On Tuesday's Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski announced "listen carefully" as she read from a leaked draft of President Biden's boasts in a speech in Atlanta on voting rights: "I will not yield. I will not flinch," and he stands for democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice.
Move over, Winston Churchill -- because the liberals love imagining the Republicans are like Hitler.
But the White House press-shop moment was washed out by the news that Stacey Abrams, who's again running for governor of Georgia, has announced she won't be attending Biden's speech, citing a "scheduling conflict." That led Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist to facetiously muse that Abrams' appointment for a car tune-up and tire rotation is keeping her away. But Mika Brzezinski, a die-hard Democrat who will defend the indefensible on behalf of her party, repeatedly interrupted Scarborough to claim there could be other reasons for Abrams skipping the speech.
MIKA: Also worth noting, Stacey Abrams, one of the nation's best-known voting-rights advocates, and the current Democratic candidate for governor in the state, will not be in attendance today citing a schedule conflict.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Stacey Abrams has as scheduling event. Her car's getting a tune-up, so you can understand. It's hard!
WILLIE GEIST: You can't get an appointment.
MIKA: Hold on: you don't know.
SCARBOROUGH: And the mechanics -- half the mechanics are home. They're asymptomatic, but they won't let them --
MIKA: Okay --
SCARBOROUGH: She has to get the car tuned up.
WILLIE: She's getting her tires rotated, to be more specific.
SCARBOROUGH: And rotated, too. So, how in the world can she be in two places at once?
MIKA: Okay, we'll withhold judgment. We are not passing judgment.
SCARBOROUGH: Stacey Abrams: this is an event custom-made for Stacey Abrams. Rev, she obviously doesn't want to be on the same stage with Joe Biden.
Al Sharpton didn't go to Mika's absurd lengths in explaining away Abrams ducking Biden. While claiming that he didn't know if the reason is that she doesn't want to share a stage with Biden, Al did allow: "I certainly would say the elements is there for one to speculate."
Scarborough eventually explained that he wasn't criticizing Abrams. Rather, it is just "Politics 101" that politicians stay away from presidents whose approval numbers are averaging in the low 40s.
Beyond Biden's idle boasting about his toughness, there is a more ominous and troubling aspect to his remarks. He vows to "defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic." So the guy who pledged to be a "uniter" is implicitly accusing Republicans of being domestic enemies?
The Biden-as-Churchill moment on Morning Joe was sponsored in part by Publishers Clearing House, E*trade, and Lifelock.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
1/11/22
6:08 am ETMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Today, President Biden travels to Georgia—we'll stay in Georgia [after discussing Georgia's victory in the college football championship game last night]—to deliver what's being billed as a major speech on voting rights. Biden is expected to publicly push for a Senate filibuster change to pass voting rights. Previously, he had only endorsed reinstating the talking filibuster.
The White House released this portion of the president's speech, listen carefully:
The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation. Will we choose democracy over
autocracy, light over shadow, justice or injustice? I know where I stand.I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And so the question is: where will the institution of the United States stand?"
Also worth noting, Stacey Abrams, one of the nation's best-known voting-rights advocates, and the current Democratic candidate for governor in the state, will not be in attendance today citing a schedule conflict.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Stacey Abrams has as scheduling event. Her car's getting a tune-up, so you can understand. It's hard!
WILLIE GEIST: You can't get an appointment.
MIKA: Hold on: you don't know.
SCARBOROUGH: And the mechanics -- half the mechanics are home. They're asymptomatic, but they won't let them --
MIKA: Okay --
SCARBOROUGH: She has to get the car tuned up.
WILLIE: She's getting her tires rotated, to be more specific.
SCARBOROUGH: And rotated, too. So, how in the world can she be in two places at once?
MIKA: Okay, we'll withhold judgment. We are not passing judgment.
SCARBOROUGH: Stacey Abrams: this is an event custom-made for Stacey Abrams. Rev, she obviously doesn't want to be on the same stage with Joe Biden.
MIKA: Nooo.
AL SHARPTON: Well, I don't know if, if it's that, um.
SCARBOROUGH: [smirking] What is it? What is it?
AL SHARPTON: I certainly would say the elements is there for one to speculate.
MIKA: Let's just reserve judgment. You should talk, sometimes you don't show up in events.
SCARBOROUGH: I'm not criticizing Stacey Abrams here. I am making a comment about the political standing of Joe Biden, as seen from a woman who's running for governor of Georgia and wants to win that election. Politicians show up with presidents when they have 52% approval ratings. Politicians don't show up with presidents when their approval ratings may be in the 30s in the state in the state where they want to be elected governor.
MIKA: Or, there is another reason.
SCARBOROUGH: Or, she's getting the tires rotated, and right now in the middle of Covid, that's kind of hard.
MIKA: [sighs loudly]
SCARBOROUGH: Mika, I just don't know -- I would say this about, like, whatever. This is, this is Politics 101.
