Appearing as a guest on the September 9 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, MSNBC host and former U.S. Representative Joe Scarborough (R-FL) claimed, “I just don't read the Republican talking points. I just tell the truth.” Later that evening on his own show, Scarborough Country, Scarborough blamed the Kerry campaign for a new TV ad released by independent anti-Bush group Texans for Truth, which questions President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service during the Vietnam War -- thereby echoing a charge made about the ad earlier in the day by White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

From the September 9 White House "press gaggle":

McCLELLAN: I think you are absolutely seeing a coordinated attack by John Kerry and his surrogates on the president.

From the September 9 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country:

SCARBOROUGH: President Bush passes Senator Kerry in the latest swing state polls, but Kerry's camp fights back with a new attack ad on Vietnam.

As Media Matters for America has noted, Scarborough appeared on stage behind President George W. Bush at an August 10 campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida, and applauded Bush's remarks.