Scarborough again denies Rove's role as Novak source in Plame leak

Summary: In again refusing to acknowledge that former White House senior political adviser Karl Rove was involved in leaking the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame to conservative columnist Robert D. Novak, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough falsely suggested that Rove was not a source for Novak.

On the February 1 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough again refused to acknowledge that former White House senior political adviser Karl Rove was involved in leaking the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame to conservative columnist Robert D. Novak, again falsely suggesting that Rove was not a source for Novak. Scarborough asserted that "liberals have spent the past 30 years calling Bob Novak a liar. And every time liberals call Bob Novak a liar, they're the ones who end up with egg on their face." As an example, Scarborough claimed that Novak "told us from the beginning, 'This wasn't an ideologue that gave me the name. This wasn't Karl -- this wasn't a Bush operation.' And liberals, 'Oh, he's lying, da da da da da.' " Scarborough later added: "[A]nd, of course, Novak was right. The liberals were wrong." In fact, Novak attributed his information about Plame to "[t]wo senior administration officials," whom he later publicly identified as former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Rove.

During an interview with Novak on the July 18, 2007, edition of Morning Joe, Scarborough suggested that Rove had played no role in the leaking of Plame's identity, saying that the press "followed [the CIA leak investigation] like a pack of dogs talking about was it Rove, is it [Vice President Dick] Cheney, is it [President] Bush, who was it, who was it, and when they found out it was [then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard] Armitage, everybody kind of yawned and went on."

The next day, after Media Matters for America pointed out that Scarborough had falsely suggested that Rove was not involved, Scarborough claimed that Media Matters was "very upset because of my interview yesterday with Bob Novak, talking about the narrative that the left wing had for a very long time that this whole Valerie Plame leak was a diabolical plot hatched by Karl Rove." Scarborough later introduced Novak -- appearing for the second straight day on the show -- and said he was "[h]ere to clear that up and talk about his book, Prince of Darkness [Crown Forum, July 2007]." In response to questioning from Scarborough, Novak explained that Rove was his confirming source.

As Media Matters has noted, Rove also allegedly leaked Plame's identity to then-Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.

From the February 1 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: That he also -- it's just broke. The Wall Street Journal has written a story about how John McCain complained to conservative lawyers that Samuel Alito was too conservative to be on the Supreme Court. Bob Novak wrote a follow-up article and said the same thing, that people that were in that meeting said John McCain was complaining that Sam Alito was too conservative to be chief -- to be a Supreme Court nominee.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI (co-host): Well, now, you said that earlier in the show, and we actually did get a comment from the McCain campaign about that, saying that what you're saying, in terms of quoting those articles, is "absolutely absurd. Both Novak and The Wall Street Journal stories were based on a blind quote. McCain never made that comment about Alito, and it was widely reported that he declared the report absolutely false."

SCARBOROUGH: You know what I love? OK, so --

BRZEZINSKI: "You'd be hard-pressed to find a Republican who fought harder than John McCain to get Alito on the bench, and the White House recognized it. "

SCARBOROUGH: All right, so here we have John McCain proving once again that he's a liberal, and I'll tell you why. Because liberals have spent the past 30 years calling Bob Novak a liar. And every time liberals call Bob Novak a liar, they're the ones who end up with egg on their face. I remember during the Valerie Plame episode. Remember, Bob Novak told us from the beginning, "This wasn't an ideologue that gave me the name. This wasn't Karl -- this wasn't a Bush operation." And liberals, "Oh, he's lying, da da da da da." And then remember earlier this year, Bob Novak -- and, of course, Novak was right. The liberals were wrong. And then earlier this year, you had Bob Novak talking about how the Clintons were shopping dirt on Obama.

BRZEZINSKI: Well --

SCARBOROUGH: Now, hold on. I've got a point to make here. Everybody called Bob Novak a liar. "Oh, what's Bob Novak? He's not a respectable source." I had somebody on my show, while I was on vacation, saying, "Bob Novak is not a respectable source." I nearly jumped off the couch and ran up to the studio. And so now we have McCain and McCain's camp saying, "Bob Novak is a liar. The Wall Street Journal is lying." Despite the fact that if you read Bob Novak's article, Mika, Bob Novak called several of these lawyers that were in the meeting blind. They did not know that Novak was calling. And Novak said what? They said the same exact thing; their jaws dropped. That John McCain said that this man, Samuel Alito, was too conservative to sit on the Supreme Court. So, they don't have to attack me.

BRZEZINSKI: They're not.

SCARBOROUGH: They can attack Bob Novak and call Bob Novak a liar --

BRZEZINSKI: Well, no, they're flatly denying --

SCARBOROUGH: Because you know what? There is a great history of liberals in America calling Bob Novak a liar. So if they want to call Bob Novak a liar, they can. It just proves conservatives' point once again.

BRZEZINSKI: Well, all I'm doing is reporting the fact that the campaign flatly denies this --

SCARBOROUGH: Well, sure.

BRZEZINSKI: -- whether it's from The Wall Street Journal, Bob Novak, or you. And I think that, you know, there's interesting questions about his conservative credentials. I think you're absolutely right about that. I think there's another narrative at play here, too, and that is John McCain is an interesting candidate, especially up against Hillary Clinton.

SCARBOROUGH: Right.

BRZEZINSKI: And John McCain does have a great personal story, and he does have a lot of things about him that make him an attractive candidate. The question is can he bridge the gap between him, himself, and the conservative base?

SCARBOROUGH: And the conservative movement. And I'll tell you one way you don't do that is by being like Joe Wilson and calling Bob Novak a liar. One way you aren't like that is being like the left wing and calling The Wall Street Journal a bunch of liars. This is what liberals have done for years. He will not bridge that divide by saying that Bob Novak's a liar. That's all I'm saying.

—M.G.