Sometimes, you sincerely have to wonder if MSNBC co-host Joe Scarborough hears himself. After giving candidate Donald Trump the friendliest media platform during the 2016 GOP primary, Scarborough switched to Trump hatred.
On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough compared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi impeaching Trump to President Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves. No, really.
After saying earlier in the show that “our high schools need to teach civic classes and American history” in response to President Trump’s comments about Joe Biden in Japan, Scarborough demonstrated that he himself needs to go back to history class by drawing a very flawed analogy between the leadership of President Lincoln during the Civil War and Speaker Pelosi in the quest to impeach Donald Trump:
I will say, Nancy Pelosi has to be calculating. Abraham Lincoln was calculating in saving the union. Early in the war, he said, “If the country has to be half slave, half free, if that saves the union, then I'm for that. If saving the union is required by letting all go free, then I am for that.” He was very calculating, and he moved to the position when he felt the American people were ready. Ready to move toward the emancipation of slaves. I'm not being critical of Nancy Pelosi here. I will say though, there are times though to not calculate. I would say when you have a president who has abused power more than any other President, not only in our lifetime, I just can't think of any historical precedence, of any president who abused his position more--
Yes, this was a thing that was said live on MSNBC. Perhaps, just perhaps, freeing the slaves and saving the union isn’t comparable to Pelosi’s impeachment quandary.
The full transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.”
MSNBC's Morning Joe
05/29/19
7:03 a.m. Eastern
JOE SCARBOROUGH: If you flood the zone with facts, that an impeachment inquiry would do, then I think ---
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Flood the zone with facts.
SCARBOROUGH: --- you can actually move a lot of Americans. I will say, Nancy Pelosi has to be calculating. Abraham Lincoln was calculating in saving the union. Early in the war, he said if the country has to be half slave, half free, if that saves the union, then I'm for that. If saving the union is required by letting all go free, then I am for that. He was very calculating, and he moved to the position when he felt the American people were ready.
BRZEZINSKI: Were ready.
SCARBOROUGH: Ready to move toward the emancipation of slaves. I'm not being critical of Nancy Pelosi here. I will say though, there are times though to not calculate. I would say when you have a president who has abused power more than any other President, not only in our lifetime, I just can't think of any historical precedence, of any president who abused his position more...
