Sorry Rachel;

[Chasstev365]

This is Gerardo going through Al Capone's vault.

[Renew Deal]

1. Geraldo

There's more here than in that vault.

[The Wielding Truth]

32. Yep. Maybe this little nothing will lead to much more. He is such a slime. He probably lied in it.

[PJMcK]

2. Yeah, but...

...it's Geraldo.

ETA: It's still more information than we've ever seen about Donald Trump's finances. As we're seeing more and more, the Trump money is where the corruption and malfeasance will be found.

[Loki Liesmith]

3. Rico suave

[uponit7771]

4. Unnnn, TRMS has shown us the money before so she has more rep than GR

[Stuart G]

5. No sources of income ???

only totals...which mean very little...I am very sorry..this means less than nothing..

Why? because we all expected more...and got a whole lot less.....

[kstewart33]

12. We're very fortunate to get the first release of a tax return.

Her point is that whoever leaked that, likely has more.

There will be analyses of the return in the media tomorrow.

Unlike Geraldo, she got something.

[Exilednight]

49. Considering​ that Trump leaked his own return, I'm sure he does have more

He timed this perfectly, and Rachel fell for it.

She hyped and hyped, and now not even his taxes are the story. The story is how Rachel got played.

Pundits like Rachel shouldn't try to play journalist.

[BainsBane]

17. It's a start

and reporters may be able to find out more based on the 1040.

[Maru Kitteh]

6. I turned the TV to CNN so I could hear some news.

[femmocrat]

7. I'm starting to think she was set up.

Bannon knew exactly what she would do... big teaser, long lead-in, then a couple of minutes with D.C. Johnston who basically said nothing useful, except that we need to know the sources of drumpf's income.

[JudyM]

11. How was she set up? She had possession and could see there wasn't much there to get excited abt.

[grantcart]

13. Not talking about real issues

tomorrow Comey gives evidence on Russian investigation.

[femmocrat]

18. Maybe the drumpsters leaked it to prove that he paid all those taxes.

All some (maybe most) people will remember is that he paid $38 million in taxes (in one year) and believe, "See, he does pay his taxes!"

It reminds me of how Rove set up Dan Rather over the Bush/AWOL story. Rachel has been pummeling drumpf every night and is probably getting too close to the truth for their comfort. So they provided her with a shiny object to distract everyone and make her look like she is over-reacting.

Yes, of course she should cover the story, but it really wasn't much of a bombshell. Or maybe I'm just getting too cynical in my old age.

[JudyM]

24. I know what you mean, but it's still completely her call as to how she presents it. Seems odd

to me that she hyped it the way she did, Knowing it wasn't nearly a bombshell in terms of content.

Someone else pointed out that it was an opportunity for her to run through the Russian detail one more time before Comey info comes out today, but that seems an odd motivation to play it the way she did, too.

[femmocrat]

25. We will all be tuned in tonight to see how she responds!

Ratings will be great two nights in a row! LOL

[JudyM]

29. Yes, and serious journalists are seeing that their best audience is those of us who haven't drunk

45's kool aid.

[Else You Are Mad]

33. That is what I believe.

2005 was the height of the housing market. This is probably one of the few years since the 80s that's he paid any real amount of taxes, so he released the bare minimum of an 11 year old tax return to prove that he paid taxes.

[mshasta]

8. Well she has the balls to talk about it

to rattle the cages ...that is the breaking story

[BannonsLiver]

9. Well at the very least she got the Moldovian troll farms humming again

[grantcart]

14. lol true

[still_one]

10. In fact the hype may do more damage

[JHan]

15. What would you guys n gals have preferred ? That she sit on it when she got it and ignored it?

I can't even.

[tazkcmo]

35. That's not the only other option.

I expect you knew that though. How about presenting them w/o a bunch of hype that she knew these papers couldn't live up to?

[JHan]

38. Oh my goodness, it was hyped. Stop the presses.. this has never happened before in Cable News..

which, of course, isn't the point. This is standard for ALL Cable News Media where hype is used to rope people in..Last night rachel knew she'd get higher ratings and she repeated many of the points she's been making for weeks.

But the dangerous song and dance yesterday from liberals was that this was a nothing burger. Folks continue to frame the narrative for the President - that it's nothing, that it's not a big deal, when it is VERY much a big deal if only we would ask the right questions and be calm:

who released these returns? Where are the schedules? why the lie about being audited? he paid a pittance in income tax.....and if this summary can be leaked, why not release all?

[tazkcmo]

40. wasn't my point.

My point was and is not running with the story wasn't her only other option, oh my goodness. That was you. It's not an either or situation. By doing it the way she did, she risks real information being discounted much as the boy who cried wolf did.

She's a great journalist but some folks, including myself, found this report lacking compared to her usual exemplary work.

[JHan]

41. I'm explaining that hype is nothing new in cable news media.

That the revelations last night lead to more questions , indeed Rachel's actual exploration of what these* questions should be is what should be put to the President - instead there's nonsense about it being a non-story and allegations of hype as if Rachel Maddow invented hype in cable news reporting last night.

[tazkcmo]

42. It was a short post.

"What would you guys n gals have preferred ? That she sit on it when she got it and ignored it?"

Pretty sure I understood it. hype or sit on it. Nothing in between.

[JHan]

43. uhm, it wasn't directed at you.. it was directed to those..

who claimed the story was a nothing burger. Yeah, people in this very forum was saying that.. last night.

[tazkcmo]

44. Different subject.

But to be clear, I also think it's a nothing burger since there was no information in them.

[JHan]

48. It's not a "different subject".

and I ain't diving down this rabbit hole, my points were clear.

[Blue Idaho]

16. Sadly this was oversold...

The 1040 doesn't really tell us much - it's all the supporting documentation that would be revealing. I appreciate how this could seem much bigger than it is - but it's just another distraction from the Distractor-in-Chief.

[BCBacon]

22. Indeed - this time next week, we will be on another issue.

This stuff is like a jet dropping chafe so the missiles wont catch up.

[RKP5637]

30. Yep, agree!!! n/t

[SticksnStones]

19. In a "what have you done for me lately" world...I imagine that is so

One day chicken, the next day feathers, eh?


And it's Geraldo, not Gerardo ~

[Chasstev365]

20. It's actually "Jerry Rivers", but point taken!

[LanternWaste]

21. Woodward's fifth story on the break-in was weak-sauce as well, dammit.

Woodward's fifth story on the break-in was weak-sauce as well, dammit. We demand instant gratification, instant context, and Wise People to Tell Us What to Think, else we dismiss it without rational thought and trivialize it to better validate our own mental blocks.

[femmocrat]

23. Re: Possible "set up," I found this story this morning:

Credible sources to include George W. Bush’s former ethic attorney speculate that Trump may have leaked his own returns in an effort to discredit the media.
Allegations that the White House leaked Trump’s tax returns are beginning to appear in the wake of Rachel Maddow’s less than explosive Tuesday show.

More at link: http://samuel-warde.com/2017/03/did-the-white-house-set-up-rachel-maddow/?utm_content=bufferce17c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[RKP5637]

28. Yep, that's what I think, it was a setup! n/t

[MFM008]

26. NO Geraldo

Look she should have let her second tweet be first.
As a reporter she was obligated to put this stuff out there. I would have.

[RKP5637]

27. IMO the Trump team leaked it on purpose! And MSNBC hyped it all up. It's done more damage than good

IMO.

[bigtree]

31. who's Gerardo?

...and why should we assume the Trump tax 'vault' is empty?

If there's nothing there he should release all of them and put an end to this.

Sadly, for Donald, bashing Rachel Maddow is a weak and ephemeral attempt to forestall the inevitable reveal and scandal.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

34. It's nothing of the kind.

The Capone's vault debacle occurred because Geraldo Rivera didn't do enough research about the vault before he opened it on camera and found nothing, or else because he didn't open it before the show to check what was in there. He simply assumed there was going to be something interesting in it and stuck his neck out too far. Rachel, on the other hand, knew exactly what she had: the two 1040 pages of a 2005 tax return, which contained certain summary information about Trump's income and taxes paid (he paid a substantial AMT, which he wants to repeal). It did not reveal the sources of his income; those would appear on the various schedules. She made the important, indeed fundamental, point that in order to connect Trump with any dodgy income sources (e.g., Russian oligarchs), the entire returns would have to be disclosed - and he has refused to do that.

She went into the show knowing exactly what she had and what she did not have. You can argue that MSNBC might have got a bit carried away with the preliminary hype, but this was nothing like Capone's vault.

[gibraltar72]

36. Rachel is

hella smart she's playing chess.

[titaniumsalute]

37. OH BS

Did you actually watch the first 20 minutes of her show? THat was the point of the whole thing. Stop with the drama.

[The Blue Flower]

39. If you think that, you weren't paying attention

It wasn't only about the two-page document.

[Paladin]

45. Take your Rachel-bashing elsewhere. (nt)

[Trenzalore]

46. I was watching WWE

Soon as I heard it was from a time I had a full head of hair I figured it was nothing.

[tinrobot]

47. Bad analogy. She tweeted she had 2005 taxes. She showed 2005 taxes.

Geraldo said he had Al Capone's vault and came up completely empty.

Maybe Rachel's story wasn't the most ground breaking of the year, but whatever.