Wednesday night’s Trump rally in Greenville, North Carolina justifiably came under fire from the media when the crowd starting chanting “send her back” in response to President Trump’s criticisms of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a chant Trump later disavowed. The hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe, however, proved their own dispositions were just as bad, if not worse. On Thursday, the show's cast completely melted down over the chant by the crowd.
After referring to it as a “Nuremberg Rally,” Joe Scarborough claimed that President Trump wants America to be “ethnically cleansed”:
Much, much worse. Richard, we showed the clips, talked about how not only were those chants and the President leading the chants un-American, we showed how they were illegal if you just look at the federal government's own laws, their own regulations. It was illegal. If you do that in the workforce, chances are very good you are going to be sued. Let's not talk about historical comparisons between this sort of rhetoric, let's talk instead about examples of countries across the world right now that do this sort of thing or that you've seen do this sort of thing over the past 10, 15 years where you actually have leaders pointing out a minority group to vilify, to humiliate, to suggest that the country needs to be ethnically cleansed and they need to be driven out of the country.
Later in the segment, Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass piled on by saying that Trump's "vilification of minority groups" is to blame for a “democratic recession” around the world:
I will just say around the world, Joe, you know, people who do this for a living when you measure it, the phrase going around is there is a democratic recession. For decades after World War II, after the end of the Cold War, the percentage of people around the globe who were living in democratic societies was going up. And what we've seen over the last 10 or 15 years unfortunately now is that dial is turned in the opposite direction. And I think one of the reasons is we are no longer setting the sort of example we should and, second of all, our foreign policy now ignores it. We've become so amoral, we no longer promote democracy or human rights, we no longer point a finger when terrible things are happening, that the rest of the world thinks essentially they've got a blank check. In Russia, or China, or Turkey or the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, you can kill journalists with impunity because the United States is no longer going to hold you accountable. So here it's what we are not doing in terms of our foreign policy and it's what we are doing in terms of our domestic example that I think have contributed significantly to this -- to history going in the wrong direction around the world.
This is our politics today. Each side attempting to outdo the other in over-the-top rhetoric. Democrats and their allies in the media never cease to let their animus for President Trump unleash their worst impulses.
The full transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC's Morning Joe
07/18/2019
6:42 a.m. EasternMIKA BRZEZINSKI: What is it that we have lost in the wake of this president?
RICHARD HAASS: Well, I would say two things, one is we've come quite a ways from Ronald Reagan's "shining city on a hill." And I think a lot of people around the world who unfortunately are living in increasingly anti-democratic, illiberal authoritarian societies look at that and they go, "That seems kind of familiar." For so long we thought of ourselves as different and exceptional. Well, when you watch things last night, we are voluntarily giving up the high ground. And an important part of foreign policy is not what diplomats do, it's simply who we are, it's the example we set, how well we run our economy, how decent our politics, what kind of opportunity we offer to disadvantaged Americans. So that's one thing. The other thing, and it gets a little bit in what Joe Biden was saying, is, you know, the history -- there is no pause button on history. So we're going through this kind of stuff, the world is moving on and, you know, China is doing what it's doing in terms of its own domestic development, in terms of increasing it's footprint in the region around the world, Russia is doing what it's doing in Europe, North Korea keeps building up it's nuclear systems, Iran is pressing the edge of the envelope, Maduro is still in power in Venezuela. So we are distracted, but history, again, doesn't stop while we sort ourselves out over the next couple of years. And whoever wins this election, whether it's Donald Trump or a Democrat, he or she is going to inherit an extraordinarily difficult inbox. You mentioned my book and that was written a couple years ago, that was the inbox that the 45th president was going to inherit. I didn't know who it was going to be when I wrote it. Well, now a year and a half from now the only thing I do know is that next inbox is going to be considerably worse.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Much, much worse. Richard, we showed the clips, talked about how not only were those chants and the President leading the chants un-American, we showed how they were illegal if you just look at the federal government's own laws, their own regulations. It was illegal. If you do that in the workforce, chances are very good you are going to be sued. Let's not talk about historical comparisons between this sort of rhetoric, let's talk instead about examples of countries across the world right now that do this sort of thing or that you've seen do this sort of thing over the past 10, 15 years where you actually have leaders pointing out a minority group to vilify, to humiliate, to suggest that the country needs to be ethnically cleansed and they need to be driven out of the country. What are some current examples of that?
HAASS: Well, one is Turkey with whom the United States is increasingly having a rough relationship. The Turks have obviously gone after their significant Kurdish minority and, again, you have a president in power who Turkey who step by step is rolling back democracy there, increasingly consolidating power in his hands. Obviously in China you have their repression of the Uighurs, their oppression of political and civil rights in Hong Kong, where what was supposed to be one country, two systems, increasingly is looking like one country, one system. I will just say around the world, Joe, you know, people who do this for a living when you measure it, the phrase going around is there is a democratic recession. For decades after World War II, after the end of the Cold War, the percentage of people around the globe who were living in democratic societies was going up. And what we've seen over the last 10 or 15 years unfortunately now is that dial is turned in the opposite direction. And I think one of the reasons is we are no longer setting the sort of example we should and, second of all, our foreign policy now ignores it. We've become so amoral, we no longer promote democracy or human rights, we no longer point a finger when terrible things are happening, that the rest of the world thinks essentially they've got a blank check. In Russia, or China, or Turkey or the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, you can kill journalists with impunity because the United States is no longer going to hold you accountable. So here it's what we are not doing in terms of our foreign policy and it's what we are doing in terms of our domestic example that I think have contributed significantly to this -- to history going in the wrong direction around the world.
