PROOF OF LIFE: Scarborough's hunting the bigots again!

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2026

Tapper to Arizona: We managed to make it through the full first hour of today's Morning Joe. For that reason, we got to see the videotape of the deeply sane Chloe Kim.

Kim, who was born in Torrance, California, is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. For that reason, she's over in Italy now, where she defended an Olympic teammate who was criticized, very unwisely and in a dangerous way, by the sitting president.

Late in today's first hour, we got to see what she said. Right there on the videotape, we saw Kim say this:

KIM (2/10/26): My parents being immigrants from Korea, this one definitely hits pretty close to home. And I think in moments like these, it is really important for us to unite and kind of stand up for one another for all that’s going on.

And I think that I’m really proud to represent the United States. The U.S. has given my family and I so much opportunity, but I also think that we are allowed to voice our opinions of what’s going on. And I think that we need to lead with love and compassion, and I would love to see some more of that.

What has any American ever done to merit sharing citizenship with someone as sharp as that?

The videotape of that statement came late in the 6 o'clock hour. Watching Joe Scarborough at the start of the hour, it occurred to us that he needs to go somewhere and take a long rest, or perhaps get back on his meds.

For our money, Kim made a morally brilliant appeal. This morning, Scarborough didn't. He was still name-calling the others about the Bad Bunny halftime show—everyone who isn't reciting the same scripts he's being paid to read.

In our view, what follows is ugly stuff. Joe was chronicling negative reaction to Sunday's halftime show:

SCARBOROUGH (2/10/26): My favorite—and it was said in racist neighborhoods across America over the past couple of days:

"He's not even American! Why aren't we having an American here?"

[He's] more American than U2! More American than Paul McCartney! More American than—go down the list!

It's OK—if they just want to admit that they're bigots, they can always just say, "We don't like brown people doing our halftime shows." They might as well say it

For the record, U2 and Paul McCartney were past halftime acts. (So was Kid Rock, back in 2004!)

At any rate, that's the way Morning Joe started. In our view, that's ugly stuff, but also supremely stupid:

Somehow, the star of the show was able to report what was said, the past two days, "in racist neighborhoods across America." It was being said in those neighborhoods by the "bigots," he reported (but also, we'll guess, by the deplorables.)

(Willie quickly voiced agreement, as he's required to do. Cable news has largely transitioned into tribal reassurance services at this point in time. No complexity need apply!)

In our view, that was ugly stuff—ugly, but also stupid. After the tape of Kim's remarks, Lemire got things back on track with this ridiculous comment, suitable for tribal consumption:

LEMIRE: When you perceive a halftime act as saying, "Our message is love," and you perceive that as an attack on you—well, you're sort of telling on yourself.

Seriously, that's what he said! But what if you didn't perceive the halftime act as saying, "Our message is love?" If you didn't perceive the act that way, is it OK to think the act might have been poorly suited for this particular occasion?

Full disclosure! Normally, we don't watch the Super Bowl halftime shows. We clean house for maybe three hours, then return for the second half.

On this occasion, we did watch the halftime show, intrigued by all the hoopla. For ourselves, we didn't think the act was perfectly suited to the occasion. That has nothing to do with Bad Bunny himself, or with Bad Bunny's music.

At any rate, Joe was trashing the bigots again. Over here in Blue America, it sometimes seems like that's the only reaction we have.

Meanwhile, there was Kasie Hunt—a good, decent person with a winning demeanor—hosting her 4 p.m. CNN show, which has been scoring good ratings. Yesterday afternoon, she had an hour with which to survey the world. 

Many events take place in the world. This is the way she started:

ANNOUNCER (2/9/26): This is CNN breaking news.

HUNT: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's good to have you with us on this Monday.

Right now, as we come on the air, we are covering a new video that was just released ahead of the new deadline in a desperate search...

At this point, she played videotape of Savannah Guthrie, then summarized the basic events of the search for Guthrie's mother. Eventually, Hunt said this:

HUNT: As of today, as the search enters its ninth day, police still say they have no suspects or persons of interest. Law enforcement officials were seen at Nancy's home on Sunday. They were also seen at the home of her daughter, Annie, late Saturday.

Let's get off the sidelines, head into THE ARENA.

My panel will be here. We're also joined by CNN senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera. He's outside Nancy Guthrie's home in Tucson.

Ed, can you bring us up to speed with the latest on the ground? This shift in tone from Savannah just now? Pretty remarkable.

Lavandera was on the scene in Tucson. Hunt's panel was there on the set. 

By the time the hour was done, her panelists seemed to number in the thousands. Eventually, at 4:22, she even surprised us with this:

HUNT:  We're going to continue covering this throughout the hour here in THE ARENA. Don't go anywhere.

We have much more breaking news. Our Jake Tapper is on the scene in Arizona. We're going to check in with him live when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

Say what? Tapper was also in Arizona? After the commercial break, he was introduced by Hunt as CNN's "chief Washington correspondent!"

Morning Joe was trashing the bigots. CNN was chasing true crime again, to the exclusion of everything else. 

Everything else had disappeared from the coverage on Hunt's show. And that night, on the Fox News Channel's Gutfeld! program, the cable star opened with this:

GUTFELD (2/9/26): Good evening, everyone! So during the fourth quarter of last night's Super Bowl, a half-naked male streaker ran onto the field. 

He left his pants on, leading everyone to believe that he has a small penis.

TYRUS: Wooooo!

It's all this tragic nut-ball has. His next three jokes asserted these themes:

Don Lemon likes getting oral sex from men. Hispanics can't stop having sex. The NBA is crawling with criminals.

That's the way the game is now played on the so-called Fox News Channel. Family values have left the stage. A garbage can has been rolled in.

The Ghosts of True Crime Rampages Past have been evident at CNN and on the Fox News Channel. As panelists kill endless time pretending to discuss the search for Nancy Guthrie, everyone avoids a blindingly obvious question:

Why did "law enforcement officials" spend almost three hours taking a special type of photo inside Annie Guthrie's home late Saturday night? (See Hunt's text, above.) 

Whatever the answer to that question might be, it's the world's most obvious question. Every expert has spent the past three days being careful not to ask it. 

"The American people are pretty sharp!" It's long been a bromide on broadcast news, voiced by pundits and pols alike. But actually, no! We just aren't especially sharp, and neither is anyone else.

The ghosts of true crime rampages past seemed to haunt our dreams last night. Other topics had largely disappeared on two of our cable news channels.

Over where the Good People live, we Blues were hunting the bigots again. In the end, is that all we really have?

We're seeking "proof of (intelligent) life" in our reports at this site this week:

Chloe Kim is 25. How did she get to be like that? What explains everyone else? 

Tomorrow: When a true crime rampage starts, nothing beside remains