MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough has a habit of picking on his own friends and family members who supported President Trump, but on Tuesday's Morning Joe, he took it a step further and plainly admitted that his obsessions with the President are more important to him than the concerns of the American people.
Speaking to wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski, Scarborough griped: “[W]e can sit and try to figure out, Mika, why people feel the way they feel. I'm more concerned on why they're as comfortable as they were with an autocrat —“.
Knowing where this diatribe was going, Brzezinski interrupted: “I am too.” Naturally, their own concerns that they whine about every morning overwhelm those of the American people.
Sounding just like a caricature of a closed-minded journalist, safely shielded from regular Americans in his liberal bubble, he arrogantly added: “I don't — I don’t know that — that journalists that have been cloistered in New York City and Washington, D.C., uh should — should run around America trying to figure out why people feel the way they feel. I think people have told us through two elections.”
However, other NBC talking heads would disagree with that point, reminding those listening and watching that the Democrats didn’t have the “moral victory” they were hoping for, i.e., although Biden received more votes than Trump, the fact that almost 74 million voters still supported Trump showed the American people did not repudiate everything he stands for.
Seeking more excuses to dismiss the concerns of Republicans, Scarborough reminded viewers that his friends and family aren’t articulate Trump apologists (although maybe they just don’t want to argue with him):
I don’t really care what people tell me, because I've talked to my friends and my family members. They don't have a good answer as to why they're supporting Donald Trump. They really don't. They — they just sort of mumble around and say, “Oh, you know, I don't like him. I hate him. He's a horrible human being, but you know, he's our guy.”
Joe can't imagine that people might not want to try too hard to defend Trump with him yelling in their face about how they could possibly hold such disgusting views.
Mika Brzezinski, ever-vigilant of the fake news, added: “But, okay, so — and then there are people who — who — who give things that are false as their reasons.”
Without a shred of self-awareness, she explained:
I mean, that's actually um, the degradation of our, you know, media and journalism world. Maybe there's a difference, and that, you know, there needs to be a reset in terms of the value of the truth, and the news, and there is a part that everyone had in this. There were many different ways that this all happened and, you know for Americans out there who base their beliefs and their votes on facts that are not true, that is — that’s a mountain we're gonna have to climb as a country.
Scarborough chimed in: “Yeah. And we're looking at you, Facebook,” confirming that the social media platform is the source of his friends’ and relatives’ supposed misinformation. The fact that he mentioned it was no surprise, but the following addition of “not just on Facebook, but on the cable news channels” went to show just how upside down the world of Morning Joe is in today’s political climate.
Scarborough and Brzezinski's message of division was sponsored in part by Discover. Tell them how you feel about the show!
Find the transcript below:
Morning Joe
11/24/20
7:19:57 AM
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, and—and oh yes, we can sit and try to figure out, Mika, why people feel the way they feel. I'm more concerned on why they're as comfortable as they were with an autocrat —
BRZEZINSKI: I am too.
SCARBOROUGH: — with somebody who said that they — that, that he wanted his attorney general to arrest his political opponent in the last two weeks of the campaign, who would not guarantee a peaceful transfer, who’s put this country through what — they put —
BRZEZINSKI: Children in cages.
SCARBOROUGH: — been put through, the last three weeks. So again, I — I — I don't — I don’t know that — that journalists that have been cloistered in New York City and Washington, D.C., uh should — should run around America trying to figure out why people feel the way they feel. I think people have told us through two elections. And especially this last election, I think — I think there's — there’s a — a political sickness in this country that there are anti-democratic, post-democratic instincts that, as Anne Applebaum has written about, we’ve seen in Hungary, we’ve seen in Poland, and sadly we’ve seen it in this country as well. I think it's our responsibility to figure out why that happened.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: I don’t really care what people tell me, because I've talked to my friends and my family members. They don't have a good answer as to why they're supporting Donald Trump. They really don't. They — they just sort of mumble around and say, “Oh, you know, I don't like him. I hate him. He's a horrible human being, but you know, he's our guy.” Is really, they’re — again, I — nobody has really given a compelling, cogent reason that's based on — on — on verifiable facts, as to why —
BRZEZINSKI: And then there are —
SCARBOROUGH: I mean — I mean to say that Donald Trump’s a straight talker is laughable.
BRZEZINSKI: But, okay, so — and then there are people who — who — who give things that are false as their reasons.
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
BRZEZINSKI: And that is—um, that’s something we need to look at.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, that’s what —
BRZEZINSKI: I mean, that's actually um, the degradation of our, you know, media and journalism world. Maybe there's a difference, and that, you know, there needs to be a reset in terms of the value of the truth, and the news, and there is a part that everyone had in this. There were many different ways that this all happened and, you know for Americans out there who base their beliefs and their vos [sic] — votes on facts that are not true, that is — that’s a mountain we're gonna have to climb as a country.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. And we're looking at you, Facebook. Uh, I spent most of my time when I asked my friends and family members why they were still voting for Donald Trump, listening to their conspiracy theories that they had shared on Facebook.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: That again, two minutes on Google would have proven to them that it was just flat-out false information, but again, it's not like they're babes in the woods. It’s not like they don't actively go out trying to find information that's distorted and twisted, but fits into their pre-existing prejudices and worldview. That's exactly what's happened over the past three weeks, and we’ve seen people doing it, not just on Facebook, but on the cable news channels—
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. I mean, out and out lies.
SCARBOROUGH: — that they find. They seek out people who want — who will reconfirm what they believe, even when they know it's not true. But anyway —
BRZEZINSKI: Okay.
SCARBOROUGH: — it’s something for us to look at and be thinking about in the coming years.
