Don't get Joe Scarborough wrong: he detests Donald Trump as much as ever, and will surely do whatever he can to help defeat him in 2020. But in a triumph of realism over desire, on today's Morning Joe, Scarborough warned Democrats that beating Trump won't be easy.
As evidence of the daunting task facing Dems hoping to take Trump down, Scarborough urged Dems to listen to the "strong" closing segment of President Trump's speech in El Paso last night.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: There was a closing argument, and whoever wrote it, wrote a strong closing argument. And any Democrat that thinks they're going to cakewalk to beating Donald Trump in 2020, like they thought in 2016, and like everybody in the press thought in 2016, you need to watch the last four or five minutes of his speech and understand: Democrats have an uphill battle here. It's not going to be easy.
Willie Geist seconded Scarborough's take: "I think most of the candidates getting in that we've talked to understand that. I think maybe some progressives who are excited and assume Trump is the worst president we've ever had believe it will be easy to push him out of office. But I think that's wrong.
In the video of the conclusion of Trump's El Paso speech. Trump began by saying that everywhere socialism has been implemented, it has produced poverty, misery, repression, and despair. He promised that "America will never be a socialist country."
Put that up against the liberal, pro-socialist message of some of the Democrats and you can see why Scarborough acknowledged that it might be an uphill climb for the 2020 challenger.
