This Is So Cr@zy!’ Stunned Scarborough Says Fox Dominion Motion Amounts To Admitting Blame For Jan 6 Attack

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was stunned by a motion in the $1.6 billion Dominion defamation suit that he says is tantamount to an admission of blame by Fox News for the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

On Friday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the host was commenting on the Republican overreach exemplified by Tennessee’s expulsion of two Black lawmakers that he says is fueled in part by things the base hears on Fox News.

Scarborough then went on a tangent about a motion from Fox News to exclude testimony about Jan. 6 on the grounds that “any reference to the Capitol riot will only unfairly prejudice the jury against Fox, inflame passions, prevent a fair trial, and taint any resulting verdict”:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: We talk about just how Republicans, these Trump Republicans have been living in an alternate reality. And we brought up from time to time, I don’t like to bring up other networks, but we’ve brought it from time to time when we’ve just had to, some of the extremist positions that really are warping the political views of too many Americans

Like, for instance, Fox News saying that U.S. Army helicopters that were being used in Afghanistan were coming over and they were going to be used against people in America that voted against Donald Trump, that the FBI was going to come and kick down doors and go after people who voted for Donald Trump. All of these lies, all of this extremism, all of these attacks on our United States military, that’s actually hurting recruiting right now because of their big lies, continuing attacking the men and women in uniform.

Then I’ve got to say, I just want to read this to you. It’s just shocking to me. Fox News has asked the judge to prohibit references to the January 6th insurrection at the Dominion trial. Quote, “Any reference to the Capitol riot will only unfairly prejudice the Jersey, the jury against Fox.”

Let me say that again. “Any reference to the Capitol riot will only unfairly prejudice the jury against Fox.”

I mean, this is, this is almost an admission that they believe reasonable jury members would blame them for January 6. It’s it’s it’s incredible, as if MSNBC said to it to a judge, you can’t mention 9/11 or if CNN said you can’t mention Pearl Harbor. Just go back. This is so crazy! And it continues. Where, where do you have this case about election denialism and this is being brought in? I really I’ve got to say, I find that somewhat just hard to believe.

WILLIE GEIST: Well, it’s almost as if the lawyers representing Fox News in this case know that if the obvious line is drawn between the lies that were told on their network and elsewhere about the 2020 election being stolen, in this case, specifically about Dominion’s voting machines being used, connected to satellites that change the votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden or whatever the conspiracy theory is. I’ve lost track that if a jury drew that line, that it would be quite obvious that they participated in that. We’ll see if a judge allows that to be excluded from the case. But it would seem like what’s actually at the heart of this case in terms of Dominion

The judge in the case agreed with Fox, saying at a hearing that “What parties were thinking in January is not very relevant, if at all, to what happened in November and December,” and that “I’m also very concerned that there would be unfair prejudice to Fox” because “Fox is not the cause of the January 6th — I mean in its relation to Dominion.”