It seems a day cannot go by without Joe Scarborough slamming Republicans as extreme and out of touch with middle America. Appearing on Morning Joe on January 14, Scarborough took to chastising Republicans for going, “so far right and so extreme that they lost middle-America” and potentially ceasing to “be a player in presidential politics.”
Scarborough’s comments came a day after General Colin Powell’s comments on Meet the Press where he accused the Republican Party of being intolerant towards minorities. Scarborough went on a long rant against Republicans by associating fringe groups with the general sentiments of the party:
They went out, they engaged in birtherism, they called the president a racist who hated all white people, and they went so far right and so extreme that they lost middle-America. And so yeah, we lost another presidential election. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
As he does often, Scarborough claims that the Republicans’ main problem is their failure to listen to “reasonable conservatives” like himself:
I wrote a book that basically could be boiled down to don't lose your-- Al Roker at the White House…They didn’t listen.
Scarborough then went on to attack the conservative website Drudge Report, and an article by our sister website CNSNews.com:
Look at the cover of Drudge which I think magnificently reflects the feelings of conservatives, where the conservative movement is. And you know, he links stories that people want to see, and he does it better than anybody else. This weekend, I went on Drudge. And at the top of it is a story of survivalists. That are buying property, arming themselves and building walls out west.
Scarborough concluded his anti-Republican rant by predicting that:
There's a call to arms, and they're going even more extreme right than they were four years ago. This is such a recipe for disaster for the Republican Party. I thought I would never say it, but if this party continues on this trajectory over the next three years, then we're going to get wiped out in '16. And if we continue on this trajectory and I think the Republican Party ceases to be a player in presidential politics.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
January 14, 2013
6:09 a.m. EST
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: The next story we're about to do on gun control I think is a part of this conversation, but first, Joe, how important is what Colin Powell said? I mean, he is someone who has endorsed President Obama in the past.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: He has.
BRZEZINSKI: He has shown frustration in the party, and it's not like he is Mitch McConnell or someone else saying we need to change. Isn't he in a different category, or is this significant?
SCARBOROUGH: It's extraordinarily significant because yes, he supported Barack Obama two times. But there are a lot of other Republicans that are required for a majority, that are required for Republicans to win the White House that are a lot like Colin Powell, that just look at the Republican Party and think that they've lost their way. I've got to say, if you look at how the Republican Party reacted the first time President Obama was elected, I wrote a book that basically could be boiled down to don't lose your-- Al Roker at the White House.
BRZEZINSKI: Exactly.
SCARBOROUGH: They didn't listen. They went out, they engaged in birtherism, they called the president a racist who hated all white people, and they went so far right and so extreme that they lost middle-America. And so yeah, we lost another presidential election. Look at the cover of Drudge which I think magnificently reflects the feelings of conservatives, where the conservative movement is. And you know, he links stories that people want to see, and he does it better than anybody else. This weekend, I went on Drudge. And at the top of it is a story of survivalists. That are buying property, arming themselves and building walls out west. You have Sean Hannity who is talking about secession. You have another talk radio host whose name isn't even worth mentioning that is talking basically about -- about how the federal government is coming in and taking weapons, and you know. There's a call to arms, and they're going even more extreme right than they were four years ago. This is such a recipe for disaster for the Republican Party. I thought I would never say it, but if this party continues on this trajectory over the next three years, then we're going to get wiped out in '16. And if we continue on this trajectory and I think the Republican Party ceases to be a player in presidential politics. When a guy like Colin Powell, Mike Barnicle, says I'm a Republican -- and he's been saying this for years -- and the Republican Party has been pushing him away, every time I talk about how our foreign policy should be like Colin Powell's foreign policy, for five, six years, even before he endorsed Barack Obama the first time, I would get attacked for associating with Colin Powell's very conservative with a small "c" realist approach that republican presidents followed for years. It was the Weinberger Doctrine. It was the Reagan Doctrine. It was the Powell Doctrine. And suddenly, it became the doctrine of lefties?
