Monday’s Morning Joe served as an encapsulation of liberal media fear-mongering over the coronavirus, engaging in cheerleading for hysteria and economic ruin. Panelists chided that the “callous and immoral” and “sick” response employed by President Trump and his administration and, as co-host Joe Scarborough warned, Americans will die from the virus because of Trump’s “stupidity.”
In addition, the panel even entertained a martial law-like crackdown on movement for infected areas, praising the steps Italy has taken to try and stop its spread.
Suffering from advanced-stage Trump Derangement Syndrome, Scarborough screeched without evidence and without delineation “that conservatives that had been mocking this outbreak, conservatives who thought that, somehow, a virus could be pushed aside as readily as the rule of law or political norms are suddenly scared.”
He added that the President has been “wildly out of touch with reality” by “underselling” the scale of the virus when he should be sounding the alarm (read: shouting PANIC):
[Trump] has been underselling from the very beginning. Said we had 15 cases. They were all going away, talked about how this magically was going to disappear, talked about, at one point, hey, in a rally, hey, nobody in the United States has died by this. The media is pushing this up into a hoax. Their coverage is a hoax of this and how dangerous it is[.]
Like a good MSNBCer, Associated Press hack Jonathan Lemire agreed that, writ large, “conservatives” have “mocked this previously, including the congressman who now self-quarantined, you know, few weeks ago, was suggesting this was an Obama media plot to conspiracy theory.”
Lemire further opined that Trump appears “far more concerned about his political future and trying to downplay the threat here and by doing so, may be underselling what Americans are facing and putting them in danger.” Huh. The liberal media seem chiefly concerned with using the virus to cheer a reelection loss for the President, but go on, folks.
After Scarborough laughably insisted to wife Mika Brzezinski he believes it to be “it is critical that the President of the United States succeeds,” Scarborough turned to degenerate, racist, and fellow MSNBC host Al Sharpton and predicted that Trump will be directly responsible for coronavirus deaths.
And hilariously, Sharpton proclaimed the need to put partisan politics aside but only after calling Trump’s response “as callous and immoral and as sick as one can be” (click “expand”):
SCARBOROUGH: They have no plan. They might have a plan in 72 hours, and [HUD Secretary Ben Carson] can’t tell you anything about that plan and it’s like Donald Trump saying on Friday, I don’t want that ship to dock because that will just mean that there are more reported numbers of the coronavirus, as if somehow, those numbers, being reported somewhere, is going to change the reality. That’s the thing, these people aren’t in touch with the reality, the fact that the virus does not care about their stupid politics. The virus does not care about their stupid stunts on the House floor. The virus does not care about their stupid denials or attacks on the press or on Democrats, or on international health organizations. The virus is going to kill Americans, regardless of their stupidity, or actually, because of their stupidity. I mean, help us out here, Rev. Did you see anything this weekend that gave you a reason to hope?
SHARPTON: Not at all. Not from this administration....[T]hey didn't have a plan. We're playing games with people's lives. We are in danger and put the partisan politics aside for a moment and your or my disdain for the President. For the President to stand there with a campaign hat on and try to keep people at bay so he can play with the numbers for political reasons, while we’re seeing people of all parties, all races, all economic backgrounds in jeopardy here, is as callous and immoral and as sick as one can be. We’re talking about something that may not happen, but that is happening and that they’re playing games with how it spins in some political back room. I think that we are in a very serious place and if Republicans and Democrats cannot come together and call on this President to be honest and candid, we are going to be the ones that contribute to human life being lost. This is beyond the politics of the hour.
To close out the A-block, Scarborough complained to Council on Foreign Relations head Richard Haass how Trump’s “unqualified and unfit to be President of the United States and unfit at one of the most dangerous times this country has seen...since 9/11,” which Haass obviously agreed with.
Haass explained over the next few minutes how, with the approval of Brzezinski and Scarborough, Trump should look at sealing off the country and banning the freedom of movement like Italy. In other words, think martial law (click “expand”):
HAASS: We're in the early stages of a crisis where, I believe, orders of more magnitude of Americans are in danger. So, let’s just put that on the table. We're at a point where the numbers are going to take over....We have an administration that's engaging in truly uninformed, sanguine, happy talk. We ought to be talking seriously about things like paid sick leave. Less than I think it’s nine states in this country provide for paid sick leave. We can't have a situation where sick people are going to work. We need a situation where we have these tests that are accurate and available. We need to start discouraging large gatherings of American people. The kinds of things we're seeing around the world, this should be debated now. Instead of denying the reality, you ought to be having serious conversations about sporting events, about schools staying open. We need some leadership. That's where we are right now.
BRZEZINSKI: That’s gotta happen.
(....)
SCARBOROUGH: Richard, talk about what Italy had to do. They've shut down a third of the country.
HAASS: Right. Again, we're at a stage now where containment, trying to keep people from coming in with the virus, we’re past that point....[H]ow do you make it less vulnerable? And testing is essential. Keeping sick people at home is essential. But also keeping large groups from gathering. If you have a thousand people in a room, the odds that several of them do not have the virus is increasingly nil. And that's what we're seeing every time we have a convention now....So we have to prevent these gatherings. Italy is doing it on a dramatic scale. Obviously in — in northern Italy, you had a critical mass of people who would come in probably from China and expose the population. They're literally quarantining, what, 20 million people. If we want to avoid those side situations in this country in a month. Now, we’ve got to take dramatic steps and what we're seeing is ostrich-like behavior out of the President and those around him.
(h/t: Grabien)
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Morning Joe on March 9, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
March 9, 2020
6:04 a.m. EasternJOE SCARBOROUGH: You started to see yesterday, Jonathan, that conservatives that had been mocking this outbreak, conservatives who thought that, somehow, a virus could be pushed aside as readily as the rule of law or political norms are suddenly scared and the White House officials, also, Jonathan — and I want you to talk about this — the White House officials now are telling reporters they are concerned. I'm sure they're telling you they are concerned that the President's messaging and the President's attitude is wildly out of touch with the reality. They're concerned they can't get him to message this correctly. Even last night, you saw that he was tweeting conspiracy theories.
(....)
6:05 a.m. Eastern
JONATHAN LEMIRE: You're right. Conservatives mocked this previously, including the congressman who now self-quarantined, you know, few weeks ago, was suggesting this was an Obama media plot to conspiracy theory.
(....)
6:07 a.m. Eastern
LEMIRE: There are — there is [sic] suggestions from the White House — they know can't control him in terms of messaging, but they're worried, Joe, that this is a President who is far more concerned about his political future and trying to downplay the threat here and by doing so, may be underselling what Americans are facing and putting them in danger.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, not — not actually — not maybe underselling. He has been underselling from the very beginning. Said we had 15 cases. They were all going away, talked about how this magically was going to disappear, talked about, at one point, hey, in a rally, hey, nobody in the United States has died by this. The media is pushing this up into a hoax. Their coverage is a hoax of this and how dangerous it is and then, Ed Luce, as we're looking at the pictures from Friday, the president goes wearing a campaign hat. He says he wants to keep a cruise line where people are basically imprisoned on a cruise ship, and half the tests — 3,000 people, there are only 42, 43 tests. Half of the people tested positive. Those people are trapped, and the President says he wants to keep them out of the United States and offshore because if they come on shore, that will only raise the number of Americans who have to be reported with coronavirus and yes, he says these kits that are non-existent are perfect and then also lied, as he always does.
(....)
6:11 a.m. Eastern
SCARBOROUGH: Mika, we want, as we said, as I said when Barack Obama was president, I mean, it is — it is critical that the President of the United States succeeds. It is critical that every president does their best to succeed. It is critical, especially at this time, that this President succeeds in getting his arms around this epidemic, which may soon turn into a pandemic. So what we've been saying for the past two weeks, every day, is that the President has to be realistic about the dangers that are facing Americans, that he needs to tell the truth and give the bad news now.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: Because the more he — he engages in unrealistic, magical thinking, the more we're going to see the markets collapse and tumble. There is no confidence in what he says.
BRZEZINSKI: None.
(....)
6:14 a.m. Eastern
SCARBOROUGH: They have no plan. They might have a plan in 72 hours, and [HUD Secretary Ben Carson] can’t tell you anything about that plan and it’s like Donald Trump saying on Friday, I don’t want that ship to dock because that will just mean that there are more reported numbers of the coronavirus, as if somehow, those numbers, being reported somewhere, is going to change the reality. That’s the thing, these people aren’t in touch with the reality, the fact that the virus does not care about their stupid politics. The virus does not care about their stupid stunts on the House floor. The virus does not care about their stupid denials or attacks on the press or on Democrats, or on international health organizations. The virus is going to kill Americans, regardless of their stupidity, or actually, because of their stupidity. I mean, help us out here, Rev. Did you see anything this weekend that gave you a reason to hope?
AL SHARPTON: Not at all. Not from this administration. When you look at, very carefully, what Secretary Carson said, he said that they will have a plan in a few days. Then when he’s challenged, well, they're docking tomorrow, oh, that's right, they're docking tomorrow, but I'm not going to tell you what the plan is because he just told you they didn't have a plan. We're playing games with people's lives. We are in danger and put the partisan politics aside for a moment and your or my disdain for the President. For the President to stand there with a campaign hat on and try to keep people at bay so he can play with the numbers for political reasons, while we’re seeing people of all parties, all races, all economic backgrounds in jeopardy here, is as callous and immoral and as sick as one can be. We’re talking about something that may not happen, but that is happening and that they’re playing games with how it spins in some political back room. I think that we are in a very serious place and if Republicans and Democrats cannot come together and call on this President to be honest and candid, we are going to be the ones that contribute to human life being lost. This is beyond the politics of the hour.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, and we were very critical around this set of — of President Obama when we had the Gulf oil spill and the President decided, instead of going down to the Gulf Coast and Panama City where the oil spill was, I think it was 2011 or so, he decided to go home for the weekend in Chicago for a long memorial day weekend. Very critical of him for not going down there —
BRZEZINSKI: It was about optics mostly, though.
SCARBOROUGH: — responding. Here, you have a president that continues golfing, despite the fact he mocked Barack Obama endlessly for golfing, I think even during an Ebola outbreak, mocked him constantly for golfing, and that's what the President did this weekend while world markets shuttered, while Americans lived in fear, wondering if they're next and here was a president on Friday talking about the cruise ship where Americans are basically imprisoned and the white house has absolutely no plans —
BRZEZINSKI: 3,000 people.
SCARBOROUGH: — to take care of them. Over 3,000 Americans.
(....)
6:21 a.m. Eastern
SCARBOROUGH: He is unqualified and unfit to be President of the United States and unfit at one of the most dangerous times this country has seen in, well, I'll say it, since 9/11. We don't know where this heads, but we know it gets much, much worse with this president.
RICHARD HAASS: Well, you mentioned 9/11, Joe and nearly 3,000 people lost their lives. We're in the early stages of a crisis where, I believe, orders of more magnitude of Americans are in danger. So, let’s just put that on the table. We're at a point where the numbers are going to take over. The word you're going to hear by the hour now is acceleration. We are in the acceleration phase. We have an administration that's engaging in truly uninformed, sanguine, happy talk. We ought to be talking seriously about things like paid sick leave. Less than I think it’s nine states in this country provide for paid sick leave. We can't have a situation where sick people are going to work. We need a situation where we have these tests that are accurate and available. We need to start discouraging large gatherings of American people. The kinds of things we're seeing around the world, this should be debated now. Instead of denying the reality, you ought to be having serious conversations about sporting events, about schools staying open. We need some leadership. That's where we are right now.
BRZEZINSKI: That’s gotta happen.
SCARBOROUGH: Richard, they're still debating whether to have Coachella or not and I'm just wondering what planet these organizers are on. South by Southwest bit the bullet. They ended up losing $300 million to $400 million.
BRZEZINSKI: Exactly.
SCARBOROUGH: It is going to be devastating, but it would have been far more devastating if half of Austin had the coronavirus and they're still debating whether to have Coachella or not.
BRZEZINSKI: What about college graduations?
SCARBOROUGH: I mean, you look at what Stanford — all the colleges that are starting to shut down.
BRZEZINSKI: People from all over the world coming.
SCARBOROUGH: And again, they're doing it being responsible and Richard, talk about what Italy had to do. They've shut down a third of the country.
HAASS: Right. Again, we're at a stage now where containment, trying to keep people from coming in with the virus, we’re past that point.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
HAASS: Now what we have is this transmission within society. So the question is how do you make a society where the virus has already entered and spread, how do you make it less vulnerable? And testing is essential. Keeping sick people at home is essential. But also keeping large groups from gathering. If you have a thousand people in a room, the odds that several of them do not have the virus is increasingly nil. And that's what we're seeing every time we have a convention now. CPAC, AIPAC, the other day, people are being exposed. So we have to prevent these gatherings. Italy is doing it on a dramatic scale. Obviously in — in northern Italy, you had a critical mass of people who would come in probably from China and expose the population. They're literally quarantining, what, 20 million people. If we want to avoid those side situations in this country in a month
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
HAASS: Now, we’ve got to take dramatic steps and what we're seeing is ostrich-like behavior out of the President and those around him.
