Why the hell, indeed!?
And stop being the toast of the Upper West Side and the Hamptons? Imperil domestic tranquility with Democrat wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski? Maybe even get "canceled" by a liberal establishment baying for Republican political blood?
Former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough formally quit the Republican party in 2017, two months after President Trump took office. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough said he's often asked if he will now become a Republican again. Responded Scarborough, "why the hell" would I?
One could make the obvious point that, no, of course not. Joe has a show on MSNBC. Why would he even think about becoming a Republican? Here's Scarborough:
Michael Steele, people ask me all the time: hey, so after Trump leaves Washington, are you going to change back to being a Republican? I go: why the hell would I do that? You’ve got a guy that said he wouldn’t guarantee a peaceful transfer of power, the last month of the campaign. You had a guy, the last two weeks of the campaign calling for the arrest of his political opponent who he thought was going to beat him at the polls.
Scarborough couched his answer in a condemnation of President Trump for declining to concede to Joe Biden and to make daily intel briefings available to him. But given that Scarborough firmly believes that Trump will be leaving office on January 20th, the grounds for his angry, table-pounding, rejection of the notion of again becoming a Republican make no sense. The real answer is likely that Scarborough enjoys his sinecure as the toast of the left, and fears retribution should he return to his supposed conservative roots.
Joe Scarborough's angry rejection of the possibility of becoming a Republican again was sponsored in part by E*Trade, Shark Vacuums, and USAA.
Here's the transcript. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
11/13/20
6:40 am ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Michael Steele, people ask me all the time: hey, so after Trump leaves Washington, are you going to change back to being a Republican? I go: why the hell would I do that? You’ve got a guy that said he wouldn’t guarantee a peaceful transfer of power, the last month of the campaign. You had a guy, the last two weeks of the campaign calling for the arrest of his political opponent who he thought was going to beat him at the polls.
That’s what totalitarian leaders do and now he is stopping the President-elect of our United States from getting daily intel briefings. And yes! If Barack Obama had done this four years ago, I would have criticized Barack Obama and asked the Obama administration. I criticized them all the time. And if they had been doing this four years ago, I would have gone crazy. So would you. So would every other right-thinking American. So why?! Why is my former party acting in a way, after the election’s over, that is actually causing grave concern about the security of this country. That you have a Commander-in-Chief that’s basically flying blind right now. And they won’t give him the daily intel briefings that he needs to get read in on right now.
