MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough opened up his Monday night primetime special with a solemn, yet outrageous and profoundly unserious rant where he accused Republicans, “cowards,” “pathetic souls,” and “vacuous creatures” of being the modern equivalent of “slaveholders and segregationists.”
In Scarborough’s view of things, “Politicians idly stand by and watch as America's children and their parents are slaughtered… All because these cowards fear gun lobbyists more than they fear the next Uvalde, Parkland, or Sandy Hook.”
That accusation would be bad enough, but as is his nature, Scarborough proceeded to escalate, “Like those enablers of slaveholders and segregationists, these timid, empty, pathetic souls care more about beating back next year's right-wing primary challenge than they do saving young children's lives. But there is no doubt that these vacuous creatures will not escape history’s thunderous verdict.”
Every shooting, according to Scarborough logic, is their fault, “The evidence of their guilt is overwhelming. Over 1,400 deaths by guns already this year. Over 200 mass shootings over the first five months of 2023. More than 600 children killed already in 2023, continuing the horrifying reality that guns are the number one cause of death among American children.”
Scarborough would later claim that the current moment is defined by mass shootings caused that gun rights advocates aren’t doing anything to stop and which provided an opportunity for more terrible analogies:
As a lifetime gun owner, a longtime hunter, and a dear friend told me earlier today, this is not who we are. As it was with slavery, segregation, Nazism, 9/11, and January the 6th, we will one day move beyond this awful chapter in American history. But we're not going to do it before more innocent souls die from gunfire in schools, in synagogues, in churches, and in shopping malls. No. We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves, so let us then redouble our efforts, do our part, raise our voices, volunteer our time, run for office, and for God’s sake, get out the vote.
Later still, Scarborough would welcome on PoliticsNation host Rev. Al Sharpton who wondered, “And when will we stand up and say that if I look at my child and a gun, what do I love the most? And I think you were correct in starting the program, talking about the social movements that changed this country.”
Sharpton also reached for slavery and segregation comparisons, “You must remember the people in the Civil War, the southern states protected their money, which was cotton… Cotton was king. As was slavery. And then in segregation states that wanted to protect that, we have seen Texas and others are these states that want to protect gun manufacturers.”
Somehow, it got worse from there as Sharpton continued, “There are profits in killing our children. It must be a movement and luckily, when you look at March for our Lives and others, it's interracial in terms of these young people saying, wait a minute, we are not going to sit by quietly and watch ourselves become target practice.”
And yet, MSNBC wonders why conservatives don’t trust Democrats on gun control.
This segment was sponsored by Chevrolet.
Here is a transcript for the May 8 show:
MSNBC Joe Scarborough Presents
5/8/2023
8:02 PM ET:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Politicians idly stand by and watch as America's children and their parents are slaughtered, slaughtered in churches still, so slaughtered in schools, still. Slaughtered at country music festivals and outlet malls and in their own homes. All because these cowards fear gun lobbyists more than they fear the next Uvalde, Parkland, or Sandy Hook.
Like those enablers of slaveholders and segregationists, these timid, empty, pathetic souls care more about beating back next year's right-wing primary challenge than they do saving young children's lives. But there is no doubt that these vacuous creatures will not escape history’s thunderous verdict. The evidence of their guilt is overwhelming. Over 1,400 deaths by guns already this year. Over 200 mass shootings over the first five months of 2023. More than 600 children killed already in 2023, continuing the horrifying reality that guns are the number one cause of death among American children.
The skyrocketing rise in violent gun deaths even since Sandy Hook a decade ago, the explosion of gun deaths in Texas since 2014 because of radical gun laws that put deadly weapons in the hands of the untrained, mentally unstable, and unmoored people.
Over that same time, one mass shooting after another mass shooting, after another mass shooting plays out over our smartphones and TVs. In Texas and across America, after each Texas massacre, Governor Abbott mumbles meaningless assurances, desperately trying to distract from the weapon that is killing our children: guns. More specifically, he celebrates, he celebrates the proliferation of guns and weapons of war, even after Sunderland Springs, even after El Paso, even after Uvalde.
And now Cleveland. And now Allen. And soon, the next school schoolhouse slaughter that Greg Abbott and every other Texas politician knows, tragically, is sure to come. As a lifetime gun owner, a longtime hunter, and a dear friend told me earlier today, this is not who we are. As it was with slavery, segregation, Nazism, 9/11, and January the 6th, we will one day move beyond this awful chapter in American history. But we're not going to do it before more innocent souls die from gunfire in schools, in synagogues, in churches, and in shopping malls. No. We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves, so let us then redouble our efforts, do our part, raise our voices, volunteer our time, run for office, and for God’s sake, get out the vote.
…
AL SHARPTON: And when will we stand up and say that if I look at my child and a gun, what do I love the most? And I think you were correct in starting the program, talking about the social movements that changed this country. You must remember the people in the Civil War, the southern states protected their money, which was cotton. Cotton was in the 19th century what in the 20th century was oil.
SCARBOROUGH: Cotton was King. As was slavery.
SHARPTON: Cotton was king. As was slavery. And then in segregation states that wanted to protect that, we have seen Texas and others are these states that want to protect gun manufacturers. There are profits in killing our children. It must be a movement and luckily, when you look at March for our Lives and others, it's interracial in terms of these young people saying, wait a minute, we are not going to sit by quietly and watch ourselves become target practice.
