You could see this coming from 4,500 miles away—the distance from the Morning Joe set in the US to Auschwitz, in Poland.
For two days now, Morning Joe has been exploiting Joe Scarborough's trip to Auschwitz for International Holocaust Remembrance Day for craven political purposes: tying Donald Trump to the horrors of the Holocaust.
We predicted this in yesterday's item on Scarborough's trip. And the mudslinging was made concrete on today's show.
Mika Brzezinski began by teeing up Scarborough, saying:
"You are reporting from outside the site of what was the Auschwitz concentration camp . . . to remember the terror, the torture, the lives lost there, but also how it all started."
Scarborough ran with it from there, saying that although it is impossible to comprehend the evil of the Holocaust:
"History does provide an understanding of how such horrors began. It began with a lie, and then more lies, and then, the Big Lie."
Then it was Mika's turn to make the Holocaust/Trump allegation explicit:
"I think John Bolton, talking about the danger that Trump poses to this country, is, is a step. Is a step a number of other top Republican leaders need to follow.
I mean, especially given the totality of what we're looking at on this show today, what we're remembering, where Joe is. You know, the Big Lie is a dangerous thing."
Question: how grotesque is it of Morning Joe to exploit the Holocaust for such blatantly political purposes?
Note: Later in the show, Scarborough spoke with Kamala Harris's husband, Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish.
In decrying anti-semitism in the US, the only example Emhoff gave was of the tiki-torch-carrying white nationalists at Charlottesville. And—in a clear shot at Trump—he decried "so-called leaders who see this stuff, hear this stuff, and they know better. And they don't say a word. They don't say a word because some lack courage."
Not a peep from Emhoff about black anti-semitism—something that is by no means limited to the likes of Kanye West or Kyrie Irving. This 2022 analysis of black anti-semitism in America cites a study indicating that 36% of black Americans hold "strong anti-semitic beliefs" a percentage that rises ro 42% among black liberals.
And then there is Arab-American anti-semitism, as exemplified by Squad members Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Again, not a word on that from the Second Gentleman. What were you saying about leaders who "lack courage," Doug? [as Scarborough addressed him, demonstrating just what a Dem insider he is.]
Morning Joe exploiting the Holocaust for political purposes in attacking Donald Trump was sponsored in part by Chewy, Etsy, and Clear Choice.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
1/27/23
6:02 am ETMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Joe, this morning, you are reporting from outside the site of what was the Auschwitz concentration camp to mark international Holocaust Remembrance day. We want to remember the terror, the torture, the lives lost there, but also how it all started. Joe?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, it is noon here at Auschwitz on this commemoration day, and you know, Mika, in the age of social media and 24/7 news channels, we have become accustomed to the daily barrage of grim news reports and depressing stories, from Uvalde to Ukraine. Conditioned to compartmentalize, we somehow digest the bad news and move on throughout the day.
But for anybody who has set foot on the grounds of the Auschwitz death camp, there is no compartmentalizing of emotions. There is no moving on throughout the day. And there's no grasping the unparalleled evil that happened here, and culminating in the systemic slaughter of six million Jews.
How exactly does one comprehend how a country, an army, a single person, perform such daily, depraved acts on other human beings? And how the scale of these evil actions led to six million deaths. It's impossible. We simply cannot.
But history does provide an understanding of how such horrors began. It began with a lie, and then more lies, and then, the Big Lie. And in this tragic case, the lie was that Jews lost the first World War for Germany.
These lies spread all too easily among Germans, and led to Jewish homes and businesses being vandalized, led to Jews being singled out in those businesses and in schools, and led to a permissive attitude toward creeping anti-semitism, until the lies and the stigmatism of Jews led step by step by step to deportations, to executions, and to extermination.
This first chapter of the Holocaust against the Jewish people is why we're here. To remind ourselves that anti-semitism can never be allowed to find safe harbor again in polite society. Whether on elite college campuses, on social media platforms, or in country clubs with former presidents. Passive acceptance invites violence.
. . .
MIKA: In an interview with CBS News, Trump's one-time, former national security adviser John Bolton called him a national security threat.
. . .
REPORTER: Is Trump a threat to national security?
JOHN BOLTON: I think, I think he is. I believe that the damage he did during his term was significant but repairable. I strongly opposed him getting a second term because I worried that what he would do in a second term might be irreparable.
. . .
MIKA: I think John Bolton, talking about the danger that Trump poses to this country, is, is a step. Is a step a number of other top Republican leaders need to follow.
I mean, especially given the totality of what we're looking at on this show today, what we're remembering, where Joe is. You know, the Big Lie is a dangerous thing.
