MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough’s ongoing feud with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity continued full steam ahead Monday.
The host of “Morning Joe” followed up a weekend op-ed in The Washington Post on ways President Trump is “killing” the Republican Party with a shot at one of the president’s staunchest defenders, likening Mr. Hannity’s coverage to “state-run” television.
Mr. Scarborough, who recently told comedian Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” audience that he was no longer a Republican, particularly took issue with Mr. Hannity’s coverage of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
“[The White House was] lying to the New York Times, lying to the American people, saying this meeting was just about adoption,” Mr. Scarborough said, The Washington Free Beacon reported. “Then the next day lying about the people that were in it, then going on a TV show that basically is state-run television and being asked at the end of that TV show, ’Is there anything else that we don’t know about?’ And Don Jr. saying, ’That’s it.’ And then the next day we find out that another person attended the meeting.”
The president’s son appeared Tuesday on “Hannity” and said he “probably would have done things a little differently” regarding the contact he made with Ms. Veselnitskaya via middleman Rob Goldstone on June 9, 2016.
“This was 13 months ago, before I think the rest of the world was talking about that, trying to build up that narrative on Russia, so I don’t even think my sirens went up, or the antennas went up, at this time because it wasn’t, because it wasn’t the issue that it’s been made up to be over the last nine months, 10 months,” the younger Mr. Trump told the Fox host.
Mr. Hannity told viewers on June 22 that he would pay for therapy for the “Morning Joe” pundit and his co-host Mike Brzezinski, given their fears about a potential U.S. police state in the making.
Ms. Veselnitskaya denies claims that she acted at the behest of the Russian government when she contacted Mr. Trump’s campaign.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.