On Tuesday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, co-host Mika Brzezinski attempted to defend National Security Agency policy when it comes privacy concerns, but she ultimately she admitted some hypocrisy in defending President Barack Obama’s programs, while having been critical of former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney’s efforts.
Brzezinski began to justify the policy, noting how complicated the issue is. Her sidekick Joe Scarborough rebutted her by noting how the left has changed its tune now that Obama is in the crosshairs of criticism.
Partial transcript as follows:
BRZEZINSKI: What they want to do is find one incident where they can actually reveal every aspect of it to show what was prevented, but they want to do that in a way that doesn’t jeopardize national security, so it’s more complicated than it appears. Fair enough?
SCARBOROUGH: Well — –
BRZEZINSKI: What?
SCARBOROUGH: Do you really want to hear what the guy who was talking yesterday about the program said in 2007 and 2008? I mean, I can’t just sit here keep hearing you saying this program is not as bad as we thought it was —
BRZEZINSKI: No, I’m not saying that.
SCARBOROUGH: — when this guy is the guy that ran around for two years saying George Bush and Dick Cheney hated the Constitution and tore it to shreds, and now people on the left are going, ‘Oh it’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with it.’ … No, Mika, I’m right here.
BRZEZINSKI: OK.
SCARBOROUGH: Liberals were saying for years how evil George Bush and Dick Cheney were. Now that Barack Obama is doing it, a lot are saying, and you seem to be saying, ‘No, much ado about nothing.’
BRZEZINSKI: I think that this is one of those issues that most people at this point want it done. They want it done.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
BRZEZINSKI: They want it done. Do they want their personal emails being read? Listen, let us know if you disagree. Do they want our personal emails being read and our phone conversations being listened into? No. That’s not happening.
SCARBOROUGH: I think most people wanted it done, Mike Barnicle, when —
BRZEZINSKI: Just to be clear what I’m talking about.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, but most people wanted it done when Barack Obama was running around saying that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were doing great violence to the Constitution.
Later in the segment, Brzezinski explained there are differences in the Bush administration’s surveillance and the Obama administration’s surveillance, but she admitted even she is probably guilty of hypocrisy to some degree.
“So there’s warrantless wiretaps on the heels of walking us into war and many would agree that one of those wars were on preconditions that turned out not — the whole atmosphere was completely different,” she added. “I understand the hypocrisy you talk about, and I’m probably guilty of it, so I don’t want to start a fight here … but you can’t — you know exactly what I’m saying.”