Since the candidates first began announcing for the 2020 Democratic Primary, MSNBC’s Morning Joe has dedicated much of its air time to defending them from being called “socialists” by Republicans. For months, the show’s panelists have focused on bashing President Trump and ignoring the wildly radical positions many of the candidates have taken.
As it turns out, if he or she looks like a socialist and talks like a socialist, he or she is probably a socialist. Following the second Democratic debate, Morning Joe's hosts were flabbergasted by the hard-left turn of the Democratic candidates for President on stage. On a Thursday edition of the show, host Joe Scarborough ripped the Democrats for attacking Obama’s policies during the debates more than those of Trump:
Really, it's kind of -- I'm so confused. I'm so confused. You have Barack Obama, by the way, for the record, the most popular Democrat alive, the first Democrat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt did it in 1932 and 1936 and then again in '40 and '44, to win a majority of the votes, Obama, the first to do that, and you have people trashing ObamaCare and the sport of it is Republican talking points. And then they're trashing his immigration policies, which Donald Trump and the Republicans attacked and used to elect Donald Trump, as being too conservative. This was sort of — we were sort of in a Never-Never Land last night in that debate. It was bizarre. And I gotta — just judging from what I've seen and what I've heard since that debate, a lot of the Democrats are pretty pissed off and are saying, "Listen, if you're think you're gonna get my vote by trashing Barack Obama's legacy, you've got another thing coming."
Panelist Mike Barnicle followed up with similar sentiments:
Joe, it was a pretty unique strategy that we saw unfold last night going after Barack Obama. And it certainly opened my eyes. I had always thought that coverage of preexisting conditions was pretty good. I always thought that taking care of catastrophic illnesses was pretty good. I always thought that taking care of your kids on your health care plan until they were 25 or 26 years of age, that was really good. I liked all that. Woe is me. I was wrong. Barack Obama is a villain here. And the only thing I can conclude after watching them last night that is if Hillary Clinton and the Democrats had given the same volume of attack, the same artillery brought to a candidate, as they brought to Joe Biden last night. If they had brought that to Donald Trump in 2016 during debates, there would have been no Democratic debate last night, Hillary Clinton would have been President. But, instead, I watch all night long in disbelief. In disbelief.
Keep in mind that, just last week, Scarborough ripped into Trump’s DNI nominee Rep. John Ratcliffe for calling every Democrat a socialist during the Mueller hearing, saying “if they're going to mislabel Democrats who are not socialists, socialists, then we should just start calling Ratcliffe a fascist”:
And by the way, Mika, Ratcliffe was the guy who I think spurred a discussion here, where I asked a question: if Republicans are really — I hate to even call them that, a Trumpist, a Trump sycophant, is going to call every Democrat a socialist, can Democrats call Ratcliffe a fascist? Because it seems fair to me that if they're going to mislabel Democrats who are not socialists, socialists, then should just start calling Ratcliffe a fascist. And call him a fascist throughout this entire process. Call him a fascist for the rest of his career until this fascist apologizes to capitalists who are Democrats who he has mislabeled.
Yes, as it turns out, the Democratic Party is slowly embracing socialism. Most of the Democratic candidates for President are running to the left of Barack Obama. They are trashing his legacy because they are radical. Morning Joe is finally beginning to realize that.
The full transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Morning Joe
08/01/2019
6:03:10 A.M. Eastern
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Really, it's kind of -- I'm so confused. I'm so confused. You have Barack Obama, by the way, for the record, the most popular Democrat alive, the first Democrat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt did it in 1932 and 1936 and then again in '40 and '44, to win a majority of the votes, Obama, the first to do that, and you have people trashing Obamacare and the sport of it is Republican talking points. And then they're trashing his immigration policies, which Donald Trump and the Republicans attacked and used to elect Donald Trump, as being too conservative. This was sort of -- we were sort of in a “never Neverland” last night in that debate. It was bizarre. And I gotta -- just judging from what I've seen and what I've heard since that debate, a lot of the Democrats are pretty pissed off and are saying, "Listen, if you're think you're gonna get my vote by trashing Barack Obama's legacy, you've got another thing coming."
WILLIE GEIST: Must have been 4-dimensional chess, somehow Joe, playing to that 3% that don't like Barack Obama somehow. It was extraordinary and the support, as you pointed out and Mika pointed out, for the Affordable Care Act itself is still at something like 83 or 84%. So the President, Obama is popular, his policy is popular. But they were getting at Joe Biden. They knew that this man, despite what happened in the last debate when he took a little bit of ahit and Kamala Harris rose in the poll, things settled back out and he still has a commanding lead in this race. So they believe the only way in, the only way to climb is to go at Joe Biden. They climbed pretty hard last night, and they climbed all the way up to President Obama and that’s not sitting well I don’t think this morning with a lot of Democrats. The other side of it is though they have to do something. It's not -- he's not above criticism, Joe Biden, but you have to be careful how you do it so you don't throw out the baby with the bathwater and go after the president who he served under for eight years.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Eight years.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, you know, Mike Barnicle, you gotta do something, you know what you gotta do? You got to attack Donald Trump. The lunacy of this exercise last night was that Donald Trump's policy positions were attacked less than Barack Obama's policy -- I mean, let's think about this again. You have, over the past two weeks, a man who has done more to try to start a racial divide in America. He has made bigoted remarks against women of color in the United States Congress, bigoted remarks against Elijah Cummings, he has time and time again done things that were unspeakable, said things, as a New York Times op-ed described earlier this week, that even George Wallace wouldn't say. And yet, in that same week, Democrats on the stage last night, Mike, decided their target should be Barack Obama instead of Donald Trump. If I'm up on that stage, I'm saying okay, listen, here’s the deal: We Democrats, we support universal healthcare, Republicans are against it. Okay, great. We'll figure out how to get there, because it's just a debate. We’re gonna have to deal with Congress, we’re gonna have to deal with the courts, we’re gonna have to deal with the administration. So let's just agree we're on the side of the angels and they're on the side of corporations.
MIKE BARNICLE: Well, Joe --
SCARBOROUGH: Now, let's talk about Donald Trump. That's what they should have done last night, and they just don't get the message.
BARNICLE: Joe, it was a pretty unique strategy that we saw unfold last night going after Barack Obama. And it certainly opened my eyes. I had always thought that coverage of preexisting conditions was pretty good. I always thought that taking care of catastrophic illnesses was pretty good. I always thought that taking care of your kids on your health care plan until they were 25 or 26 years of age, that was really good. I liked all that. Woe is me. I was wrong. Barack Obama is a villain here. And the only thing I can conclude after watching them last night that is if Hillary Clinton and the Democrats had given the same volume of attack, the same artillery brought to a candidate, as they brought to Joe Biden last night. If they had brought that to Donald Trump in 2016 during debates, there would have been no Democratic debate last night, Hillary Clinton would have been President. But, instead, I watch all night long in disbelief. In disbelief.
SCARBOROUGH: Disbelief.
BARNICLE: Disbelief as nearly every one of them on that stage went after Joe Biden/Barack Obama. Insanity.
SCARBOROUGH: Barack Obama got hammered. Mika, I'm hearing Mike Barnicle talking about protecting pre-existing conditions. I'm hearing Mike Barnicle talking about letting your kids stay on your health care insurance until they're 25 or 26 because some may not have a job and you want to protect them. I'm hearing about expanding health care coverage for millions and millions of Americans under Obamacare. And you know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking it's sad that Mike Barnicle is leading our show off with a lot of Republican talking points.
