Scarborough and O’Donnell Are In Bizarre Spat over Trump’s Salary
Mediaite regrets to inform you, gentle reader, that it got weird on Morning Joe this morning when nighttime host Lawrence O’Donnell alleged celebrity plutocrat Donald Trump was lying about his NBC salary and that sucker Joe Scarborough was buying it. You’re never gonna believe this: the debate has now spilled out into that nexus of comity, Twitter. Twitter!
It started in the A block, when O’Donnell began insisting that Trump was actually a lowly-paid “hired hand” on Celebrity Apprentice and barely made a million bucks off the show, pffft. (Trump claimed yesterday in an FEC filing to be worth north of $10 billion; he listed his Celebrity apprentice earnings at more than $20 million annually, an admittedly hard-to-believe sum.) Scarborough didn’t believe his guest’s claim for a second; O’Donnell, not known for keeping his cool when guests on his own show disagree with him, interrogated Scarborough, who began to comprehend that the segment was not just fun and games anymore.
“Do you believe NBC lied about how much Donald Trump was paid?” O’Donnell insisted. “Because that’s your choice. One of them is lying…[and] you’re falling for it because you don’t understand how much money people make on TV.” Watch:
Scarborough was smiling through the whole thing, but O’Donnell’s subsequent tweets indicate he thinks this is a bona fide throwdown:
NBC said @realDonaldTrump lied about his NBC salary and @Morning_Joe believes Trump.
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) July 16, 2015
.@Morning_Joe proved why @realDonaldTrump impresses Republican voters. NBC said Trump lied about his NBC $ & Joe still believes Trump.
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) July 16, 2015
Note to @Morning_Joe Try to reserve all your inaccurate descriptions of what I said to when I'm actually still on your set to correct you.
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) July 16, 2015
The MJ crew brought it up again in the C block, wondering just what the hell O’Donnell’s problem was. Scarborough seemed distinctly less amused.
“Lawrence started screaming and calling everybody a liar,” he said. “I guess maybe that happens in prime time television. We don’t do it here.”
Well, no, they definitely do it there, which O’Donnell was quick to point out:
.@NYShorty My favorite part of it was @JoeNBC lecture about how rude we are in msnbc prime time. @Morning_Joe
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) July 16, 2015
In short, this was stupid, meaningless, and entirely about Donald Trump, so it’s a good example of what his campaign is doing to the national discourse. Watch, via MSNBC:
[Image via screengrab]
