On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, the hosts decided to finally admit to their audience that they often cannot understand what President Trump is saying when he makes speeches or answers press queries, thereby perhaps solving the mystery of their bias: they can’t necessarily do the most basic part of their jobs–comprehend basic sentences in English.
Admittedly, Trump is not always the best public speaker, particularly when he is coming up with a response on the spot, but that is pretty normal for politicians, including past presidents. Regardless, this morning’s segment started off with a clip of Trump speaking quite comprehensibly about the current situation with North Korea:
We are totally prepared for the second option, not a preferred option. But if we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that, devastating for North Korea. That's called the military option. If we have to take it, we will. He’s [Kim Jong-un’s] acting very badly. He's saying things that should never, ever be said and we're replying to those things. But it's a reply, it's not an original statement. It's a reply. [...] North Korea is a situation that should have been handled twenty-five years ago, twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, ten years ago, and five years ago and it could have been handled much more easily. You had various administrations, many administrations, which left me a mess, but I'll fix the mess.
It appeared obvious that Trump said (once again) that his administration is prepared to use military action to take out North Korea if Kim Jong-un acts on his past threats to attack or nuke South Korea, Japan, or the United States, but that’s not his government’s first-resort policy preference. Trump also clearly said that the North Korean problem could have been resolved much more easily at several different points in the past by various administrations, but it wasn’t. Trump vowed to fix this ‘mess.’
That really wasn’t so hard.
But what was Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s juvenile, unimaginative response to Trump? See for yourself:
BRZEZINSKI: Joining us now, former NATO Supreme All-
SCARBOROUGH: [interrupting] You know, it's very interesting.
BRZEZINSKI: I just-
SCARBOROUGH: [interrupting] It’s very interesting. So the North Koreans right now Mika trying [sic] to figure out exactly what the, what the President’s saying. And we just want to let, let the North Koreans know, there are many times we don't even know what the President’s saying. What was he saying? [repeats last question over Mika a couple times while saying random words]
BRZEZINSKI: I don’t, it's hard to, it’s hard to say.
SCARBOROUGH: What was he saying?
BRZEZINSKI: It was about him.
SCARBOROUGH: It always is.
BRZEZINSKI: We heard the word me.
SCARBOROUGH: Me. I. They left me-
HAROLD FORD JR.: That’s a common denominator.
BRZEZINSKI: He's the Homer Simpson of Presidents.
SCARBOROUGH: I really wish,-
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: -‘cause you know Jack [Scarborough’s son] is actually watching The Simpsons now, I wish you would not insult Homer, Homer Simpson.
BRZEZINSKI: I'm sorry. But that’s what it seems like. Doh! With his tweets. I mean, it pulls him back and, good God!
It really does explain a lot of Joe and Mika’s past behavior if you just assume that most of their hysterical or buffoonish reactions to President Trump are a result of their poor language comprehension skills.
However, it is odd that they admitted to this deficit while simultaneously calling Trump, in effect, an idiot, the ‘Homer Simpson’ of U.S. Presidents. It’s not the first time that Mika has made reference to Trump as behaving like or being like Homer Simpson, but it is a really childish thing to keep saying about someone who has been labeled an idiot time and time again by his opponents, only to defeat them later on.
Perhaps the hosts should take care to listen more attentively to what Trump actually says and then respond intelligently to it in the future. I wouldn’t hold my breath in the meantime.
The following is a transcript of the segment:
6:31 AM EST
(...)
DONALD TRUMP: [playing clip from press conference on Tuesday] We are totally prepared for the second option, not a preferred option. But if we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that, devastating for North Korea. That's called the military option. If we have to take it, we will. He's [Kim Jong-un’s] acting very badly. He's saying things that should never, ever be said and we're replying to those things. But it's a reply, it's not an original statement. It's a reply. [...] North Korea is a situation that should have been handled twenty-five years ago, twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, ten years ago, and five years ago and it could have been handled much more easily. You had various administrations, many administrations, which left me a mess, but I'll fix the mess.
GEN. JOSEPH DUNFORD [CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF]: [speaking on Tuesday at a hearing in D.C.] [...] Whether it's three months or six months or eighteen months, it is soon. And we ought to conduct ourselves as though it is just a matter of time and a matter of very short time before North Korea has that capability.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Joining us now, former NATO Supreme All-
JOE SCARBOROUGH: [interrupting] You know, it's very interesting.
BRZEZINSKI: I just-
SCARBOROUGH: [interrupting] It’s very interesting. So the North Koreans right now Mika trying [sic] to figure out exactly what the, what the President’s saying. And we just want to let, let the North Koreans know, there are many times we don't even know what the President’s saying. What was he saying? [repeats last question over Mika a couple times while saying random words]
BRZEZINSKI: I don’t, it's hard to, it’s hard to say.
SCARBOROUGH: What was he saying?
BRZEZINSKI: It was about him.
SCARBOROUGH: It always is.
BRZEZINSKI: We heard the word me.
SCARBOROUGH: Me. I. They left me-
HAROLD FORD JR.: That’s a common denominator.
BRZEZINSKI: He's the Homer Simpson of Presidents.
SCARBOROUGH: I really wish,-
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: -‘cause you know Jack is actually watching The Simpsons now, I wish you would not insult Homer, Homer Simpson.
BRZEZINSKI: I'm sorry. But that’s what it seems like. Doh! With his tweets. I mean, it pulls him back and, good God!
SCARBOROUGH: [talking over Mika] With us now we’ve got the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, now the dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the man who wishes he had never even shown up on the set of Morning Joe this morning, retired four-star Navy Admiral James Stavridis.
(...)
