Joe Scarborough launches into furious, days-long tweetstorm after reporter suggests he 'partied' with Trump
Scarborough, the former Republican congressman, lambasted the reporter, Sopan Deb, for pushing what he called "fake news" and for "making up facts."
Scarborough insisted he was only at the event for a brief amount of time before it began. He said he was attempting to set up an interview with Trump. Scarborough and his cohost Mike Brzezinski have come under fire repeatedly for what many in media believe is a far too cozy relationship with the president-elect.
Deb had originally posted a screenshot from New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman's story detailing the New Year's Eve gala. Haberman wrote that the hosts were in attendance, but did not categorize their appearance as having "partied" with Trump.
Scarborough went on to call Deb a "hack":
Deb said he should've chosen a different word for his tweet than "partied," writing that "attended" would have been more accurate. But he did not back off after Scarborough went on offense.
Scarborough then went into an eight-part response detailing, in his words, what went down during his appearance at Mar-a-Lago. And he was nowhere near done after that.
Deb, who is heading to a reporting job with the Times, took umbrage at Scarborough's comparison of his situation with Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor, and Brokaw, the longtime face of NBC News.
An enraged Scarborough continued to take aim at Deb, posting a roughly 20 tweets subsequently throughout Sunday. Some took issue with Deb. Others took aim at those siding with the CBS News reporter, such as Brian Fallon, the former campaign spokesman for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. And more were posted to further his defense of attending the event, which he claimed was only for an extremely brief period and while he was wearing street clothes.
On Monday, Haberman posted a photo of Scarborough from the event along with other photos she had received. This prompted Scarborough to continue his lengthy tweetstorm on the subject. He continued taking shots at Deb and other prominent reporters.
Haberman asked Scarborough in her own series of tweets about what had changed since the night before, when he suggested he was fine with her story. She also said it's "known" that Scarborough and Trump have a relationship.