Joe Scarborough tears into the ‘hands up’ members of Congress: ‘It's a lie'

On Monday, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough sought to differentiate himself from his network colleagues when he upbraided both the political press and the activist class for distorting the facts of the case surrounding the shooting death of Ferguson teen Michael Brown.

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“We are doing such a grave disservice to police officers in this country by pushing a narrative that they’re just going around and looking to shoot and kill black people,” the MSNBC host said, as flagged by Jazz Shaw. “Somebody needs to tell me why Michael Brown has been chosen as the face of black oppression.”

One day later, an increasingly exasperated Scarborough added a series of members of Congress to his list of ignominious peddlers of misinformation. He excoriated a number of members of the Congressional Black Caucus took to the House floor with their hands raised in a gesture of surrender in order to express solidarity with Brown who many claim performed the same act before he was shot. The only problem with this, Scarborough exclaimed, is that it never happened.

h/t The Blaze:

In this clip, Scarborough began by demanding to know why the National Football League has make a special exception and determined not discipline the members of the St. Louis Rams who performed the “hands up” gesture ahead of a game. “These players can suggest that the St. Louis cops shoot black youth with their hands up in the air, that’s cool with the NFL, that’s cool with the St. Louis Rams?” he pondered.

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“That’s cool to suggest that St. Louis police officers in the town — probably a lot that go to the games and are fans,” the MSNBC host added, “that St. Louis cops shoot young black men who have their hands in the air when we know that that was a lie.”

Scarborough went on to admonish Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), and Al Green (D-TX) who performed the same gesture on the floor of the House of Representatives.

“What is wrong with this country? What is wrong with these people? What’s wrong with these elected officials?” Scarborough asked. “They know it’s a lie. They know the cops didn’t shoot him with his hands in the air. They know it’s a lie and they’re doing this on the Capitol floor?”

**“Why don’t they put flying saucers on top of their heads and say, ‘If only Michael Brown had not been transported up to Venus. It’s just horrible. When will aliens stop coming down here and transporting people to Venus? This flying saucer on my head is an indication that we can no longer stand for aliens.’”

Unless these members of Congress are suggesting that the facts presented to the Ferguson grand jury were fabricated, Scarborough is correct to charge that these elected representatives are intentionally misleading their constituents. And this is not a harmless lie, either. The notion that Brown surrendered before he was shot to death has sparked violent riots and protests across the country, and those demonstrations have resulted in millions of dollars in lost economic activity. All to advance an agenda from which many, including these members of Congress, derive much of their authority.

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Perhaps Scarborough should direct some of his ire toward a number of his fellow MSNBC hosts who have no compunction propagating the same myth.

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