On Wednesday, left-wing Florida gubernatorial nominee and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum was treated to a softball interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that completely skipped any mention of his radical calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement or impeach President Trump. The Democrat also avoided having to answer a single question about the corruption scandal plaguing his city government.
Host Joe Scarborough began the friendly exchange by excitedly telling Gillum, “Mr. Mayor, you shocked the political world.” Moments later, the morning show anchor asked: “How did you shock the political world?” After Gillum touted his Tuesday primary win, Scarborough briefly noted criticism of the Bernie Sanders-backed candidate: “Ron DeSantis, who won of course the Republican nomination for the Senate race, he put out a statement saying that you were far, far too liberal to get elected in the state of Florida.”
However, rather than challenge Gillum on his far-left views, Scarborough immediately softened the question by comparing the Florida Democrat to Barack Obama:
That sounds very familiar to what a lot of Republicans were saying about Barack Obama in 2008, that he was the second or third most liberal senator in the United States Senate. There was no way he would ever be elected president of the United States. What do you say to Ron DeSantis this morning?
As part of his response, Gillum accused DeSantis of playing the race card: “Ron DeSantis can talk about race and liberalism and whatever else he wants to, I’m going to be clearly focused on the issues that confront every day Floridians.”
The next question came from liberal MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle, who wondered: “So what specifically are you going to do, other than raising taxes in Florida, to maintain the fiscal health of your state?”
A perfect follow-up to that substantive inquiry might have been to ask Gillum about the FBI launching a massive corruption investigation into Tallahassee’s city government. In the midst of that investigation, Gillum himself unwittingly scheduled a meeting with an undercover FBI agent posing as a real estate developer to root out public corruption.
The final question put to Gillum in the easy interview was from Daily Beast Politics Editor Sam Stein, who simply wondered how the Democrat might reach out to Trump supporters in the state: “So what is your message to perhaps the most committed Trump voter, the person who’s watching Fox News, probably seeing Ron DeSantis on right now. What is your message to them about why they should vote for you?”
After allowing Gillum to dodge any tough questions, Scarborough concluded the segment by praising the liberal politician for supposedly “talking straight, still, to the voters.”
It was not as if the cast of Morning Joe was unaware of some of Gillum’s radical positions. At the top of the show, MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki explained: “This is somebody who ran to the left, he positioned himself to the left, certainly to the left of Gwen Graham....Gillum ran to her left. He talked about impeaching Trump, talked about abolishing I.C.E.”
The corruption scandal swirling around Gillum was eventually mentioned near the end of program, when a soundbite was played of DeSantis talking about his Democratic opponent during a Fox News interview Tuesday night:
As mayor of Tallahassee, his tenure has been absolutely disastrous. Tallahassee is one of, if not the most crime-ridden city in all of Florida. Year after year, rising crime. He’s embroiled in a lot of corruption scandals. This is not a – this guy can’t even run the City of Tallahassee. There’s no way Florida voters can entrust him with our entire state.
While much of the show focused on hyping Gillum’s surprise victory in the Democratic primary, that was the only time given to the scandal.
Here are the questions posed to Gillum during his August 29 Morning Joe appearance:
7:09 AM ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, let’s go to Tallahassee right now and talk to the mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum. Andrew, you – Mr. Mayor, you shocked the political world. I was getting phone calls, “Joe, you know Florida. We’re worried about this [Jeff] Greene guy. He’s dumping too much cash in. Joe, Graham, she doesn’t have what it” – everybody was saying, “You need to say this on your show, you need to say that on your show,” because they all thought the south Florida guys and women were going to win this thing. You had another thing in mind. How did you shock the political world?
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: You know, Mr. Mayor, Ron DeSantis, who won of course the Republican nomination for the Senate race, he put out a statement saying that you were far, far too liberal to get elected in the state of Florida. That sounds very familiar to what a lot of Republicans were saying about Barack Obama in 2008, that he was the second or third most liberal senator in the United States Senate. There was no way he would ever be elected president of the United States. What do you say to Ron DeSantis this morning?
(...)
ANDREW GILLUM [D-MAYOR OF TALLAHASSEE]: Ron DeSantis can talk about race and liberalism and whatever else he wants to, I’m going to be clearly focused on the issues that confront every day Floridians. And I honestly believe that that is what’s going to allow us to carry this thing to victory on November 6th. It’s not by running to or from or left or right, but running directly toward the people of our state. That’s what I did in this primary and that’s what we’re going to do in the general.
MIKE BARNICLE: So, Mr. Mayor, every citizen of every state is concerned with, I’m sure, many of the issues that you just spoke about, health care, teacher salaries, good schools for their children, their children’s future, but every state, like Florida, has a problem in terms of how do you maintain the fiscal health of the state? So what specifically are you going to do, other than raising taxes in Florida, to maintain the fiscal health of your state?
(...)
SAM STEIN [POLITICS EDITOR, THE DAILY BEAST]: Mr. Mayor, Sam Stein here. Congratulations on the primary victory last night. I saw you say some time last night in the euphoria that you didn’t really talk a lot about Donald Trump during the primary campaign. I guess perhaps I’m sort of curious how that’s possible because he dominates everything. But in reality, the truth is his fingerprints are all over our political system. Obviously in your state, a huge population of Puerto Ricans have fled that island, for instance, because of the federal response to the hurricane there.
So, as a general question, I am curious, a lot of Trump voters are fully committed to this man and won’t break with him over pretty much anything, but you do need to reach these people. Florida is a very swingy state, you do need to reach these people. So what is your message to perhaps the most committed Trump voter, the person who’s watching Fox News, probably seeing Ron DeSantis on right now. What is your message to them about why they should vote for you?
(...)
SCARBOROUGH: Alright, Mayor Andrew Gillum talking straight, still, to the voters. Thank you so much. And the conversation has just started. We invited Ron DeSantis on to talk this morning, but his schedule was little busy. His team said they couldn’t make it. We hope to have him on some time soon.
