Scarborough: 'I'm against hookers being wiretapped' David Edwards

Published: Wednesday March 12, 2008



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Print This Email This MSNBC's Joe Scarborough talked with Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel about the Elliot Spitzer scandal. Vanden Heuvel, a classmate of the New York governor's at Princeton, expressed concern that Spitzer was targeted unfairly, while the MSNBC host called the probe a waste of resources. Speculating that Spitzer was "targeted" by the right, the Nation editor said, "I think we need to look hard at what was going on in that IRS office and what was going on in the attorney general." Scarborough, a former GOP congressman, agreed, saying that "it just doesn't add up. We're in a war on terror, for god's sake, and you're wiretapping hookers?" "Does anyone really believe you can buy Eliot Spitzer for $10,000, $20,000?" Scarborough rhetorically asked. "He's a multimillionaire living on Fifth Avenue." This video is from MSNBC's Morning Joe, broadcast March 12, 2008.



Transcript via closed captions :: katrina vanden heuvel, thank you for being with us. :: hi, katrina. :: hi. :: i know you went to school with eliot spitzer and y'all are very tight. :: no. i want to say two things. :: in defense of eliot spitzer, he went after some people that needed to go after. :: we were talking before, joe, he was my classmate at princeton, i hung with a fast crowd, he was the student president. it's a tragedy. i saw lost in your cover this morning, was don't forget, and the tragedy for the team, is this man took on corporate greed, corporate criminals and did a lot for consumers in this country and set a paradigm for andrew quo moe as attorney general. i hope that is not tarnished with all that has happened. :: and there are a lot of people that will say that he went too far. the grasso stories. :: there was a cruelty, there was an excess. :: there was an excess. people said that also about rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani cleaned up the mob, did a lot of good things, but there was excess with him. but the interesting thing about his legacy is, it's not people in new york he helped the most. there are a lot of investors, mom and pop investors who worked their entire life. and people don't know this and they need to listen. they need to listen. the system is rigged. when you go after stock brokerage things that did very bad things in 19 9 9 and 2000 and he went after the most powerful interests in america. i'm not a huge fan of his, but he did it, and who got helped the most, the mom and pop people across america that spent their entire life working to invest in a wall street firm and lose it all in a year. :: absolutely. joe, i have to say, and i do not engage lightly in these kind of things, but i think there is a question that needs to be investigated about whether eliot spitzer was targeted, because of the powers he took on on wall street. :: absolutely. i think that's a huge question. :: john edwards, in my mind, to go to the presidential for a moment, raised the central question in our democracy today, when controls this government? the people or corporate power? eliot spitzer took on much of that. we've got to look at targeting -- and by the way, how much money, it's terribly hypocrite hypocriteical of him. in this country today, legally and illegally, do you know how much money is laundered, going after this kind of money -- it's because he's eliot spitzer. :: and we can't just blame wall street, because everybody hates eliot spitzer. :: i know democrats in new york -- :: democrats hate him, republicans hate him, it's not a conspiracy if everybody hates him. :: no, no, it's not a conspiracy. eric schneider wrote a piece for the nation a few weeks ago. there's not a lot of love lost between democrats who just want a great state senate seat up in new york, one seat away from taking over albany and look what's going on. this is a distraction. :: i have a question, though. this is all early, but he may have been -- mr. spitzer may have been doing this for six years. he may have been using public money inappropriately. even if he's targeted, why set yourself up for that? for six years, it's another thing if someone is trying to prove that someone had a problem that they don't have, which mr. spitzer tried to do, i believe. :: he did some very bad things. :: why set yourself up? if you're a guy who's like, do whatever you want, live the way you want, you've got a little bit of pot in your car, big deal. :: i think this guy lived on the edge, i don't want to put him on the couch. why do we see this happen around the country. every year someone cracks. someone's been living a private life, a secret life. what he was doing is pretty tawdry. but it's like -- does it impinge -- this seems to impinge on public because of the that we should be taking off the book. we should have cracked down on trafficking. on the money piece of it, i think we need to look hard at what was going on in that irs office and what was going on in the attorney general. :: it just doesn't add up. are they really going to -- we're in a war on terror, for god's sake, and you're wiretapping hookers? i'sorry. :: what happened is because people thought he was moving money. i didn't start with the hookers. :: that's b.s. too. here you got a guy who is a multi, multimillionaire. he lives on fifth avenue -- hold on, he lives on fifth avenue. if you're a prosecutor, you look, what do you look at? you're say, for instance, back during the cold war, they would target gays, why would they target gays, they would target gays because they knew they were more likely to break. and somebody whispers, we're going to tell your wife your gay unless you give the soviet union secrets. does any really believe you can buy eliot spitzer for $10,000, $20,000. he's a multimillionaire living on fifth avenue. :: what joe said about squandered resource, where are our resources going if they're wiretapping hookers. :: i thought we didn't have money to fight the war on terror. :: and we don't have money to help veterans. can we get some money into a public investment agenda to protect our ports, all this kind of things. instead we're fueling a new arms race in the world and we're wiretapping hookers. something's wrong with our national priorities. :: the missiles and the weapons of war, i'm against hookers being wiretapped.



