Joe Scarborough started today’s Morning Joe With a repentance act to the left lords, he cried, “What was I thinking?” He admitted that he has been a Republican since childhood.
He then suggested that it was most probable that the Supreme Court draft would be overturned Roe v. Wade was leaked by a “fanatical” person on the “hard right” who was trying to prevent any of the Justices who had signed onto the draft from drifting away from Alito’s opinion. John Heilemann helpfully agreed with Scarborough, saying he would put money on Scarborough’s take as the likely explanation.
MSNBC Republican Elise Jordan stated that “hell is frozen over”, because Ted Cruz had agreed with her that the leaker probably was someone from the Left.
You have the nerve to disagree. She argued that if someone on the right had leaked it to keep, for example, Justice Kavanaugh from straying, that would likely have backfired. Jordan suggested that the leaker could have been the spouse of a SCOTUS Justice, but Jordan did not name names. Scarborough jumped on that, naming names, speculating about Ginni Thomas as another possible leaker. According to the MSNBC bubble, Scarborough is an “extreme” supporter of the “hard left”.
Scarborough was unintentionally funny when he disclosed that Jonathan Lemire was his friend and they had been discussing “court observers”, people who are Court experts. He suggested that this leaker might have been a conservative trying “nail down” a Justice that was moving away form the Alito opinion. Wonder who these “Court observers”, if any, might be? Nina Totenberg, and anyone else?
Joe Scarborough suggested on Morning Joe that the leaker in the draft SCOTUS opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is a “fanatical and far-right Court clerk” sponsored by Clear Choice TV and DirecTV.
The transcript is here.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/4/22
6:10 am ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH : Let me be truthful with you. These are my friends. I, I, I, I,It was a party I attended for many years. [Screams]It was crazy!!These people were the exact same people who stood up and gave Clarence Thomas standing ovations. It is so bizarre that Ginni’s ideological sisters and brothers are giving lectures about how the left-wing works. [chuckles]has politicized court. That is what you can trust. BS? BS?Because they aren’t respectful of the court and its rules. Oh, really? Clarence Thomas is involved in cases which directly affect his wife, Clarence Thomas.
Lindsey Graham would have a better chance if only the GOP left would show more control than Ginni Thomas and Clarence Thomas. It would make a beautiful, magical, and wonderful world. According to the plotting argument Alito’s majority didn’t have any reason for leaking the court’s decision, it assumed that the court was still in control. This decision was made in February 2013, three months after its publication! Most likely, someone on the hard right was upset that Alito’s harsh and right-wing diatribe about abortion moved on to Justice.Roberts was instead moved to the right. The classic. We have all the receipts. It’s all there. Don’t think about leaving Alito to pursue a less orthodox, more reasonable route. Because we have the receipts.
Maybe that is why Chief Justice began his statement by stating that the document leaked, quote does not reflect a court’s decision, or any final position on issues in the case.
I know I could be wrong. Ted may be right. I don’t know. If you look at it in the Machiavellianst way, It makes much more sense that a right-leaning law clerk leaked the document in an effort to prevent Alito from being removed from his position.Roberts’s more complex path is closer to Roberts, leading toward an even radical destination.
John Heilemann. You can hear it all, the ramblings from the far left yesterday. You know what? When it broke I thought, “Oh, okay, someone’s pissed off to the left.” And then I actually stopped and thought for a second, and said, wait a second, that’s not what’s happening. Jonathan Lemire is the one I’d like to speak to. Jon and I had an interesting discussion. People close to the Court were interviewed. Jon and I talked to Court observers. These people are familiar with the court’s work and have been following it throughout the day. They told us that they thought someone was shifting away from Alito’s harsh positions. They were trying to get nailed downThis February opinion is now complete. The right-wing, turgid opinion about abortion. This will be the law. Do not even consider moving from this place. They leak it at the same moment the concurrences. This is when the concurrences should start going around. This is the moment John Roberts begins to work on Kavanaugh. John Roberts begins to work on Amy Coney Barrett. He says, “Listen, all of us are conservatives, but we have to also protect the institution,” Let’s have a conversation. John Heilemann, what do you have to say about my second question, 15?
JOHN HEILEMANN: A great question, Joe. A great question. It’s possible to read it again.
SCARBOROUGH, Yes. I certainly can.
HEILEMANN : I have seen many kinds of leaks, and each one is motivated by different motives. This is likely to be a strategic or tactical leak. It’s more likely to be Kavanaugh rather than Coney Barrett, I believe. However, it could be any of them. The possibility exists of the Mississippi law being upheld but then ending up with a concurrence – a plurality opinions written by Alito and signed on by three Justices. Roberts then wrote a concurring opinion, with two Justices on the same line. This would remove Alito’s position. He wouldn’t have the majority opinion which was ruling in this case. So you’d validate Mississippi’s law but not repeal Roe v. Wade. To prevent this happening, some conservatives decided to make it happen. To prevent any fracturing. This theory seems very plausible to me.
Some leaks have been reported in my business. People just get mad. If that is the case it’s likely to be a clerk on your left. However Today, when you ask me where my money would go, I say that I’d rather have it with a conservative cold-calculating clerk than with a left-wing enraged blindly angry clerkIn that circumstance. That’s what I was trying to convey. Joe, you know the best two words of them all.
WILLIEGEIST: Elise! You’ve been patiently listening. We heard yesterday Mitch Mcconnell. When asked what the consequences of Roe v. Wade being overturned were, he only said that we had played very little of it. All of you are focusing on the wrong things. This is the story of a leak. Today’s story is a leak. The lecture he gave was to journalists present. What do you think?
ELISE JORDAN Because Ted Cruz agrees with me, Hell is frozen over, somewhat.
GEIST: Record the time and date.
JORDAN: It’s hard to believe I am saying this, but it is true.It’s getting way too simple and cute.If you take a look at the timeline, this has taken several months. Which number of persons have the right to access this draft? There are four to five justices. Some administrative staff. Most likely less than 100. This is still quite a large number. It is not classified. This is not a huge opsec.
You could even be married to it.Many possibilities exist. There are many possibilities. However,The idea that Justice Kavanaugh would be pressured by a conservative seems plausible. This person could be wrong if they intended to do that. However, it is not complicated and it seems we need to keep things simple.
SCARBOROUGH: Wow. Elise: I was shocked at some of these things. However, I’d like to mention the last part. It was something that you mentioned and I have written down. BecauseIt could have been the spouse of a Supreme Court justice. Does the Supreme Court’s spouse get involved in such things?
JORDAN It’s unlikely that spouses would be able to see your opinion. However, this is just like paper. You should always have it with you.
SCARBOROUGH: Ginni is like Ginni Thomas.
JORDAN: Exactly! Exactly!
SCARBOROUGH: Ginni Thomas. Yes, exactly. So, that’s it. You have another option.
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