If there was an award for most unhinged journalist of the Trump era, it would undoubtedly go to Donny Deutsch. The MSNBC contributor and host of poorly-rated Saturday Night Politics has embraced the politics of gaslighting in the Trump era like few other cable news pundits.
On Friday's edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the Trump deranged Deutsch went nuclear about the prospects of Trump winning re-election in 2020. After co-host Joe Scarborough added to the collection of Mitch McConnell monikers, Deutsch began by saying that Democrats in 2020 are “in a war” against “liars, cheaters, and stealers”:
Joe, Joe, you're doing this because it's something you started yesterday and I want to wind back yesterday because, to me, something — I’ve been on if show ten years frankly and I have listened to a lot, I have listened to you a lot. We’ve brawled on the air a lot and what you said in a couple of minutes yesterday to me is the most important thing that's ever been said on this show, on any show on this air, and that is we are at war. It is time for the Democrats to wake up. We are playing against cheaters and liars or stealers and, with all due respect to Michelle Obama, when they go high — and when they go low, we've got to do whatever we have to do.
Deutsch followed up by saying that Democrats need to whatever it takes to “win the war of putting [Trump] in jail” and that Trump getting re-elected would set the country back 50 years, creating a dystopian society:
DEUTSCH: Just like we’re going to call him Moscow Mitch, we'll call him Criminal Trump and another message for the Democrats: is it is time to move forward. There are two takeaways from Mueller that we're going to use as we go to war. Number one: The President broke the law and when he's out of office, he can go and will go to jail and number two: we are vulnerable with our election systems. That's our two things. We may not have won the battle of impeachment, but we're going to win the war of putting him in jail. Whatever we have to do and we're not going to necessarily play fair and, for all of the intellectuals out there, who’s hair is going to go on fire, “but we’re becoming like them. We’re becoming like them,” we cannot lose the next election. We will go back 50 years. We have to start—
SCARBOROUGH: Well, I hear you. It’s worse than that.
DEUTSCH: One other thing, Joe, let me finish. The one tool we have to use that the Democrats never use is fear. Start to stop talking about Donald Trump today and yesterday and start to paint a picture of what the next four years would look like. Maybe even the next eight, 12 years because he doesn't think he's going anywhere of the possible path to a dystopian society. There is no more playing nice. We cannot bring a knife fight to a bazooka gun fight.
As the 2020 campaign has heated up, Deutsch added to his long list of horrible statements. On July 16's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he said that voting for Donald Trump in 2020 would be if “you put your head down and didn’t say anything when you heard a white supremacist.” He also recently said on his show that Democrats need to use fear in order to convince Americans that fascism is coming to their country if Trump gets re-elected.
If only Deutsch could hold up a mirror and realize that his fear-mongering politics are much more divisive than anything on the President’s Twitter account.
The full transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
07/26/2019
6:07 a.m. EasternDONNY DEUTSCH: Joe, I love you're calling him Moscow Mitch because frankly it’s a continuation of something you said —
JOE SCARBOROUGH: What am I supposed to call him, Cocaine Mitch?
DEUTSCH: Well, I’m going to — it’s a — it’s —
SCARBOROUGH: He’s a thug. You know, people call him Cocaine Mitch. Maybe — I don't know. Maybe he's right — I mean, he's only Cocaine Mitch if he's running cocaine to Moscow because he's Moscow Mitch.
DEUTSCH: Sure because, Joe what you’re doing —
SCARBOROUGH: Seriously, he is — he is — he is aiding and abetting
DEUTSCH: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: Vladimir Putin's ongoing attempts to subvert American democracy according to the Republican FBI, CIA, DNI, Intel Committee, Director — all Republicans are all saying Russia is subverting American democracy and Moscow Mitch won't let the Senate take a vote on, that is un-American.
DEUTSCH: Joe, Joe, you're doing this because it's something you started yesterday and I want to wind back yesterday because, to me, something — I’ve been on if show ten years frankly and I have listened to a lot, I have listened to you a lot. We’ve brawled on the air a lot and what you said in a couple of minutes yesterday to me is the most important thing that's ever been said on this show, on any show on this air, and that is we are at war. It is time for the Democrats to wake up. We are playing against cheaters and liars or stealers and, with all due respect to Michelle Obama, when they go high — and when they go low, we've got to do whatever we have to do. We actually have a government led by Moscow Mitch and Criminal Trump. Oh, by the way, we're going to call him Unindicted Criminal Trump now because in two instances, he has been an unindicted criminal. So I know in regular — when you're playing fair, you're supposed to call him President Trump. Just like we’re going to call him Moscow Mitch, we'll call him Criminal Trump and another message for the Democrats: is it is time to move forward. There are two takeaways from Mueller that we're going to use as we go to war. Number one: The President broke the law and when he's out of office, he can go and will go to jail and number two: we are vulnerable with our election systems. That's our two things. We may not have won the battle of impeachment, but we're going to win the war of putting him in jail. Whatever we have to do and we're not going to necessarily play fair and, for all of the intellectuals out there, who’s hair is going to go on fire, “but we’re becoming like them. We’re becoming like them,” we cannot lose the next election. We will go back 50 years. We have to start—
SCARBOROUGH: Well, I hear you. It’s worse than that.
DEUTSCH: One other thing, Joe, let me finish. The one tool we have to use that the Democrats never use is fear. Start to stop talking about Donald Trump today and yesterday and start to paint a picture of what the next four years would look like. Maybe even the next eight, 12 years because he doesn't think he's going anywhere of the possible path to a dystopian society. There is no more playing nice. We cannot bring a knife fight to a bazooka gun fight.
