The thing I admire most about liberals is their balls-to-the-wall bravery. This past weekend, for example, CBS's Scott Pelley called Trump a "felon," making him, quite simply, the finest investigative reporter working in journalism today.
Innumerable news outlets hailed Pelley's reckless courage in headlines the next day, (here, Mediaite):
"'60 Minutes' Airs Scathing Segment on 'First Felon in the Oval Office' Despite Pressure to Avoid Sensitive Stories About Trump"
[Editor -- Correction: Trump has been called a " felon" by every major newspaper, TV anchor, elected Democrat, blog post, overweight female protester and undiscovered Amazonian tribe. The New York Times alone has called him a "convicted felon" more than a thousand times. By now, Trump is insisting that "convicted felon" be on his headstone. Pelley's calling Trump a felon was not heroic.]
In CBS's own write-up on Pelley's fearless decision to label Trump a "felon," the network reported that it "was nearly impossible to get anyone on camera for this story because of the fear now running through our system of justice."
Miraculously though, "60 Minutes" somehow managed to lure Democratic activist lawyer Marc Elias out of retirement and onto its airwaves. Nobody's sure when he might appear on TV again, except continuously, until the end of time.
Demonstrating the very real risk to Elias for criticizing Trump, the media crackled with encomiums to his courage the next day. The most enthusiastic admirer of Elias's bravery was Elias himself -- and, really, who's in a better position to judge?
As he put it on MSNBC, "I too could just join the people who are just trying to blend into the furniture. ... I made that decision after the election that that wouldn't be me, that the same stridence and fervor that I brought when Joe Biden was in the White House and it was very safe to speak out in favor of democracy that was more needed, not less needed, now."
If Elias keeps fearlessly speaking out for democracy, it could be lights out for him.
Here's a question for you fascists: If Trump is not pure evil, then why did Elias hire Christopher Steele in 2016 to write a dossier on Trump's ties to Russia ... for the selfless Hillary Clinton campaign?
What's the matter?
Cat got your tongue?
(Ann drops mic, high fives Ali Velshi and Nicolle Wallace.)
[Ed -- Correction: The dossier, consuming the nation for two years at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, turned out to be entirely fictional.]
While it's tempting to call Elias the bravest man alive, even he has not reached the dazzling heights of Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (whose cot is next to Elias' in the MSNBC greenroom).
Last Friday, Figliuzzi revealed on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Trump's hard-partying FBI director, Kash Patel, has been "visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building."
[Ed -- You can't write this. On Monday, "Morning Joe's" Jonathan Lemire walked back this nutzo allegation, saying, "Let's circle back to a segment from Friday's show. Frank Figliuzzi ... said that FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly been more visible at nightclubs than at his office at FBI headquarters. This was a misstatement."]
[AC: OK, fine, but that wasn't Figliuzzi's only time Speaking Truth To Power. Just wait for what comes next!]
In 2019, Figliuzzi informed NBC's slack-jawed Brian Williams that by ordering the flags raised from half-mast on Aug. 8, after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Trump was sending a secret signal to neo-Nazis.
"That's 8/8," the master spy said, before launching into a fascinating exegesis on numerology. "The numbers 8/8 are very significant in neo-Nazi and white supremacy movements," he explained. "Why? Because the letter H is the eighth letter of the alphabet and to [neo-Nazis] the numbers 8/8 together stand for Heil Hitler."
[Ed -- This is obviously deranged. So if the date were July 7 (GH) it would mean, "Greetings, Hitler!" and January 8 (AH) would be "Attaboy, Hitler!"? Also, Trump ordered flags lowered for four days after every mass shooting.]
[AC -- I urge you to keep reading.]
When no one else would say it, Figliuzzi warned that the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, would likely lead to Republican violence, telling NBC's Lester Holt, "Can you imagine people who think, in their head, the answer is to seek revenge for today's event, maybe against those who are protesting against Trump?"
[Ed -- Figliuzzi is a desperate hack with no meaning to his life unless he can keep appearing on MSNBC. Stop quoting him.]
[AC -- OK, but I'm about to get to Joe Scarborough for having the guts to tell viewers last year: "F--- you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever."]
Join the conversation as a VIP Member