Scarborough Flaunts His Blazing Hypocrisy on Who Promoted Coronavirus Optimism

Mark Finkelstein
May 7th, 2020 10:07 AM

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When should Joe Scarborough realize that his shtick is getting shopworn? When even Mika Brzezinski is getting sick of it.  

Readers who have dipped into Morning Joe in the last several weeks have been subjected to Scarborough's seemingly endless repetition of President Trump's optimistic statements from the beginning of the epidemic about the small number of virus cases, how they would soon be down to zero, how things were under control, etc.

 

 

Today, Scarborough decided to embrace his stultifying shtick. He repeatedly claimed not to be a "repeater," only to yet again and again—and again—quote and requote the president. Mika clearly seemed to have had enough of her husband's act, sarcastically claiming not to know what he was about to say, suggesting that he save it for later, and hanging her head in boredom and exasperation.

There is an obvious political motive behind Scarborough's shtick. But while Joe surely believes he is cleverly serving the Democrat cause, his gimmick has long passed its sell-by date. 

But he's doing this AFTER new White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany broke out quotes from liberal media outlets in the same time frame. But Scarborough really ought to keep dragging out footage from his own show, on March 10: 

Here's the transcript:

MSNBC
Morning Joe
5/7/20
6:01 am EDT

JOE SCARBOROUGH: I don't know if you remember--I haven't said this yet on the show yet [Mika laughs], but on February 22nd you said it was just one person coming in from China. 

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh my God!

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, he said that. I don't like to repeat myself, so I'm sure I've not said it . . . Again, a guy who said it was one person coming in from China on February 22nd and then it would be gone, and then at the end of February saying there was only 11 people coming in and it would be gone, and then it was 15 people, it was going to be gone . . . What he said on February 22nd about this was going to be only one person coming in from China, don't worry about it. For months saying you have nothing to worry about, for months saying it was going to go away in April.

MIKA: And we have 75,000 people dead.

SCARBOROUGH: You lied to Americans, saying it was only one person and it was going to go away in January. And then in February you said it was 11 people and it was going to go away. And then in March you said it was going to go away magically in April . . . African-American leaders came in at the end of February to talk to Donald Trump about this. He said it's going to just go away, don't worry about it, it will go away like magic . . . Donald Trump guaranteed them, would magically go away . . . And yes, you can go to the end of January, when Donald Trump saying there's nothing to worry about here.

. . . 

Mika, you know, I don’t like repeating myself. Willie knows this, too. That's one of the things, when you work with people long enough, they get — you get to know how they work on the air and everything. And I’m not a repeater. So I’m just going to say this once [laughs], and one time only.

MIKA: Hmm.

SCARBOROUGH: Because you’re right about the tonnage of news that falls on us. But I’ve got to say, one time --

MIKA: [exasperated tone] Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: -- and one time only. Then I’ll never say it again.

MIKA: I’ve never heard this before.

SCARBOROUGH: You don’t know what I’m going to say.

MIKA: [sarcastically] I, I’m going to be so surprised.

SCARBOROUGH: In January -- you know what, Mika, we’ll do it next time.

MIKA: I think it’s a good idea.

SCARBOROUGH: January 22nd though, let me say this. I'm just going to say. Let me just say this. On January 22nd, Donald Trump said, when asked in Davos, he's hanging out in Davos. 

MIKA: [bored voice, head hangs down] Yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: Mr. working-class hero, hanging out in Davos, while a pandemic's coming. On January 22nd, he’s asked by CNBC, hey, wait, wait, what about this coronavirus? It's only one person coming from China. Only one person. It’ll go away soon. Nothing to worry about. Everything under control. A month later! A month after Joe Biden is warning Americans that Donald Trump's not prepared for the pandemic, a month later!, Donald Trump saying It is only 11 people, soon it's going to be down to zero. Then he goes, it's 15 people. Soon it’s going to be down to zero. He tells African-American leaders that it's going to disappear like magic. He tells Republican senators who are starting to freak out in early March, just stay calm, nothing to worry about. We got it under control. It's just going to go away.

. . . 

But I just wanted to get that off my chest.  

MIKA: [exasperated, head down] Okay.

SCARBOROUGH: Because you know, you go back to January 22nd, and February. There's, there are a lot of markers there, that, I don't know, maybe we'll start talking about a little bit more.