The roundtable discussion at "Morning Joe" became a shouting match on Wednesday morning, as contributor Jeffrey Sachs raged against co-host Joe Scarborough.
The panel was discussing Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino mogul who said that he will give up to $100 million to Newt Gingrich or another GOP candidate. He has already given $11 million to super PAC aligned with Gingrich.
Scarborough asked whether Adelson's transparency was preferable to the approach of billionaire George Soros, whom he described as someone who "sets up corporations and makes it harder to figure out where he's connected."
Sachs later blasted Adelson, and lamented the power of money in politics. "And do we really need major gambling influence and a guy that has played all over the world with governments, so that he gets the casino licenses and charges up and down as, really, a core leader of our politics?" he said.
Scarborough attempted to compare Adelson to Soros again. He began, "Let me ask you again -- and I’m not attacking George Soros, but I don’t think you like --"
Sachs was not having it, and cut Scarborough off. He insisted that the issue at hand was "not Soros," but the country's "wrecked system" of politics.
Scarborough attempted to get Sachs to concede that Adelson was better than Soros, while Sachs tried to make his point about corrupt politics. Scarborough made one more attempt to pin Sachs down, saying, "You attacked one man in saying he’s a bad person. You said he’s a bad person, Jeffrey!" After some cross-talk, the MSNBC contributor let loose.
"Joe! Listen to me once, Joe, please!" Sachs yelled.
"You're yelling!” Scarborough said. "Don’t yell at me! Just answer my question!"
"Joe, I’m sorry, but you do this each time!" Sachs shot back.
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Posted: 02/22/2012 12:15 pm Updated: 02/22/2012 6:02 pm