Joe Scarborough has been a big booster of Ukrainian President Zelensky and of American support for Ukraine in its war against the Russian invasion. But when Zelensky criticizes Scarborough's boy Biden, well, that's where Joe drew the line.
And so it was that on Wednesday's Morning Joe, Scarborough zinged Zelensky, saying it was "a bit rich" of Zelensky to complain about NATO's delay in admitting Ukraine. Zelensky has called the delay "absurd" and a sign of "weakness."
Scarborough in effect called Zelensky an ingrate in light of all the aid that Biden has funneled Ukraine's way. The Morning Joe host prefaced his attack on Zelensky with praise, calling him heroic and Churchillian. But Scarborough then proceeded to condescendingly suggest to Zelensky that he "read a little bit of history," about how Churchill "worked" FDR.
Scarborough fashions himself a great fan of Churchill. Last year, we caught a melodramatic Scarborough saying this:
"In the dark days of American democracy, four, five years ago, sometimes at night, with the lights off, I would put Churchill's speeches on, and just close my eyes and listen."
Apparently, for Joe Scarborough, the election of Donald Trump constituted "dark days" that were the emotional equivalent of the Nazi attack on England!
Joe Scarborough criticizing Ukrainian President Zelensky was sponsored in part by Allstate and Pfizer, maker of Nexium.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC's Morning Joe
7/12/23
6:10 am EDTWILLIE GEIST: Let's go to the summit, in Vilnius, NBC News White House correspondent, Monica Alba is there for us. Monica, good morning. So we know President Biden will meet with President Zelenskyy in a bilateral meeting coming up in just a couple of hours from now.
And the subject of the conversation will be, perhaps, President Zelenskyy's frustration that Ukraine has not been admitted into NATO. President Biden, Jake Sullivan, who we'll talk to later, the national security adviser, who say that day is coming, but frankly, the member states of NATO don't want to be dragged into this war with Russia, militarily.
MONICA ALBA: Exactly, Willie. And that day isn't coming soon enough for President Zelenskyy. And I think you can expect him to continue to make his case for why Ukraine should maybe be continually fast-tracked as a member nation for NATO, even though the U.S. and other Western countries have said very plainly that the time is not right because conditions haven't been met yet from a security reform perspective and a from a democratic reform perspective.
But you saw yesterday before he got here, President Zelenskyy called this unprecedented. He said this kind of uncertainty says something about the weakness of this position. And ultimately, the U.S. officials and the White House this morning are responding by saying we agree this is unprecedented in terms of just how much support we're stepping up and continuing to give to Ukraine. So that will be the message today.
. . .
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, I've gotta, I've gotta say, it's always rich when this leader that we've supported, Zelenskyy, who I, I, I said on the show many times is a hero. And he's acted in extraordinarily heroic ways from the very beginning, he's a great example, compared him to Churchill, said at times he and his family were in greater danger than Churchill and his family were at the height of the Battle of Britain, 1940 and '41.
But when he starts attacking allies, and when he starts talking about, quote, weakness, I must say it's a little rich. And perhaps he could read a little bit of history from Winston Churchill and the way he worked FDR.
I only say that because we've, we've, we've given Ukraine over $40 billion, we've given them twice as much as, I believe, Europe combined. We've given them extraordinary amounts of munitions, we'v egiven them extraordinary amounts of anti-aircraft weapons, tanks, jets. We're supporting it all, and, and we do it gladly because we're not just doing it for the Ukrainians. We're doing it to defend freedom in Europe and tp push back against an illegal and immoral invasion.
We get all of that. But Sam Stein -- and I suppose perhaps we all would be saying what President Zelenskyy is saying if he [sic, we] were in his position. But, but I will say, from Joe Biden's point of view and the point of view of many Americans, we have a president and a congress that have been -- that have been walking on a razor's edge for a year-and-a-half between balancing freedom and possibly starting World War III with a country that has more nuclear weapons than any other countryon the planet. Sometimes, we can't just put our heads down, and charge ahead like a bull in a china shop.
