Joe Scarborough spent Monday morning fanning the flames of fear that all the political mechanisms in America are "rigged." Some of Joe’s rants were dedicated to the Hillary e-mail probe and "super-delegates" on the Democratic side, as my colleague Mark Finkelstein wrote about. But when Joe set his sights on the Republican nomination process it was to boost the guy he has been “campaigning” for, Donald Trump.
He told Mark Halperin “There's a headline, Mark, that Cruz has managed to go in and steal delegates in South Carolina from Donald Trump.” Scarborough’s claim here mischaracterizes the delegate allocation and convention processes and only serves to promote Trump’s outsider narrative. Scarborough’s accusation makes it sound like Cruz filed some sort of motion to the Party to have all of Trump’s delegates be allotted to him on the first ballot, but that is far from the case.
Trump will be getting all of the delegates allotted to him by the South Carolina voters on the first ballot. After the first ballot they become unbound to vote for who they were allotted to, and can vote for anyone. This is common practice and many states permit their delegates to do the same. The reason they become unbound is to help avoid a nomination impasse and compromise on a candidate. Even though the Cruz campaign has been successful in courting delegates, that does not mean they will continue to back him.
Scarborough, a man who has been elected to Congress and who knows the process, doubled down on his mischaracterization. “The voters came out and voted for Donald Trump and when they're reading stories weeks later saying "Oh, Trump's such a fool, all he knew how to do is get the voters to vote for him, but he's such a moron that the party insiders are now turning against him."”
Nicolle Wallace, of all people, also railed against the perceived “rigged system” of the establishment. “I think Cruz loses by winning because I think that it feels rigged. It feels against the democratic process,” as if any brokered convention can perfectly reflect voter wishes. Mischaracterizing opposition to Trump in this way is not new for Wallace. On March 7, she argued that all anti-Trump movements outside of the other campaigns were somehow “illegitimate” in her eyes, completely dismissing many people.
Airing segments like this is nothing new for the show. For instance, after Wisconsin they denied that it was a sign that Cruz is putting up a fight, and denied Trump was suddenly having a hard time on the trail. Morning Joe has made it a habit of mischaracterizing the state of the race and bending the truth to aid their friend.
Transcript below:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
April 11, 2016
6:07:19 – 6:09:21 AM EasternJOE SCARBOROUGH: Massive lead [in New York State]. Nicolle, this is obviously going to grab most of the headlines for the next couple of weeks. And if you're Donald Trump and decide to do a reboot and you try to decide to bring in Paul Manafort, you decide to go establishment as much as possible. Now is a pretty great time to do it isn’t it? Because you can do it and then tell all your critics, “look, look what I've done, I rebooted and guess what? I just won by 30 points in like the second most-important state in America.”
NICOLLE WALLACE: That matters for the first time in a really long time. I think he's in a very strong position. And I think-- I go back to this notion that the climate that both parties are running in is against a rigged economy, against a rigged political establishment, and I think Cruz loses by winning because I think that it feels rigged. It feels against the democratic process. And so, I know they're doing incredible things in these state conventions. I know that’s where “the game” has moved but I don't think that that is advantage on the larger field that this race is being played on.
SCARBOROUGH: By the way. When there's a headline, Mark, that Cruz has managed to go in and steal delegates in South Carolina from Donald Trump. And of course the press jumps up and down that says “look how stupid Trump’s operation” – No, I mean I don't know about their operation but I do know this -- people remember that Donald Trump beat the hell out of everybody in South Carolina among the voters.
The voters came out and voted for Donald Trump and when they're reading stories weeks later saying "Oh, Trump's such a fool, all he knew how to do is get the voters to vote for him, but he's such a moron that the party insiders are now turning against him." I don't know, I'm sure a lot of people on Twitter delight in that. I can just tell you it makes Cruz look bad. It makes the party look bad. It makes the system looked rig and as we've been saying, since the first day he came down the escalator, this type of coverage only makes Donald Trump stronger.
