Just when you thought Joe Scarborough might have hit rock bottom in his pro-Biden toadying, he’s managed to plumb new depths. It’s one thing to try to spin things to Biden’s best advantage. It’s another to outright lie. Which is what Scarborough and Jen Psaki—Biden’s former spox who’s about to launch her own MSNBC show—did on today’s Morning Joe.
Scarborough and Psaki tried to blame the Trump administration for the train derailment and toxic spill in East Palestine, Ohio.
Psaki was first up:
We’re here because of all the deregulation of the train industry during the Trump administration. And because train, the train industry and the train lobbyists spent almost $500 million over the course of a decade, trying to prevent regulation that would make it safer, that would make trains safer, right. And make this type of accident we saw last week, prevent this type of accident from happening.
Scarborough piled on:
Let’s underline the fact, and just say it very slowly so our friends in, in Trump’s orbit can understand it. It was Donald Trump who actually took off some of the safety rules, some of those safety regulations that actually made this, this sort of, of, of train transport more dangerous.They deregulated it. This is on them.”
We’ll paraphrase Scarborough, and say this very slowly so that Joe and Jen can understand. The pair of them were lying. As the National Review has written [emphasis added]:
“This wasn’t even an example of deregulation; it was merely not adopting an additional regulation. Regardless, even if the rule had been adopted, it would not have applied to the East Palestine train, a fact that the chairwoman of the NTSB has stated.”
As for that NTSB chairwoman—a BIDEN APPOINTEE—here’s what Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post‘s “fact checker”—hardly known as a Trump fan—has written in a column entitled: “So far, Trump’s rollback of regulations can’t be blamed for Ohio train wreck:”
“NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said on Twitter that the repealed rule was not relevant to the accident. “The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars,” she wrote: “This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn’t have had ECP brakes.”
So don’t take our word for it, Scarborough, you shameless hack. Listen to the liberal Washington Post and Biden’s own appointee. Your pathetic attempt to blame Trump for East Palestine is a lie.
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/27/23
6:06 am ETMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Let’s get to our top story this morning. President Biden says he doesn’t have plans to visit the site of that train derailment and toxic chemical spill in Ohio. He made those comments to reporters on Friday while defending his administration’s handling of the situation in East Palestine.
JOE BIDEN: You know, we were there two hours after the train went down, two hours. I’ve spoken with every single major figure in both United — in both Pennsylvania and in, and in Ohio. And so the idea that we’re not engaged is just simply not, not there. And initially, there was not a request for me to go out, even before I was heading over to Kyiv. So I’m keeping very close tabs on it. We’re doing all we can.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Again, as he said, Jen, he was asked two hours, or, or, or they checked in two hours afterwards. And the administration has been on the ground pretty much ever since. And so, when you have like the House Oversight committee launching an investigation into Pete Buttigieg and his response, this is once again the Republicans just stepping into a mess that they’ve made for themselves because, of course, every Democrat and every newspaper and every fair-minded person, they’re going to look at the train derailments during the Trump administration where people died, and Trump didn’t even think about going out there.
JEN PSAKI: Exactly. I mean, we’re here because of all the deregulation of the train industry during the Trump administration. And because train, the train industry and the train lobbyists spent almost $500 million over the course of a decade, trying to prevent regulation that would make it safer, that would make trains safer, right. And make this type of accident we saw last week, prevent this type of accident from happening.
But a couple things I think are true. I mean, one, I saw — so we saw from there, I think, the president is a little bit defensive, right? I’m sure his team in the White House is like, ah, there’s no reason to be defensive. We’ve done a lot of stuff here, right?
And that’s because he’s clearly frustrated about the critique. There’s some good reason for that, because of the deregulation, but there is also this thing hanging out there of why he hasn’t gone yet, right? And so, while he said he wasn’t going to go, I’m a little — you know, they evaluate that type of thing in a White House day by day.
MIKA: Exactly.
PSAKI: I suspect there’s a reason he hasn’t gone, but I, I wouldn’t rule out him never going. Because if it’s still a problem at the end of the week, they’re going to have to assess that.
MIKA: Absolutely.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, and it’s so important to underline the fact, again, let’s underline the fact, and just say it very slowly so our friends in, in Trump’s orbit can understand it. It was Donald Trump who actually took off some of the safety rules, some of those safety regulations that actually made this, this sort of, of, of train transport more dangerous.
MIKA: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: They deregulated it. This is on them.
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