MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" panel spent part of Friday’s show critiquing the unfairness of the "fake news media" toward Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
The show's hosts and guests focused on accurate stories that they felt put Clinton in an unfair light, criticizing Trump for claiming the media hurt him during the election. Host Joe Scarborough said the media was actually hostile toward Clinton during the campaign, and that Trump's accusations of bias were "fake news."
"I think the fake news media was pretty damn hostile towards Hillary Clinton throughout most of the campaign," Scarborough said. "So that's just fake news, Donald."
USA Today reporter Heidi Przybyla added that accurate media stories about Clinton were part of a "hunt" against Clinton, and she "distinctly" remembers how leaked emails hurt the Democratic nominee's candidacy.
"It was the New York Times who broke the server story," Przybyla said. "She'll never forgive them."
"Hillary Clinton supporters can tell you how many stories were done on the servers," Przybyla added. "And the WikiLeaks, I'm sorry, I remember that distinctively because the media took every morsel, and it was doled out, day after day in small amounts—purposely—and every day, there was a new hunt to find what in there they could possibly write about."
Contradicting the point that the media damaged Clinton, Scarborough discussed how WikiLeaks actually did not matter because nothing embarrassing came out of its revelations. He said the most significant thing that came out of the email leaks was a risotto recipe.
"WikiLeaks emails that were released just made me feel better about Jon Podesta ... the people that were around Hillary Clinton—that they were self-aware of the problems they were facing," Scarborough said. He did not specify what made her team so self-aware, but he have been referring to the way the Clinton campaign meticulously focus-grouped every aspect of her campaign, including her 84 potential slogans.
"At the end of the day, if they were trying to hurt Hillary with that, they didn't do it," Scarborough added.
The discussion was spurred by the panel's praise for Clinton's remarks saying that Trump was being "played" by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Scarborough responded to a clip of the two-time failed presidential candidate by praising her for scoring "100 points" on Trump.
"All right, move all 100 points on the board over to Hillary Clinton," Scarborough said
Co-host Mika Brzezinski compared Trump and Kim to toddlers fighting over toys.
"It's like a toddler brawl with nuclear weapons in the middle," she said. "It's unbelievable."
Scarborough also revealed that Brzezinski was anticipating Trump lashing out at her when she mocked a Time magazine cover with his face on it in June. Trump did indeed respond on Twitter, mocking Brzezinski for getting a facelift and wanting to hang out with him on New Year's Eve, as Brzezinski said she expected.