MSNBC's "Morning Joe" invited former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer on the program Wednesday morning to discuss the contradictory messages coming out of Tehran and Washington regarding the details of an impending nuclear deal.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski and Fleischer, who served as press secretary under former President George W. Bush, clashed over what the conflicting reports meant. Brzezinski argued that the U.S. and Iran are "emphasizing" different aspects of the negotiations in order to convince their citizens they got the better end of the deal, but Fleischer maintained that the discrepancies signaled a more concrete problem.
"The Iranians are saying the sanctions will be fully and immediately lifted ... The United States is saying no, it's going to be incremental over time," Fleischer said. "That's not an emphasis issue, that's which is it?"
Fleischer also argued that even though a final agreement won't ostensibly be reached until June 30, the public should still know the details of the framework now.
Both Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough ribbed Fleischer a bit over his position on the deal, with Scarborough saying the former press secretary was "playing games" and was "much smarter than this."
"I'm interpreting what you're saying as, 'Let's go to war,'" Brzezinski said. "Am I right?"
Scarborough laughed off Brzezinski's accusation against Fleischer, but agreed that a certain level of posturing is "baked into" the negotiations.
"You know the Iranians aren't going to go back and go, 'Wow, John Kerry really screwed us! Oh my god!'" he said. "Come on."
H/T Mediaite