MSNBC's Joy Reid grills a GOP operative about Clinton and the Uranium One deal, rests her case


At the end of President Trump's multiple Sunday morning tweets about a "Witch Hunt for evil politics" by Democrats, in which he mentioned a series of supposed misdeeds by 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, including "the Uranium to Russia deal," Trump said the "the facts are pouring out" about "GUILT by Democrats/Clinton" and urges somebody to "DO SOMETHING!" On her Sunday morning MSNBC show, Joy Reid did something, and she couched it as a series of "fact-based questions" for her guest, Republican strategist and Washington Examiner contributor Jennifer Kerns.
Specifically, Reid appeared annoyed at the rash of new stories last week about a 2010 deal in which a Russian company purchased a controlling stake in Uranium One, a Canadian company with uranium mineral rights in the U.S. House Republicans opened an investigation into Clinton's role in the seven-year-old deal on Tuesday. Reid's "fact-based questions" were actual questions, and she kind of gave Kerns a chance to answer them, but her rundown of the Uranium One flap was really an indictment of what appears to be a questionable effort to bring Clinton back into the news as Special Counsel Robert Mueller prepared to make Trump's possible Russia collusion top news again.
"There's actually nothing about the deal that's controversial," Reid concluded. "The only reason we're talking about it, per your admission — which I think is very honest — the RNC would like us to be talking about this now." Which isn't quite fair — as former Trump campaign chief Corey Lewandowski suggested in his slip Saturday morning about the "continued lies of the Clinton administration," Fox News has been very eager to talk about the story, too. Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Why Turkey's Kurdish insurgents are laying down their arms
Under the Radar The PKK said its aims can now be 'resolved through democratic politics'
-
Book reviews: 'Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves' and 'Notes to John'
Feature The aughts' toxic pop culture and Joan Didion's most private pages
-
The FDA plans to embrace AI agencywide
In the Spotlight Rumors are swirling about a bespoke AI chatbot being developed for the FDA by OpenAI
-
Hamas frees US hostage in deal sidelining Israel
speed read Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier, was the final living US citizen held by the militant group
-
White Afrikaners land in US as Trump-declared refugees
speed read An exception was made to Trump's near-total ban on admitting refugees for the white South Africans
-
Qatar luxury jet gift clouds Trump trip to Mideast
speed read Qatar is said to be presenting Trump with a $400 million plane, which would be among the biggest foreign gifts ever received by the US government
-
Trump taps Fox News' Pirro for DC attorney post
speed read The president has named Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be the top federal prosecutor for Washington, replacing acting US Attorney Ed Martin
-
Trump, UK's Starmer outline first post-tariff deal
speed read President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Kier Starmer struck a 'historic' agreement to eliminate some of the former's imposed tariffs
-
Fed leaves rates unchanged as Powell warns on tariffs
speed read The Federal Reserve says the risks of higher inflation and unemployment are increasing under Trump's tariffs
-
Denmark to grill US envoy on Greenland spying report
speed read The Trump administration ramped up spying on Greenland, says reporting by The Wall Street Journal
-
Supreme Court allows transgender troop ban
speed read The US Supreme Court will let the Trump administration begin executing its ban on transgender military service members