Joe Scarborough And Tavis Smiley Argue About George W. Bush On 'Morning Joe' (VIDEO)

Joe Scarborough and guest Tavis Smiley got into a heated argument about George W. Bush's post-9/11 leadership on Monday's "Morning Joe."

The co-hosts of "Morning Joe" were praising the heroism of the passengers on Flight 93 when the conversation turned to the strong sense of unity across the country in the days after the attacks.

Smiley said that the country had failed to seize on that sense of bipartisanship ten years ago, saying, "I think we lost major opportunities ten years ago that we will never get back."

Co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed with Smiley, raising doubts about the country's immediate response to 9/11. She said, "Well we cut taxes and and told people 'It's ok, go shopping.' There are some problems with how we confronted this as a nation." She said, "I don't think we're there yet" in response to Scarborough's view that "it's a war we've won."

Scarborough took offense at Brzezinski's reference to tax cuts, calling it an attack on George W. Bush.

"It is ok to say, 'thank you President Obama for starting the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, thank you George W. Bush for keeping us safe domestically for 8 years," he said.

Smiley asked what the American people should be thanking Bush for. He said that George W. Bush's administration "lied" and "misled the American people" about weapons of mass destruction in its case for war.

The allegation set off heated cross-talk at the round table, with Scarborough, Brzezinski and guest Jon Meacham disagreeing with Smiley. When Meacham asked, "Do you believe that George W. Bush intentionally misled the American people in the case for war? Smiley responded, "I never said 'intentionally.'"

Scarborough ordered, "Speak to your truth, Tavis!"

When pressed on the issue, Smiley said he called lying the difference between what Bush's administration said about WMDs and the failure to find WMDs in Iraq.

Watch (h/t Mediaite):

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Comments

[JacksonJones]

03:52 PM on 09/14/2011

To be fair, lying is, and must be, an intentional act to actually be lying. If you are just wrong and you don't know it, that isn't lying.

That said, W and his posse lied. They may have believed that there were wmd in Iraq, but they lied about the intelligence. They lied about what they relied on to reach their conclusion so that everyone would make the same conclusion based on evidence that was much much much less persuasive than what they'd led us to believe.

How do we know? One reason is that they wouldn't have felt the need to retaliate against Joe Wilson by exposing his wife as a CIA agent if they felt their evidence was actually persuasive, they'd have simply relied on the evidence.

[noudidnt]

03:18 PM on 09/14/2011

First off, Joe has a REAL problem with MEN OF COLOR>

[dtmfman]

03:17 PM on 09/14/2011

dick cheney coerced the intelligence agencies to manipulate the intelligence data so that the end product produced the desired drivers for going to war...plain and simple...was it a lie?....bottom line...yes it was...and those who participated in this deception either in it's creation or its proliferation should be indicted for treason.

[jggrow]

01:30 PM on 09/14/2011

I've emailed MSNBC's Morning Joe address about three times now to say if I wanted to watch FOX News I wouldn't tune in MSNBC. Joe belongs on FOX. If he made the move he'd be happier there and the rest of would be too.

[holyghostie]

02:38 PM on 09/14/2011

not really because sometimes he criticizes Republicans...and thats a NONO on FixedNoise.

[hearmeloudandclear]

02:53 PM on 09/14/2011

I've said it 100 times myself.... he's a Faux News agent.... A "Party of No" talking-points man. He should move on ... and take his ego with him.

[manofmystique]

12:14 PM on 09/14/2011

Scarborough defended the inexcusable inaction Bush took when he was told "America was under attack" sitting in the class-room.
Anyone who supports Bush reaction and the lame excuse he gave for doing nothing (for twenty minutes) during a terror attack needs to have their head examined.
In a televised interview with Jon Stewart, Scarborough asked, "what was the President suppose to do?"
How about pretend you are the President of the United States Joe and conduct yourself accordingly.
How about pretend you are concerned and angry. How about pretend it was an emergency situation. Since it was obvious you were unsure what to do under the circumstances. Pretend!
Doing nothing was an option and Bush was imcompetent enough to take what he could get.
It would be a grave mistake to allow the challenged minds of todays Republicans/tea-nuts near ultimate power of the Presidency EVER.

[tallky]

10:32 AM on 09/14/2011

sound bites here, Tavis is used to intelligent discussion - not so Joe! When, of all times, can we talk about everything that went WRONG after 9/11, but after 9/11 ?? How such a tragedy was used to start a war against the wrong people for the wrong reasons. George was not into anything serious as President and here comes something this big - he rode his bike and let the hawks loose. Havoc. Good for Tavis for being brave enough to say it. Trying to stick him with the definition of lying - so stupid. Everyone knows what happened. Bush didn't have the nerve to show up at year 9, at year 10 - here he comes, looking humble? I think someone filled him in on what was going on . . . and perhaps hinted at the number of people watching. Heavens, glad this guy is gone. Yeah Tavis Smiley, Boo Joe Scarborough.

[Dustee]

09:30 AM on 09/14/2011

Tavis, if he want's to be invited back on morning jokes show, he needs to learn how to giggle and agree with Joe like the rest of the people he has on his show.

[Gurinder Dhillon]

10:20 AM on 09/14/2011

F&F

[LaFilleEnRose]

08:49 AM on 09/14/2011

Does Joe Scarborough ever let Mika complete a sentence?

[hearmeloudandclear]

02:58 PM on 09/14/2011

Lafille.... In two words.....very seldom.

[rasp57]

03:49 AM on 09/14/2011

The Tavis Smiley and Joe Scarborough discussion was pulled from the MSNBC video selection. We may not be able to say that G W Bush lied but his administration was in charge during the worst attack on US soil, the worst blunder in US history of going to war in Iraq based on WMD and finding out there were no WMD. To Mika's point, lower taxes when we have to pay for a war has helped to create the current deficit.. Finally very few people mention that there were over 1,000,000 Christians in Iraq during Saddam's reign that were either killed or driven out during the US occupation of Iraq. History will judge the G W Bush Presidency.

[tok88]

10:18 PM on 09/13/2011

So run for office, Tavis. Run something other than your mouth.

[frank day]

11:21 PM on 09/13/2011

Tr011 alert.

[manofmystique]

08:31 AM on 09/14/2011

Would you prefer Tavis give sign languish when telling the truth rather than "running his mouth" to make the same point?

[Trevon Carlson]

09:00 PM on 09/13/2011

Tavis was totally correct. I just wish he stood firm.

[Tony McDay]

08:58 PM on 09/13/2011

Tavis should not have backed down. Joe likes guests he can push around, and ones he can't rarely come back like Rachel, Lawrence, etc.

[chaucer1]

09:26 AM on 09/14/2011

For a long time I've wondered why anyone on the left agrees to appear on these shows at all. It must be a form of masochism.

[hearmeloudandclear]

03:09 PM on 09/14/2011

chaucer1 - You sure have a point there. They get set-up for the "got-cha" questions. "Scare-brow" is famous for that.

[Pyrrho of Elis]

07:07 PM on 09/13/2011

I really feel for poor Tavis. Ever find yourself in a situation were you know your right and someone jumps all over you about it and you just can't think straight at the time to rebut them? I"ll bet Tavis wishes he had had, just to name a few examples, Judy Miller, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, Hans Blix, the suicide of the British weapons expert David Kelly, and Richard Clarke on the tip of his tongue when Joe went off. Face it Tavis. The history has been written. Final verdict, Bush was the victim of bad intelligence, and with no opposing intellegence to counter, he had no other option, he invaded Iraq. Just ask John Harwood. right. That's the way he sees it.

[manofmystique]

08:44 AM on 09/14/2011

You are insane if you believe Bush "bad intellegence" had anything to do with going to war. His deciples fed him what he wanted and Bush ignored the rest. For example: the memo anouncing Ben Laden was determined to fly planes into building was simply discarded like old Newspapers.
It is well documented Bush intented to go to war before he took office. All the excuses he manufactured to go to war turned out to be inaccurate, including weapons of mass destruction.

[Pyrrho of Elis]

11:55 PM on 09/14/2011

Maybe I would be insane if "I" believed bad intelligence had anything to do with going to war. But I don't and I never did. I said the "history has been written", I didn't mean the truth. The acceptable version, approved by the both political establishments because they think allowing the failures to be covered up will help Americans sleep better at night.
Day 1 spin doctors worked creating the narrative. It was a massive PR campaign. They settled on WMD because in focus groups, it polled better. No WMD? They had to come up with something They coined "bad intelligence", focus grouped it , and decided to have Tenet take the fall. Why give him a Medal of Freedom? Because he threw himself on a grenade.The acceptable "History" is "bad intelligence" The whole history of Judy Miller, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, Hans Blix, David Kelly, Richard Clarke no good . Blame it on "bad intelligence", the final sanitized version. The left, thinks we don't want to harm the nation by dividing the country. Same old Democratic lets all get along again. John Harwood? In with the lets not blame anyone, move forward crowd. He's a newsman? But, as every good 21st century news person knows, it's better to look non partisan. Increases your market share! Never tell the truth if it's going to get half your subscriptions canceled.

[Bruce vain]

06:36 PM on 09/13/2011

Yeah Travis you can talk smack about President Obama..but ya let this joke show for the B^&&* you are.

[hearmeloudandclear]

03:13 PM on 09/14/2011

Bruce vain -- My point entirely... couldn't believe it. Tavis shrunk in his seat...and wore a simple, wry grin... afraid of the truth that he had conveyed to the "big boy"...afraid to stick by his guns.

[thankulord13]

06:25 PM on 09/13/2011

The Bush administration did lie! Like Grandma use to say if it ain't the truth it has to be a lie, period!