Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough accomplished two things with their op-ed and “Morning Joe” appearance Friday responding to the president’s vulgar Thursday tweets. First, they successfully put President Trump’s mental health front and center. Second, they added a new legal issue for Trump’s fleet of lawyers to puzzle over.
As for the president’s psyche, Brzezinski and Scarborough wrote, “America’s leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president. We have our doubts, but we are both certain that the man is not mentally equipped to continue watching our show, ‘Morning Joe.’ ” On air, they focused on Trump’s mental state again. Brzezinski said she was “very concerned” about what it says about the president. Scarborough recalled an account from a senior member of Congress, who told him that in front of 20 congressmen gathered to talk about health care, the president went on an unhinged, angry rant involving Brzezinski. She observed that his “fragile, impetuous ego” leads him to be “so easily played by a TV news host.” Scarborough suggested people in the White House are “getting more concerned about his emotional state.” As he has before, Scarborough suggested there has been a change, a deterioration in his personality over the years. Guest Donny Deutsch said flat out, “He is not of sound mind.”
Whether it was intentional or not, the TV hosts successfully turned the table on Trump, in perhaps the most effective response to his tweeting to date. However, until his own party begins to rebuke him formally and question his ability to perform his duties, this remains a drag on his popularity but not a threat to his presidency.
Even more important, Brzezinski and Scarborough raised a new, troubling allegation. Scarborough recounted that White House aides allegedly called him that to say that a negative story would run in the National Enquirer about them but if they called to apologize, Trump could have the story pulled. The president denied the charge in a tweet (what else?), claiming, “Watched low rated Morning Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show.” Scarborough shot back, “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.”
One cannot help but compare this to the dinner between Trump and then-FBI Director James B. Comey in which Comey’s contemporaneous notes debunked the president’s claims that Comey wanted the dinner and Comey asked for his job. Comey’s notes document that Trump invited him and then seemed to dangle Comey’s job in front of him.
Do the allegations that the White House threatened two journalists with a potentially damaging story rise to the level of blackmail or extortion? That’s something for special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III to consider. But if there is a paper trail — as there was in Comey’s case — the plot thickens.
The president’s narcissistic impulses and complete unawareness of (or disregard for) legal and behavioral norms have become a running theme of his presidency. Whether they finally do him in — handing law enforcement and/or political opponents the rope to hang him — remains the ongoing story of the most peculiar presidency in our history.