The cable wars are heating up, so much so that MSNBC is now accusing its rival network Fox News of inciting terrorism.
Responding to recent Fox News reports about FBI agents who expressed support for Hillary Clinton and revulsion of Donald Trump while investigating both, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough warned that this kind of reporting spawns "violence" and may well spark a Timothy McVeigh-style terror attack.
The Morning Joe host, taking umbrage over FNC reports concerning Robert Mueller's hiring of investigators biased against Trump, predicted this type of news coverage will lead to “the killing of Americans.”
"Blood will be on the hands of people that whip people into a frenzy and lie," Scarborough said of his competitors at Fox News. And if such a terror attack he occurs, he said, Americans will know which news channel to blame.
Scarborough was particularly upset over a Jeanine Pirro monologue Saturday, in which the host called for the firing of FBI agents Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Andrew McCabe, all of whom, reports now show, were actively supportive of Hillary Clinton during the bureau's investigation into her secret email server.
Scarborough said the host was suggesting a "coup" was underway — although Pirro did not use the word "coup," but instead argued that some in the government were trying to undo the results of the 2016 presidential election.
"It’s really important and it’s not the first time in the course of the last 12 months where I felt compelled to just remind people of what happened in Oklahoma City now, about a decade ago, or two decades ago," John Heilemann said, “In 1995 when McVeigh blew up the — the Murrah Building and some of us in this business had to fly out there and see what paranoid, conspiratorial anti-government ranting led to."
“Which was a militia member going and blowing up a federal building and killing hundreds of people," he continued. "It hasn’t happened yet, thank God, and hopefully it won’t. But every time you’re striking matches and throwing it at this giant pool of gasoline — you’re courting this kind of disaster. And what happens, we will be able to point to the people who helped enable it happening quite pointedly because they are on television every day doing it.”
Scaborough agreed: "When you’re spreading a message that the Federal Bureau of Investigations and that a Vietnam war hero who won the Purple Heart and one medal after another and has devoted his entire life to America that he’s launching a coup against the president of the United States, that will, in the same way that other conspiracy theories, that I heard about black helicopters when I was running in 1994, that will attach to somebody like Timothy McVeigh, and they will take action and, yes, we will know who put those diseased thoughts in their heads saying that the Federal Bureau of Investigations was launching a coup against an elected president. I cannot think of a more reckless, irresponsible thing I have ever heard in my life.
Co-panelist and former Obama Administration "car czar" Steve Rattner likewise warned: "Absolutely, we could see another Oklahoma City."
Here's a transcript:
BRZEZINSKI: “What is the president’s network saying about this? How are they translating — are they saying what they see? Or are they lying?” [crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: “They are literally, and it’s very dangerous, because blood will be on the hands of people that whip people into a frenzy and lie. But they are saying there’s a coup going on right now, which is one of the most extraordinarily irresponsible things I have heard a major network do. But that’s what they have been saying all weekend. But then you have Donald Trump again, saying one thing, one minute and the next minute completely reversing himself.”
HEILEMANN: “Yeah. I mean, it’s obviously incredibly self-serving and in addition to be post modern self-serving, inconsistent, ridiculous, hypocritical, insane, detached from reality, all, you know, you can throw all that out there. But I do want to say the thing that I think you’re pointing to. It’s really important and it’s not the first time in the course of the last 12 months where I felt compelled to just remind people of what happened in Oklahoma City now, about a decade ago —“
BRZEZINSKI: “Yes.”
HEILEMANN: “— or two decades ago. In 1995 when McVeigh blew up the — the Murrah Building and some of us in this business had to fly out there and see what paranoid, conspiratorial anti-government ranting led to.”
BRZEZINSKI: “Right.”
HEILEMANN: “Which was a militia member going and blowing up a federal building and killing hundreds of people. It hasn’t happened yet, thank God, and hopefully it won’t. But every time you’re striking matches and throwing it at this giant pool of gasoline —“
BRZEZINSKI: “Thank you. Yes.”
HEILEMANN: “— you’re courting this kind of disaster. And what happens, we will be able to point to the people who helped enable it happening quite pointedly because they are on television every day doing it.”
SCARBOROUGH: “They are on television every day doing it. And I — I — I will tell you I had a conversation with Roger Ailes after Gabrielle Giffords.”
BRZEZINSKI: “Yeah.”
SCARBOROUGH: “And said to him, we have known each other for a long time. I — you know what, I don’t criticize you guys that much. I never told you how to do your job. But we have crossed a line. And I specifically said, Glenn Beck has crossed a line. And he says, I won’t say the word I said, stuff on television every day that has my mother and other people in my family calling me up being that the government is literally coming to kill them. I said, this leads to people getting killed. And I will say it too. I then walk down and I talk to Phil Griffin. I said, 'Phil, you have people on your air that are whipping up extremists on the other side of Glenn Beck and words have consequences. Your television shows have consequences. Enough!' And, you know, of course, I have told Phil that every day for six years. So it didn’t have as much of an impact on Phil as maybe on Roger Ailes.”
BRZEZINSKI: “No, you guys had a really good conversation about it actually.” [crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: “But — but — but we had a great conversation. And Roger did. And I’m sure it wasn’t because of my phone call, but at some point, he and everybody else at Fox understood that —“
BRZEZINSKI: “So, describe that —“ [crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: “— at the point Glenn Beck was being irresponsible. But there’s something, by the way, Glenn Beck now says that himself. But this, when you’re spreading a message that the Federal Bureau of Investigations and that a Vietnam war hero who won the Purple Heart and one medal after another and has devoted his entire life to America that he’s launching a coup against the president of the United States, that will, in the same way that other conspiracy theories, that I heard about black helicopters when I was running in 1994, that will attach to somebody like Timothy McVeigh, and they will take action and, yes, we will know who put those diseased thoughts in their heads saying that the Federal Bureau of Investigations was launching a coup against an elected president. I cannot think of a more reckless, irresponsible thing I have ever heard in my life. This even surpasses what Glenn Beck was saying.”
RATTNER: “Absolutely it does. And remember that, even worse than when Glenn Beck was saying it, it’s been aided, abetted, encouraged by the president of the United States and his followers. And to John’s point, absolutely, we could see another Oklahoma City. But I would argue e have already seen a version of it it in Charlottesville. Things like Charlottesville come directly out of this rhetoric and incitement against the government and democracy and everything we stand for.”