Bob Woodward: Donald Trump ‘Is Aspiring To Be The New Joe McCarthy’

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward appeared on Morning Joe to discuss some behind the scenes details regarding the White House personnel changes involving Leon Panetta and David Petraeus, but also took time to scold the media for hyping the “manufactured controversy” with President Obama’s birth certificate. Though Mika Brzezinski took issue with Woodard and didn’t understand his assessment that “the news media has got to get a handle on itself on this,” as she argued if Obama held a press conference on the issue, then it is worth discussing.

Woodward first addressed Donald Trump:

“Let’s call things what they are. Donald Trump, I think, was or maybe still is aspiring to be the new Joe McCarthy. No evidence, but you make an assertion and you look at these things Trump said . . . people interviewing him at that moment should have said ‘what’s your evidence.’ Trump has no evidence, and when you have no evidence you have nothing and the discussion of the subject should end.”

It seemed Woodward’s complaint was focused on the media’s role in hyping the accusations prior to yesterday, while Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were mere focused on defending the media’s coverage of the issue since Obama released the birth certificate. Scarborough couldn’t understand why Obama engaged the crazy issue in the first place. And Woodward concluded “I kind of feel sorry for [Obama], quite frankly.”

Watch the clip from MSNBC below:

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