As far as journalistic integrity goes, Piers Morgan is more bankrupt than MC Hammer shooting craps at Trump Castle.
The British blowhard, who has failed upwards his entire career, was found to be in violation of the Code of Conduct for business journalism after investing his savings in a tech company before recommending it in the Daily Mirror’s pages, was axed from the Mirror for publishing fake photos of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by British troops, and is alleged to have presided over a culture of phone hacking while at the Mirror. If that weren’t enough, he has an ugly history of transphobia and unbridled misogyny.
In recent months, as editor-at-large of the Daily Mail and a TV host in his native UK, Morgan has garnered a reputation for staunchly defending Donald Trump. For those who’ve blessedly missed it, Trump jump-started Morgan’s career in America (after he was chased out of Britain) by allowing him to win his reality TV series Celebrity Apprentice, and later having him on the program in a guest judge capacity. During one particularly gross moment, Morgan can be seen cackling in the corner as Trump sexually harassed Brande Roderick—whom the real estate mogul allegedly terrorized on the set of Celebrity Apprentice.
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Morgan continues to claim, as he did on the latest edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, that he “wouldn’t have personally voted for Donald Trump,” but it’s complete horseshit. He’s been paying lip service to his pal for over a year in his columns and on the tube, and the trend continued Friday night.
When pressed by Maher and his fellow panelists on President Trump’s chaotic first few weeks in office, Morgan claimed that Trump should have received more “credit” and “acknowledgment” for being “the first Republican president to stand there on Inauguration Day and talk about the lesbian and gay community of America.” “Read the Republican platform on it,” shot back John Waters, the celebrated gay filmmaker. Indeed, it’s odd for Morgan to claim that President Trump deserved credit for merely acknowledging the LGBT community, when the GOP platform is against same-sex marriage (despite the fact that the majority of Americans support it), and Trump’s VP Mike Pence has been a strong supporter of gay conversion therapy. If that weren’t enough, Trump and Pence had Pastor Robert Jeffries, a rabidly anti-gay preacher, speak during their private Inauguration Day service. Pastor Jeffries has disgustingly claimed that homosexuals live a “filthy” and “miserable” lifestyle, and are paving the way for the antichrist, according to CNN.
Later, as Morgan kept qualifying Trump’s actions, Maher lost it. “You and the Trump voters are confusing usual with normal. Yes, it’s good to upset business as usual, but it’s not normal when the CIA says we can’t tell the president secrets because we don’t know if he’ll share them with Russia,” snapped Maher.
Morgan had no clever quip or comeback.
Maher then challenged Morgan on the White House spin concerning the Yemen raid, a failed mission that left one American soldier dead along with 14 militants and at least 30 civilians—including 10 women and children, one of which was an 8-year-old girl. The intended target, an al Qaeda leader, got away safely and proceeded to mock President Trump via video, calling him “the new fool of the White House.”
According to Reuters, “U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations. As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.”
Cue Maher: “You have Sean Spicer saying the Yemen raid, which was a giant, dismal failure—we didn’t get the guy we were going after, who’s now gloating and talking about the fool in the White House, we killed children and women, they knew we were coming, it was not a success. But he’s saying, because Trump says it’s a success, we all have to.” Then Morgan appeared to defend the raid, chiming in with, “Why have you left out the fact that they killed 12 al Qaeda operatives? Is that not significant?” The number was 14 militants, and, given the expertise of the SEALs, it’s not considered to be a successful mission if we lose one of them—or, for that matter, kill dozens of civilians, including women and children.
The Trump defense didn’t stop there. Morgan tried to back up a Trump claim that the U.S. murder rate is the highest it’s been in 47 years, exclaiming, “The murder rate is rocketing.” That is categorically false. Though there’s been an uptick in some major U.S. cities this year, the overall murder rate numbers aren’t even in yet, and they pale in comparison to U.S. murder rates in the ‘90s.
Another Morgan misstep concerned Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban”—an executive order barring immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Morgan, repeating a White House propaganda point, alleged that, “There is no Muslim Ban,” adding that “85 percent of the world’s Muslims [weren’t affected].” This is, of course, a wacky statistic. Yes, a large percentage of the world’s Muslims are not affected, but when it comes to Muslim refugees immigrating to the United States, from 2014-2016, 82 percent came from the seven countries outlined in President Trump’s executive order. Furthermore, Rudy Giuliani confessed on Fox News that Trump had asked him how to institute a Muslim ban "legally."
The final insult came courtesy of Aussie stand-up comedian Jim Jefferies, who yelled, “Oh, fuck off!” when Morgan tried to claim there was “no Muslim ban,” before later shouting, “You just like that you won The Apprentice and you have a famous friend, mate.”
Sounds about right.
