Morning Joe obscures Gibbs', Bush's remarks to attack Gibbs, defend Bush

During the June 19 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan criticized the White House as -- in Buchanan's words -- "smug" and "arrogant" while discussing press secretary Robert Gibbs' response to a question asked the previous day. But in criticizing Gibbs' response to a question about a quote by President Bush, Morning Joe did not air the question or provide Bush's quote.

On June 18, The Washington Times reported that, during a June 17 question-and-answer session in Erie, Pennsylvania, Bush said:

I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor. I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that -- persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind.

During Gibbs' June 18 press briefing, a reporter asked Gibbs to respond to these remarks, stating, "I think [Bush is] trying to suggest that [Obama's] policy on Guantánamo Bay is not right and saying -- comparing it to therapy":

REPORTER: Robert, former President George Bush gave a speech yesterday where he talked about Guantánamo Bay and the President's policy, and he said, "Therapy is not going to cause terrorists to change their mind." What is the president's reaction to that?

GIBBS: Is he talking -- I don't -- I'm not sure what he's discussing.

REPORTER: I think he's trying to suggest that the president's policy on Guantánamo Bay is not the right policy and saying -- comparing it to therapy, that we're treating the prisoners [unintelligible].

GIBBS: I don't know what he's discussing. I know that -- I know the previous administration moved or transferred hundreds of detainees at Guantánamo to a program in Saudi Arabia. I don't know if that's what he's -- maybe that's not what he's referring to, since it appears to be contrary to the actions that he took. So I'm happy if he can clarify what it is he was talking about. I think we've had a debate about individual policies. We had that debate in particular. We kept score last November, and we won.

Morning Joe aired only the bolded portion of the briefing, giving no indication that Gibbs was responding specifically to Bush's suggestion that Obama's Guantánamo Bay policy amounts to "therapy," which the reporter framed in her question as criticism of Obama's policy. After airing Gibbs' cropped comments, Scarborough claimed that "this is a White House that will pick on any cable news host, that will shoot down at anybody," and Buchanan subsequently asserted that "this White House has no humility whatsoever," and characterized the comments as "smug, arrogant."

Buchanan characterized Bush's remarks by stating, without providing quotes, that "[Bush] was trying simply to say we did the right thing in terms of interrogation techniques, we believe we did the right thing, and I'm a free-market man." Similarly, Scarborough stated that Bush's remarks were "very general statements, and he refused to engage," adding that Gibbs' response is "just like saying that if you support free enterprise, or if you support the way the war on terror was conducted, then that has to naturally be seen as a slight against the White House and you're going to get slapped down by the press secretary."

According to the Times, Bush did speak about interrogation techniques, stating that he decided to "use every technique and tool within the law to bring terrorists to justice before they strike again," and about the free market: "[I]t's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in." In criticizing the White House for Gibbs' comments, however, the Morning Joe hosts did not note that Bush also spoke derisively about the Guantánamo Bay policy of his successor, and it was these remarks that prompted the reporter's question and Gibbs' response.

From the June 19 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

WILLIE GEIST (co-host): Well, if I know Joe Scarborough, I think he's gonna be excited about this first sound bite from Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. Joe, you know if you're ever playing a basketball game or a football game, and you're winning by a lot and some guy starts talking trash, you just go, "Scoreboard. Just quiet down." That's essentially what Robert Gibbs said in regard to the criticism that came out of President George W. Bush a couple nights ago in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was essentially defending his administration against the Obama administration. Here's the response from the White House.

GIBBS [video clip]: I'm happy if he can clarify what it is he was talking about. I think we've had a debate about individual policies. We had that debate in particular. We kept score last November, and we won.

GEIST: We won, Joe. We won.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI (co-host): Oh, dear.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, let me turn it over to Pat Buchanan. Pat --

BRZEZINSKI: That's the right thing to do.

SCARBOROUGH: If LBJ --

JOHN HARWOOD (CNBC chief Washington correspondent): Because he's a guy who lost.

SCARBOROUGH: No, no, no. If LBJ had said something critical of Richard Nixon, would Nixon allow a --

BUCHANAN: Ziegler?

SCARBOROUGH: -- Ziegler to go out and say that about -- I -- this is a White House that will pick on any cable news host, that will shoot down at anybody. I don't -- again, why don't you just say, well --

BUCHANAN: Exactly. I mean, I don't know why --

SCARBOROUGH: -- he's the president --

BRZEZINSKI: Well, didn't they win? What?

BUCHANAN: He's the former president of the United States --

SCARBOROUGH: Right. Right.

BUCHANAN: -- and he's held these views for a long time, and he's certainly got a right to express them. What's your next question?

SCARBOROUGH: And he's also shown deference to this president.

BUCHANAN: Why the -- this White House has no humility whatsoever.

BRZEZINSKI: It's a little smug, is what you're saying?

BUCHANAN: Oh yeah, smug, arrogant, and you know, this is the former president of the United States.

BRZEZINSKI: Like that fly.

SCARBOROUGH: Does that start at the top? I mean this is -- that's actually the same thing that this president said to a Republican when they were having talks over the -- he said, "We won."

BUCHANAN: Yeah, exactly. And then they did the same thing to Cheney, you know. So I just -- I think they'd be much better off saying look, this is -- they're entitled to their views, they have their record, they're gonna defend it and we're not gonna get into that. Let's move on.

SCARBOROUGH: People know they won. People know they won.

[crosstalk]

BUCHANAN: And I don't think that President Bush was deliberately trying to take on Obama. He was trying simply to say we did the right thing in terms of interrogation techniques, we believe we did the right thing, and I'm a free-market man.

HARWOOD: When I saw the former President Bush's remarks, I didn't not see them as highly critical of Obama.

BUCHANAN: No, no.

HARWOOD: I thought he was defending himself.

BUCHANAN: He repeatedly said I don't want to get into an argument with President Obama, I don't think we want to, but I'm a free-market guy.

SCARBOROUGH: But you know, you're exactly right. They were very general statements, and he refused to engage. But that's just like saying that if you support free enterprise, or if you support the way the war on terror was conducted, then that has to naturally be seen as a slight against the White House and you're going to get slapped down by the press secretary. Again, you know, again, I guess when you pick Rahm Emanuel to run your White House, this is what you get.