Meet the Press Spat Between Axelrod, Scarborough Sorta Settled on Morning Joe
Apparently solely to prove my thesis that Meet the Press and Morning Joe are now one contiguous show, the latter resuscitated the discussion between Joe Scarborough and David Axelrod over the response to ebola, in the key of clearing the air.
Scarborough had said on MTP yesterday that he was trying to ask “tough questions” about the government’s and World Health Organization’s response to the ebola outbreak in west Africa, causing Axelrod to dismiss “Dr. Scarborough.” Theeeeeen came the yelling.
Playing mediator, Mika Brzezinski tried to “rephrase” Scarborough’s question “so we can put a period at the end of the sentence and bring more news into it” — an assessment that seemed to miff Axelrod, as putting news into the discussion had been his intention in the first place.
“I started my career as a journalist,” he said. “I was an investigative reporter. I believe strongly that questions should be asked, need to be asked, in all situations. That’s part of what makes our system work. In this case, the question is not whether we’re asking the right questions, but whether we’re going to accept answers on fundemental facts like how you contract ebola.”
“My concern is that we not panic the American people to believe that this is an epidemic like a flu epidemic that can be spread widely without contact and that’s the point that [CDC Director Tom] Frieden has been making, that [NIH official] Anthony Fauci has been making, because this is something that can lend itself to panic,” Axelrod continued.
Watch the clip below, via MSNBC:
[Image via screengrab]
