My hero got played tonight.

[Jakes Progress]

This isn't a slam on Rachel. She is about the only journalist on television.

But the evil group figured out the only thing they could do that would distract her from her steady and relentless research into trump's lies. David Cay Johnston had it right. This nothing of two pages came from trump. It's the shiny thing in his left hand that everyone is looking at right now. No one is looking at what is happening with his right hand. But you can be sure it is terrible and will hurt people.

I worked at the journalist's trade for a while, and a "scoop" is a tempting thing. It worked tonight.

Let's hope her journalism mind will still her broadcast heart, and she will start looking for the right hand. And let's hope this isn't some kind of Dan Rather set-up.

Two pages from 2005. Please. There is still no guarantee that it is actually his return anyway.

Calm down Rachel. Let's get back to the solid stuff that has brought you the acclaim and audience you deserve. This is a distraction and classic misdirection.

[CincyDem]

1. Ditto - just posted in another thread. The quality of the WH response says "setup" to me. n/t

[MFM008]

2. maggot laughing his ass off.

[dubyadiprecession]

7. Maggot seldom smiles, but tweets an awful lot in anger.

I'm sure trump (in traditional fashion) will find something about this, to get upset about.

[MFM008]

10. no

I think its a plant.
shows nothing illegal
nothing even really controversial
and no details.

[dubyadiprecession]

14. Yes is the answer.

Be patient and give it some time, like Jonathan Capeheart has pointed out in his tweet.

[womanofthehills]

3. I don't think so - she is opening it up for others to send her more tax yrs and info

Trump said it was illegal for her to do this, but he is wrong. Only the IRS and accountants who work for Trump can get in trouble. It's not illegal for a reporter to report on Trump's taxes.

I think she has a plan - like opening up a can of worms.

[bettyellen]

4. Yeah, I think she opened a big can of worms...

[Jakes Progress]

8. The returns came from the WH.

Who else could do it? His tax attorney? The IRS? Neither is remotely likely.

Think of the rove set up for Dan Rather. After all the hype tonight, what happens if tomorrow the WH releases two pages of the real return and discredits Rachel. What can she say? She said that the WH didn't deny that this was the tax return. So now you're going to trust trump to be honest about anything he says to MSNBC?

Even if the nothing that she had were not bogus, it says nothing, takes up all the news, breaks the chain of reporting on his felony investments in the middle east, and keeps the press from looking at what is going on elsewhere.

I love Rachel, but she got carried away with the shiny thing tonight. trump has played all of America. Her turn came tonight.

[radical noodle]

30. He has to submit tax returns to a lot of places

as a businessman. When I was working for corporations, we had to submit owner's tax returns all the time. Lots of people likely have copies hanging out in some old file somewhere.

[Jakes Progress]

45. So if this "magic" source

has trump's returns, why just two pages. Two pages that don't prove or disprove anything?

Come on. I love Rachel too. But she is human. Just got a little taken up with this toy. I don't think she will, upon reflection, stay so mesmerized. It even seemed that she was downplaying it as the show went on. Sort of like she was not that thrilled either. Rachel is a wonderful person. But she is a person.

[Glimmer of Hope]

35. Yep. She is not a stupid journalist.

[Heartstrings]

39. Bring it on....

Rachel opened the door for more tax info to be released, although 45 himself releasing them as another bait and switch wouldn't surprise me at all. Nothing 45 does surprises me anymore, terrifies me, but doesn't surprise.

[NWCorona]

5. Even Brian Fallon on CNN said that this is nothing. I just don't get why this was hyped.

[BannonsLiver]

11. He works for a competing network

He wouldn't be hyping it even if it was revelatory.

[BannonsLiver]

6. If it's the nothingburger everyone says it is its 24 hours at best in the news cycle

[Dem2]

9. I didn't

perhaps some people feel played. I don't and Rachel would be a terrible reporter if she hadn't made this unique situation into a big story. It promotes further leaks, and that's what she's hoping for.

[oasis]

18. Rachel did encourage those w/more info to come forward. nt

[Dem2]

22. I noticed

Even knowing you may be reporting something they wanted you to know, it's important to emphasize that more of the same, especially many of the tax schedules that she emphasized, could be critical in taking the deviant in the WH to task. 2005 is more recent than what we had previously (1995), maybe there's more?

[oasis]

24. No harm done except to Rachel fans who expected her to open up a can of

"Instant impeachment".

[Dem2]

28. Expectations

lead to disappointment. I will admit that she oversold the story a bit. I do like that it created an expectation for more, which is a good thing, someone out there now knows they have a safe place/method to send anonymous documents.

[radical noodle]

32. But she will not be distracted in any case

If a big story opens tomorrow, she'll cover it.

[oasis]

33. A lot of territory was covered and some valuable information was

re-released, which is a good thing.

[uponit7771]

12. ...at minimum its another Benedict Donald issue can grow tired of

[oberliner]

13. She played us, actually

She knew what she had and teased it like it was something much bigger.

They ran a "Countdown Clock" to her big reveal on the show prior to hers for an hour.

[nadine_mn]

16. on the other hand - by teasing it, everyone listened

to a recap of her stories of the past week - the history of Russian ties and shady deals

I think it was another way to hammer that home

[BannonsLiver]

21. "But we can't have that!1"

"We need to be entertained and all that facts n stuff is so Booooring."

"Squirrel!"

"Someone put on The Voice!"

[GoCubsGo]

15. This, too, shall pass.

This will all be forgotten when the next crisis arises, which, unfortunately, will likely come tomorrow morning. Unless Comrade Trump gets constipated, and is up all night on the toilet tweeting.

[bdamomma]

17. Geez she just reported it

His complete tax returns need to be disclosed.

Lets move on...

[oberliner]

23. She didn't "just report it"

She had a "Countdown Clock" running on the show prior to hers.

[KittyWampus]

25. So? It's a news program not the freaking Rapture.

[oberliner]

27. The implication was that this was some sort of major bombshell release

As opposed to a regular news report.

[JHan]

47. They regularly do this..

It was the same countdown clock for her "russian connection" features , which was a focusing on reports already at hand*
MSNBC, like all cable news outlets ( well most of them) are always on a hype train.

[oberliner]

53. It's annoying when they do

This one, especially, since the implied bombshell would have been a real bombshell but was literally nothing.

[RobinA]

54. This Is Pretty Much Why

I gave up TV news many years ago. I just couldn't stand this type of churning. Not that print doesn't do it, but it's less blatant and more easily ignored.

[LanternWaste]

56. Implication was that this is a company attempting to drive ratings.

Implication was that this is a company attempting to drive ratings. You seem a bit naive as to the commercial branding of news.

[tallahasseedem]

19. NO SHE DIDN'T

It was explained in detail on Lawrence.

[Renew Deal]

20. Too bad that she will never be on the air again to discuss anything else

[KittyWampus]

26. LOLZ! It's like watching a roomful of toddlers having a collective meltdown.

[BainsBane]

29. She didn't get played

She hyped a story without a lot to it in order to get ratings. That said, I'm not going to join the call to pillory her because people wanted more than she was able to say.

[Jakes Progress]

41. I prefer to think she got played.

I like her and don't like to think she is as shallow and grubbing as the other ratings whores.

My take is that she just got taken by the sheer idea of it and was a little silly. My hope is that by tomorrow, she will be back on the thread she has been working - the thread I think got the WH to toss this shiny into the game because she has clout and she is getting closer and closer to the heart of the reasons for his mendacity.

[BainsBane]

43. She's in commercial broadcasting

It's a for profit business. She has to concern herself with ratings.

I don't think it's more flattering to imagine her a fool.

I don't think the tax returns are the non-issue that you seem to. They are a piece of the puzzle. Perhaps more will be filled in.

[gwheezie]

31. I doubt Rachel is that naive

She set it up well & both she & Johnston said Trump could be the leak.they didn't bring up who else could have leaked it. Johnston got it, they both knew it could have come from Trump & instead of opening with the document she set it up with all the Russian connections & reasons he is hiding.
Rachel is goading him, she got more viewers to hear about the Russian connections. The dripping is going to be relentless.

[Juliusseizure]

36. Someone is goading someone

[Dolt45]

34. Could be Trump to set up Rachel with lackluster returns in response to her huge ratings

I wouldn't put it past Trump to send out the returns then send an announcement saying it was obtained illegally. The 2005 returns are rather boring and the safest ones for him to release anonymously.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

37. No, she didn't. She knew exactly what she was doing

and what the import of those two pages might be. And we do know they are the real 1040s because the WH has admitted as much. She also knew Trump himself might have leaked them. This was all discussed during the show and later on O'Donnell's show. This 1040 is the small tip of a very large iceberg, and it is likely to be part of a much larger picture that will be assembled over time. Rachel is too smart to have been played.

[HoneyBadger]

40. What exactly did the WH say

I saw that they confirmed some round numbers. Which is not the same as saying this is an actual filed, unamended tax return. Could have been amended by Trump, attorneys, IRS, accountants, spouse, you name it. Every letter, every space, every period and every comma in the WH statement matters.

[Jakes Progress]

42. Golly.

We "know" these are the real 1040's because the white house didn't deny it. (They didn't admit anything. That release had lawyer written all over it.) And also, when did you come to trust words that come from this WH?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

44. If they hadn't been real Trump would have had the world's biggest Twitter fit

about MSNBC's story about his FAKE tax returns. SAD! It's as much what they didn't say as what they did.

[jmg257]

38. Not sure she is the one who got played. She got people to watch. Nt

[MichMan]

46. So did Geraldo with Al Capone's vault n/t

[longship]

48. There is a big difference.

What Rachel released tonight was real. Al Capone's vault was always a nothingburger.

[scheming daemons]

49. Yes it was real... and it contains two things that Trumpkins will view as a POSITIVE for him...

He made lots of money in 2005 ("see!? he's successful!&quot .... and he paid lots of taxes in 2005 ("See!? He wasn't lying!&quot


Rachel inadvertently gave Trump *credibility* tonight.

[longship]

50. We'll see about that.

Johnston said tonight that Drumpf (or staff) might have leaked this himself.

No matter. Journalists can now ask why they cannot have the rest of the stuff.

This is not going to go well for Drumpf anyway one looks at it. If Drumpf leaked this, it was yet another unforced error on his part.

[Greywing]

51. You have to be kidding ... he made alot of money although no where near what he likes

to say he makes and would have paid $24M less if taxes had it not been for the AMT. AMT is something he wants to demolish, don't forget. Furthermore I would say if this was leaked by Trumplethinskin himself it is probably the only recent tax return that shows he paid anything resembling the tax % the rest of us pay each year. Gee, I wonder why the WH was so eager to confirm this tax return was legit before TRMS was broadcast.

[jmg257]

57. yep - but Geraldo didn't know he had nothing till he saw it opened along with everyone else.

[Justice]

52. She did not get played.

Silly comments.

Lots of people learned things about Trump they did not know - had tweets from people who did not know pieces of her build up.

Think she did a great job on tax returns. If the 2005 returns are so great for Trump, then release the rest - what's the harm.

[Vinca]

55. I pretty much agree with you. While she did focus on the Russia connections for the first

block of the show, the meager 2 pages of a 2005 return without any schedules was nearly worthless and my first thought was distraction. Rachel has been on a roll and what better way to try to put her off her game than a huge "get?" True, the pages turned up at David Cay Johnston's, but where else would he take them? I hope a whole lot of people tuned in who don't usually watch Rachel and caught the first block before muttering "That's it?" and leaving. That would be the only benefit.

[Demsrule86]

58. did you watch it?

During the segment with David...he states Trump may have leaked it himself...and Rachel talked Russia...geez.

[Jakes Progress]

60. Watched the whole thing. Do you ever watch?

Her last several shows have been dynamite, covering more than Russia.

Geez.

[Demsrule86]

65. I love Rachel...I thought you meant Trump...I am recording it...hate commercials.

[Oneironaut]

59. Rachel is a carnival barker. This is the nature of cable news.

Watch any cable news show, and it's the same thing. They all speak in hyperbole because that's what gets viewers watching. It's the TV version of those stupid click bait ads that you see everywhere.

Rachel got good ratings from this. That's all MSNBC cares about. They're not in the business of investigating, journalism, or even telling the truth. They just want advertising money.

[Jakes Progress]

61. No. Rachel is not usually the same thing.

You must not watch her show.

Last night she stumbled. For the most part, she carries it all the way. When you lump everything into one category, say everything is the same, you behave like the idiots who said Democrats and republicans are exactly the same because they are all politicians. A little bit more discernment and thought are needed.

[Oneironaut]

62. Rachel is on our side. She is also ratings driven. It's (kind of) not her fault.

That's the nature of cable TV news. The higher-ups probably wanted a big story. Thus, this gets sensationalized.

Rachel's job, in their eyes, is to provide entertainment. In this era of smart phones and instant entertainment, it's hard to keep up.

I'm not saying that there's nothing to this story. What I'm saying is, she was forced to hype the story up to attract viewers. Using the term "carnival barker" might have been a bit harsh, but that's essentially how she acted with this. She's trying to turn a small detail that may blow up into a full blown conspiracy into something that's already entertaining.

I said last night that I hope there is some substance to this story, or otherwise she'll ruin her reputation. I don't think she has helped herself, and she should probably cool it with the sensationalism. She'll lose the trust of her viewers if this becomes a trend.

[Jakes Progress]

64. She's not ratings driven. She drives ratings.

They keep her because she has the ratings. She has the ratings because she (usually) has the goods.

[lanlady]

63. I blame the suits at MSNBC

For overhyping this thing. That, plus Rachel's tendency to be didactic.

Even so, this was hardly at the level of the infamous case of Geraldo Rivera dramatic descent to Al Capone's locker, where, in front of millions of viewers, he found precisely... nothing.