Rogue Orange went off the rails again, squandering a “fake news” meme that could have scored points off CNN’s retraction of a Tom Frank story due to inadequate source credibility.
Instead… Trump decided to create more of his “fake news”
Trump decided to pick a fight with MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, even as it seems like a typical reality-TV feud set-up or another distraction from #TrumpRussia and the TrumpCare Fail. Seems like threatening Kompromat is not limited to being close to the Urals.
According to three sources familiar with the private conversations, what happened was this: After the inauguration, Morning Joe’s coverage of Trump turned sharply negative. “This presidency is fake and failed,” Brzezinski said on March 6, for example. Around this time, Scarborough and Brzezinski found out the Enquirer was preparing a story about their affair. While Scarborough and Brzezinski’s relationship had been gossiped about in media circles for some time, it was not yet public, and the tabloid was going to report that they had left their spouses to be together.
In mid-April, Scarborough texted with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner about the pending Enquirer story. Kushner told Scarborough that he would need to personally apologize to Trump in exchange for getting Enquirer owner David Pecker to stop the story. (A spokesperson for Kushner declined to comment). Scarborough says he refused, and the Enquirer published the story in print on June 5, headlined “Morning Joe Sleazy Cheating Scandal!”
The Morning Joe co-hosts decided to talk about the episode a day after Trump inaccurately tweeted that Brzezinski attended a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago “bleeding badly from a face-lift.” (A photo from that evening backs up Scarborough and Brzezinski’s denial of this.)
While the Enquirer denies that Trump encouraged Pecker to investigate the MSNBC hosts, Trump himself has pushed the story publicly. Last August, he tweeted, “Some day, when things calm down, I’ll tell the real story of@JoeNBC and his very insecure long-time girlfriend, @morningmika. Two clowns!”
nymag.com/…
Mika has conducted a lengthy new interview with InStyle Magazine (link) in response to Donald Trump’s attacks. She points out that she knows Melania Trump personally, and that while she hasn’t spoken with her about the matter, “If my gut is right, I don’t think she’s going to put up with it much longer.” She goes on to add that “Melania’s got the worst job in the country and I don’t think she wants to do it a lot longer.”
generic Hope Hicks letter of recommendation