Evidence? Joe Scarborough don’t need no stinkin’ evidence.
On today’s Morning Joe, the Biden phone buddy and informal adviser felt entitled to make a very grave–and entirely evidence-free–accusation against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Thus it was that in a segment devoted to a New York Times story skewering Alito for permitting the flying at his home of an upside-down American flag, Scarborough accused Alito of having leaked the draft of the Dobbs opinion [which Alito wrote], overturning Roe v. Wade.
This flag defense was an odd take from this show — which not too long ago let their contributor Mara Gay complain it was “disturbing” to see so many American flags (flown by Trump supporters) when she visited Long Island on D-Day.
That wasn’t his only slam of Sam Alito. As Scarborough—who went from having perfect pro-life ratings as a congressman from Florida’s conservative panhandle to sounding like a Planned Parenthood fanboy now that he’s at MSNBC—put it:
“For a Supreme Court Justice, and I will say—my opinion only—but the guy most likely to have had something to do with the leaking of the Dobbs decision. Leaking it to the Wall Street Journal, or somebody connected to him leaking it to the Wall Street Journal, because he wanted to keep Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett frozen in place. I think history will show that.”
Scarborough later said that with respect to both Alito’s explanation of the flag flying, and his denial of being responsible for the leak of the draft Dobbs decision, “nobody believes him.”
Perhaps “nobody believes” Alito in the liberal cocoon of MSNBC, or amongst Scarborough’s summering buddies on liberal-elitist Nantucket. But Joe, you need to get out more.
Let’s play a thought game. Alito has said that he had no involvement in flying the flag, and that it was his wife who did so in response to objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs that a neighbor had put up.
Now imagine that the wife of a conservative Justice is a liberal. In response to a pro-life sign put up by a conservative neighbor, she puts an “Our Bodies Our Choice–Hands Off Roe!” sign in their front yard — only to have her husband order her to take it down.
Which would be the more likely reaction from liberals? Would they applaud the Justice for standing up for judicial independence? Or would they condemn the Justice for patriarchal infringement on his wife’s freedom of expression and accuse the Justice of attempting to turn his wife into a Handmaid, and his home into a mini-Gilead [labels with which MSNBCers have slurred Justice Amy Coney Barrett]?
Note: Alito has said that he thinks he knows who leaked the Dobbs draft. But unlike Scarborough, given the lack of evidence, he didn’t point a finger at any individual. Alito did make a good case, though, as to the motivation behind the leak:
He said he was sure the leak “was a part of an effort to prevent the Dobbs draft … from becoming the decision of the court. And that’s how it was used for those six weeks by people on the outside — as part of the campaign to try to intimidate the court.” Alito said the theory that the draft was leaked by someone on the right to lock in the five votes necessary to overturn Roe “is infuriating to me.” “Look, this made us targets of assassination,” Alito told his interviewers. “Would I do that to myself? Would the five of us have done that to ourselves? It’s quite implausible.”
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/17/24
6:03 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: I will tell you, growing up, one of my friend’s fathers was a federal judge! I had no idea until I got older whether he was Republican or Democrat. And that was the case in northwest Florida, a very conservative place. The federal judges kept themselves beyond reproach. They never talked politics, ever. In the privacy of their homes, if you ask their opinion, they would just say, not my job, right? I’m a judge. They actually took their oaths seriously!
And for a Supreme Court Justice, and I will say—my opinion only—but the guy most likely to have had something to do with the leaking of the Dobbs decision.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: Leaking it to the Wall Street Journal, or somebody connected to him leaking it to the Wall Street Journal, because he wanted to keep Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett frozen in place. I think history will show that.
But that aside, for a guy who is a Supreme Court Justice, that let that happen at his own home, in one of the most fraught times in American history since, since the Civil War, it’s just, it’s just sad. And it shows how little respect he has for the institution. It shows how little respect he has for the law. It really does. It’s disgusting.
. . .
WILLIE GEIST: I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag, Justice Alito said in an emailed statement to the Times. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.
Joe, there you have it.
MIKA: Wait. Wait a minute.
SCARBOROUGH: So you’re going to hate on America because of something a neighbor did?
MIKA: You’re going to blame your wife?
SCARBOROUGH: Blame your wife?
MIKA: And make up that excuse?
SCARBOROUGH: What, what is this?
MIKA: My wife was mad at a neighbor.
SCARBOROUGH: Blaming wives. Anybody care to jump in here?
MIKA: Bu I want to know, what, what person, let alone woman, wife, would do that in response to a problem with a neighbor.
SCARBOROUGH: Eugene, a neighbor, a neighbor upsets me, comes outa, makes fun of me because the Rays beat the Red Sox last night. And the Red Sox really suck. And so, I’m mad. I’m not gonna hang my flag upside down.
EUGENE ROBINSON: Right. Right.
SCARBOROUGH: None of this — this is dumb as what I heard about the Dobbs leak. Nobody believes him.