Mitt Romney’s address on Thursday didn’t sit well with Joe Scarborough and he let his audience know it Friday morning. “Dude, if you're going to get into the pool, jump in. You’re standing at the side. Jump in or go and put the towel on and go back in[side].” A harsh response to a man who is concerned about the state of his party and had something to say about it.
Scarborough’s displeasure with Romney speaking out against Donald Trump is a little perplexing, since Scarborough himself said that Trump’s lenient views of David Duke and the KKK are “disqualifying.” Although, the Morning Joe co-host and Trump are known friends and co-host Mika Brzezinski did argue, Thursday morning, that “You can't get real now. You can't start telling the truth now” about Trump and who he is.
Even though Scarborough argued that Romney shouldn’t be vocal during the election without running himself, that didn’t stop him from immediately bashing Marco Rubio. “It was just kind of depressing. And I know everybody is saying Marco hit him, hit him, hit him, hit him. I've always said Marco was too young and inexperienced and not ready to run for president.” The transcript below shows that this was the next thing uttered by Scarborough after he told Romney to get in the race or shut up.
The Rubio bashing didn’t stop there:
“I said it for six months and people said, “oh, you hate him for saying--.” He looks pre-programmed and he looks like a robot.
So when he does that, he never gives an inch on anything. When he loses and is humiliated, he goes up and stands on stage and says "Tonight is the night that they will remember that we turned our campaign around." I mean, it's -- and people are like come on, just tell us the truth.”
Scarborough is right. He has spent the past several months bashing away at Rubio and Ted Cruz, trying to knock them down. Despite his outspoken rhetoric, there has been no word from the Scarborough campaign about how he plans to meet the filing deadlines to get on the ballot in the rest of the GOP primary states.
Partial transcript below:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
March 4, 2016
6:02:38 – 6:03:49 AM EasternJOE SCARBOROUGH: I have to say quickly before we dive into everything and also that Mitt Romney press conference. Dude, if you're going to get into the pool, jump in. You’re standing at the side. Jump in or go and put the towel on and go back in. Well anyway.
It was just kind of depressing. And I know everybody is saying Marco hit him, hit him, hit him, hit him. I've always said Marco was too young and inexperienced and not ready to run for president. But that's in 2016. I've always said stay in the Senate, be governor, run in 2020 and you'll probably be ready.
I’s just—I mean-- I'm just afraid for his sake and his supporter’s sake that all of these, you know, talking about Trump wetting his pants. Talking about-- What happens if trump runs and Trump loses to Hillary Clinton? There's Marco who has diminished himself.
You know what I'm saying? It doesn't seem worth it cause he's totally going against his brand. It’s like “We're chain saw repair, we're a chain Shaw repair shop, chain Shaw repair shop. oh, you need your nails
filed? Come on in. Beautiful.”
...
6:16:07 – 6:16:54 AM Eastern
SCARBOROUGH: You know why? Because Trump says "I changed positions." Or people hold Trump to a much lower standard than they hold Marco Rubio who does look at times-- I said it for six months and people said, “oh, you hate him for saying--.” He looks pre-programmed and he looks like a robot.
So when he does that, he never gives an inch on anything. When he loses and is humiliated, he goes up and stands on stage and says "Tonight is the night that they will remember that we turned our campaign around." I mean, it's -- and people are like come on, just tell us the truth. And at least with trump, you know, he'll say, “yeah, I changed my position” and it just -- also I think people hold him to a much lower standard, I don't know why. But, yeah.
