Liberal network see, liberal network do! Monday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, we caught NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss claiming he wasn't comparing Donald Trump to Hitler -- though he proceeded to do just that. Fast-forward to Tuesday and it was co-host Joe Scarborough's turn.
Not admitting or realizing Beschloss had done the exact same thing, Scarborough told wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski that "nobody here is comparing Donald Trump to Hitler" before explaining alleged parallels between Trump's 2016 win, the rise of Hitler, and Germany's subsequent invasion across Europe.
After Brzezinski shared that she had spoken Monday with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and it reminded her of Albright’s "warning that she gave to both of us about the Trump presidency before it even began" how people like her late father Zbigniew Brzezinski "[knew] to take [Trump] very seriously" as he had “lived through and studied fascism
Scarborough then let it rip, claiming "nobody here is comparing Donald Trump to Hitler" as "Donald Trump is a force all unto himself" although others who’ve lived through World War II have thought of him in more stark terms:
The courts have stopped him so far, but I do find it fascinating that people who escaped Europe like your father, like Madeleine Albright, your mother. I've talked to other immigrants that were chased out of Europe in the 1930s, whether it was Italy or Germany or Poland or Czechoslovakia. They are the ones who come up and offer us the most intense warnings, not just about Donald Trump but just saying, it can happen here. You don't think it can happen here.
In particular, Scarborough mentioned Albright's warning that if Trump won in 2016, what happened in Europe in the 1930's "is coming to the United States," and that "it can happen here," leaving the country unrecognizable.
Not surprisingly, Scarborough has made the Trump/Hitler comparison himself. Back in July 2019, Scarborough described a Trump rally as a "Nuremberg rally," adding the time had come to compare current events to Germany in 1933.
And in a 2020 Morning Joe appearance, regular guest Donny Deutsch made repeated Trump/Hitler comparisons. At one point Deutsch said, "there is no difference from what Donald Trump is preaching from what Adolf Hitler preached in the early 30s. Let's just say it once and for all."
Does Scarborough have the integrity to issue a retraction and an apology for his false statement? Don't hold your breath.
On Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough falsely claiming that no one on the show has compared Donald Trump to Hitler was sponsored in part by GlaxoSmithKline (maker of Voltaren), Sleep Number, GoDaddy, and Etsy,
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC's Morning Joe
02/01/22
6:24 a.m. EasternMIKA BRZEZINSKI: These people will be remembered, I --- I believe, decades from now, as --- as, you know, the tiny parts of this that held the democracy together. It's still -- this still has a long way to go.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
BRZEZINSKI: I was talking to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright last night, thinking of her and the warning that she gave to both of us about the Trump presidency before it even began. And people like my father, people who have lived through and studied fascism, know to take him very seriously and see how serious every action that was taken during this presidency to undermine our democracy really is.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. I will say it is fascinating -- the, the increased intensity that we've all heard from people from Europe.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: We're not -- again, nobody -- nobody here is comparing Donald Trump to Hitler. Donald Trump is a force all unto himself and he’s operating inside an extraordinarily strong and vibrant democracy, despite what you read on Twitter every day.
BRZEZINSKI: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: But — but — but he’s a bull in a China shop and he’s — he’s trying to — to, you know, bolt through the front door. The courts have stopped him so far, but I do find it fascinating that people who escaped Europe like your father, like Madeleine Albright, your mother. I've talked to other immigrants that were chased out of Europe in the 1930s, whether it was Italy or Germany or Poland or Czechoslovakia. They are the ones who come up and offer us the most intense warnings, not just about Donald Trump but just saying, it can happen here. You don't --
BRZEZINSKI: Yes.
SCARBOROUGH: -- think it can happen here. We didn't think this could happen.
BRZEZINSKI: That's how it starts.
SCARBOROUGH: -- in Austria. We didn't think it could happen in Germany. We didn't think this could happen in Czechoslovakia. We didn't think this could happen in Poland. It can happen here. And it is, especially Madeleine Albright who, in 2016, offered us many sobering warnings, warning: This is coming to the United States. If Donald Trump wins, you -- you're just not going to be able to imagine what this country is going to go through. And Madeleine Albright, as usual, was right.
