was my philosophy I developed early on.
In reality, as Media Matters has documented, the Kochs have a terrible environmental track record. Koch Industries paid “the largest civil fine ever imposed” for environmental violations after the company caused hundreds of oil spills, and a government agency determined that Koch Industries failures were likely responsible for the deaths of two teenagers. Koch Industries is also among the companies most responsible for both air and water pollution in the U.S. Finally, neither Scarborough nor Brzezinski challenged Koch on his professed devotion to the “scientific method,” even though Koch has personally denied the firmly-established scientific consensus that human activities cause global warming. [Media Matters, 11/3/15; Media Matters, 8/27/14]
SCARBOROUGH: I want to ask you something personally. Because Mika and I talked about this when we had spent a little time with Liz and you before, about how surprised you seemed a few years back at the level of vitriol leveled against you and your family, even Harry Reid calling you un-American. Something that we talked about on our show time and time again … What kind of personal impact did that have on you and your family, and were you shocked by the level of vitriol?Koch responded in part by comparing himself to church reformer Martin Luther, who was put on trial for his religious beliefs and work. [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
SCARBOROUGH: How did you feel the night all the election results came in after Harry Reid and the Democrats had run against you and your brother all year and it ended up that you guys won most of the races that you got involved in? [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
SCARBOROUGH: How did you go from being that guy, to being one of the most influential people in the world? What happened? What was the — when did the, sort of the light come on for you? [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
BRZEZINSKI: Sitting here in your childhood home we have the Koch brothers. Which one was the good brother? [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
Brzezinski To Charles Koch: “You Were The Big Brother?” Scarborough further inquired if Charles Koch bossed David Koch around:
BRZEZINSKI: You were the big brother?
CHARLES KOCH: Yeah, four and a half years older. I was five years ahead of him in school.
SCARBOROUGH: Did he boss you around?
DAVID KOCH: Well, he helped me in a lot of different ways. Let’s put it that way. [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
SCARBOROUGH: When we’ve heard about the Koch brothers, the Koch brothers, everybody talks about the Koch brothers like you’re conjoined twins. But you all are actually very different. Talk about the misperception, first of all, and then talk about how you guys are just different people. [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
SCARBOROUGH: It’s hard to find people in New York, liberals, we were talking about this before, liberals or conservatives alike, who haven’t been touched by your graciousness, whether it’s towards the arts or cancer research. Do you think you got that instinct from your mom? [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
SCARBOROUGH: Isn’t it interesting, though, that as time goes by and government’s gotten larger and larger, what we’ve certainly found when we go out and speak on college campuses is a real instinct to move towards a more libertarian position, whether it’s on economic issues where people want you out of their — want the government out of their lives or social issues, where it seems like they want the government out of their bedroom. Even though you’ve talked before about your disgust with what’s happening in Washington, D.C., it does seem like Americans are actually a lot hungrier for this message than they were when you ran. [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 11/3/15]
That’s how proper fluffing of wingnuts is done, news moderators. Take note.
Update: MSNBC featured this interview all day long highlighting the fact that the Kochs aren’t your average Republican being for all that neato freedom and taking on crony capitalism and all.
They are the cronies, guys. The biggest cronies of all. And their idea of freedom is to let people be free to starve and die.
.