Free Republic

In their new book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan devote considerable attention to the Trump administration’s efforts to influence Smithsonian exhibits. On a Morning Joe segment on Friday, Haberman misleadingly framed it as Trump and his allies “wanted to leave their imprint on what art Americans can see." Haberman highlighted one flashpoint: an Amy Sherald exhibition slated for the National Portrait Gallery that included “Trans Forming Liberty,” a painting depicting the Statue of Liberty as a trans woman. According to Haberman, internal discussions and pressure from figures...

Platner lies through his teeth about sexting: “THAT ALL HAPPENED LONG BEFORE I GOT MARRIED.” Reality: His wife notified the campaign that he was sexting with multiple women shortly AFTER they got married. Mika Brzezinski failed to call him on it. Zero pushback.

Can the Morning Joe crew possibly be this oblivious to its hypocrisy? The panel spent Tuesday morning blasting Republicans for raising questions about suspicious vote counting in the Los Angeles mayoral primary — then immediately launched its own sweeping conspiracy theory about how Republicans plan to steal the 2026 midterms. Mika began spinning the anti-GOP conspiracy theory on the 2026 midterm elections: "I think the bigger picture is, there seems to be some sort of preparation going on here. That's just my analysis. But it doesn't feel good looking ahead to the midterms, the way these Republicans are behaving." Get...

On Wednesday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough said: “Let us hope, post-Trump, there’s more of a Marco Rubio reset.”Is that the sound of Joe volunteering for Marco ’28? This would be a little weird, since ten years ago, he was slamming Rubio as the emptiest suit in the room, and he was yelling at Nicolle Wallace for being too pro-Rubio. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, the panel rode to the defense of Jimmy Kimmel, embracing his claim that his “expectant widow” line about Melania Trump was merely an age-gap “joke”— then turning on Donald Trump and the First Lady for objecting. [snip] Kimmel insisted the remark was harmless: “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am… It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.” Morning Joe bought that framing wholesale. Co-host Willie Geist dismissed the backlash as “so much bad faith,” suggesting critics were...

On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough mocked Republican criticism of Virginia’s redistricting scheme and cleared a path for Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger to defend it without facing a single hard question. Scarborough ridiculed Republican objections as “screeches,” “howls,” and “whining,” reducing them to “blah, blah, blah.” He went further, hailing the Democrats’ redistricting scheme as “conservative with a small c”—an outrageous misrepresentation of a plan designed, with malice aforethought, to wipe out all but one Republican congressional seat. And then came Scarborough's silence. During her gubernatorial campaign, Spanberger said: “I have no plans to redistrict Virginia.” But Scarborough never mentioned...

A Houston federal court judge dismissed a lawsuit by Kash Patel that claimed Frank Figliuzzi defamed the FBI director in a comment on the MS NOW show “Morning Joe.” Figliuzzi, a former FBI official, had said Patel has “been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building,” the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Figliuzzi’s statement is rhetorical hyperbole that cannot constitute defamation,” U.S. District Court Judge George Hanks Jr. wrote in his decision. The lawsuit is unrelated to the $250 million defamation lawsuit that Patel filed Monday against The Atlantic magazine...

Reacting to Viktor Orban’s defeat, Scarborough hailed it as a “great day for Western democracy” and a “very bad day” for those who have “done their best to try to destroy Western democracy.” He then pivoted to a broader swipe at critics of his preferred definition of “liberal democracy.” “Liberal: a traditionally small-government term,” Scarborough insisted—before adding that “a lot of really stupid people don’t understand that, because they don’t read history. I guess they just scrawl in crayon books.” Liberal democracy = small government, Joe? If only! The line fits a long-running pattern. Over the years, Scarborough has repeatedly...

What better way for Morning Joe to mark the Iran ceasefire than by once again tying President Trump to the “monsters of history”? On consecutive days, co-host Jonathan Lemire reached for the same loaded line. He first used it yesterday, reacting to Trump’s bellicose Truth Social post warning Iran of severe consequences. He rolled it out again today—clearly deciding it was too good not to reuse. This time, he escalated further, suggesting Trump’s rhetoric would leave a lasting “stain” not just on his presidency, but on the United States itself. On Tuesday’s show, Lemire cited Trump’s threat-laden language—of the sort...

MS NOW announced Wednesday it is cutting an hour from Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s show “Morning Joe” as part of a drastic overhaul of the beleaguered network’s programming under chief Rebecca Kutler. Starting in June, viewers will notice a slew of changes across MS NOW’s morning, daytime, primetime and weekend coverage, Kutler told staffers during a daily editorial call Wednesday morning. Despite notching its most-watched month in February since the 2024 presidential election, the network – previously MSNBC – announced it is returning “Morning Joe” to a three-hour format, from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET, down from its...

VIDEOJoe Scarborough was inspired to finally talk some common sense on the issue of Trans. Of course, hearing such talk caused, with the exception of The Mooch, his Morning Joe crew to act as if they had been taken as hostages. They wanted to be ANYWHERE but there as Joe Scarborough was spouting Taboo Talk about the subject of Trans. A subject so perilous for liberals that they would prefer to make themselves appear to be laughingstocks by pretending that men could get pregnant rather than violate the sacred Taboo by telling the more than obvious truth.

Marjorie Taylor Greene's abrupt decision to resign from Congress is drawing scrutiny after it emerged that her chosen departure date falls just two days after her federal pension becomes fully vested. The timing places the 51-year-old Georgia Republican past the five-year service threshold required for lawmakers to qualify for lifetime pension benefits under federal rules. Greene announced Friday that she is leaving Congress and will step down on January 5, 2026.

Today's Morning Joe and CNN This Morning offered a sharp contrast in their reaction to Marjorie Taylor Greene's remarkable comments to Dana Bash on CNN's State of the Union yesterday. MTG apologized for her failure to have called out President Trump's attacks on others in the past, and said that, going forward, she is committed "to put[ting] down the knives in politics." Citing his Baptist background, in which people are taught to embrace the sinner who renounces his past, Joe Scarborough welcomed MTG's change of heart. [snip] It was a very different tone over on CNN This Morning. CNN media...

When it comes to dealing with the hostile liberal media, the right is on a roll. Registered Republican Sydney Sweeney showed supreme self-confidence in refusing to fall into the rhetorical traps that her GQ interlocutor laid for her. And with little more than a raised eyebrow and the ability to answer a loaded question with a simple "no," Sweeney came away from the encounter as the unquestionable winner. Today, it was Scott Bessent's turn. In his Morning Joe appearance, the Treasury Secretary delivered a master class in rebuffing, and ultimately vanquishing, members of the liberal media seeking to tarnish the...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) pushed back on President Trump’s claim that grocery prices are falling, arguing that affordability — an issue she believes contributed to GOP election losses this week — is a problem for many Americans. “I go to the grocery store myself,” Greene told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday. “Grocery prices remain high. Energy prices are high. My electricity bills are higher here in Washington, D.C., at my apartment, and they‘re also higher at my house in Rome, Ga., higher than they were a year ago.” “So, affordability is a problem,” the lawmaker continued. She said she...

Who would have thunk it? Marjorie Taylor Greene, Morning Joe's favorite Republican member of Congress! But with her recent moves to distance herself from President Trump and the GOP at large, MTG is winning Morning Joe hearts and minds. The latest came today. After the show aired Trump's pointed criticism of Nancy Pelosi in reaction to her announcement that she would not be seeking re-election, and Speaker Mike Johnson's less critical but not flattering comments, the show aired MTG saying:"I will praise Nancy Pelosi. She had an incredible career for her party. I served under her speakership in my first...

On Wednesday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough sought to present himself as the kindly, non-partisan political consultant, saying he had warned Republicans not to overreach after their 2024 victories, or imagine they'd occupy the White House forever. How phony. That was just cover for his gloating proclamation that Republicans didn't listen to him: "And if you go too fast, voters will knock you on your ass immediately. And that's what happened yesterday." Democrat ex-senator Claire McCaskill didn't even bother trying to disguise her glee, saying of President Trump: "Yeah, I'd say he's on his ass." Morning Joe proceeded to give the...

The Washington Post's boastful front-page slogan is "Democracy Dies in Darkness." But on today's Morning Joe, Post columnist David Ignatius kept viewers in the darkness regarding his own paper. The show devoted yet another long segment to denouncing President Trump's ballroom project, and in particular, his decision to demolish the East Wing that was deemed necessary. [snip] Ignatius offered a metaphorical analogy of his own: "This is the presidency as wrecking ball." He went so far as to claim that "the destruction of the East Wing has really upset people in a way that even Trump's most outrageous other actions...

[snip] Today, Katty Kay called the project "a let-them-eat-cake moment" given that it was happening during a government shutdown in which some food welfare benefits are on hold. Eugene Robinson took it an absurd step further, claiming: "People in Washington don't seem to have a sense of how ridiculous and infuriating this is to everybody else in the country."On behalf of tens of millions of people outside Washington, let me assure you, Gene: we're not infuriated, although many might be mildly amused by your hyperbole. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Someday in the future, when the causes of the Second American Revolution are discussed, at the top of the list might well be President Trump's decision to build a new White House ballroom. If you believe Jon Meacham, that is. On today's Morning Joe, panel regular and former Biden speechwriter Meacham began by warning the panel, and liberals at large, "Let's not bang on our high chairs here," i.e., let's not overreact to Trump's ballroom moves. But, ignoring his own advice, Meacham proceeded not merely to bang on his high chair, but to do the rhetorical equivalent of filling his...