Joe Scarborough, who apparently thinks he's the working man's hero of Nantucket, came out in defense of January 6 rioters and alleged fake electors on Wednesday morning. This came because special counsel Jack Smith has sent a letter to Trump informing him that he is a target of the January 6th investigation. In addition, Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel (D) has charged 16 fake Trump 2020 electors with multiple felonies.
All these poor Trump partisans have been swindled, he said: "the working-class Americans, middle-class Americans, that went to Washington on the January the 6th because their president told them that the election was stolen. He was lying, of course. And he knew that he was lying. But he did it anyway, because he wanted to stay in power at all costs."
Scarborough lamented "All those people, now in jail. And the question is, are we a land that allows billionaires, that fly around on 757 jets, that have golf courses all over the world. Are we going to allow them to actually push other people to do, do the most unspeakable acts to cops, brutalize cops, try to overturn the federal government, trash the United States Capitol, the people's House, the epicenter of freedom across the globe, and let him go about their merry way?"
Welcoming the news of Trump being made a target of the January 6th investigation, Scarborough declared that "no man is above the law," and "it is about time that Donald Trump is held account for what he did on January the 6th." This is the same guy who mocks any Republican questioning of the Biden family business. No one should be held to account in connection with the family's influence-peddling operation.
Scarborough hammered twice on how the poor Trump fans were in jail as Trump wandered the world in his 757. Why the fixation with the jet? When Joe Scarborough summers on Nantucket, how does he travel there? Does the poor guy have to cram his 6'4" frame into a seat on one of Cape Air's small propeller planes? Or—heaven forfend—is Joe subjected to the indignity of rubbing shoulders with hoi polloi on the ferry?
Note: The mention of "ancient artifacts" at the end of the clip was a reference to news that antiquities that Israel loaned to the United States during the Trump administration have not yet been returned, and have been located at Mar-a-Lago.
Joe Scarborough's weird defense of poor January 6 rioters was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual, Abbvie, maker of Skyrizi, Dove, and GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the meningitis B vaccine.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/19/23
6:05 am EDTJONATHAN LEMIRE: In the states, these false electors who tried to, to undo the will of the people. To put forth their candidate. Their candidate who lost. And yet tried to cheat the system to keep him in office.
This is Michigan. There are plenty of other states where one wonders if charges could come, too. Some of these are former Republican state officials, others. just everyday citizens. But everyday citizens who bought the lie and pushed the lie --
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: -- Yes
LEMIR: -- and now will face consequences.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And, and, and again, you look at other states, as Jonathan said, Donald Trump was desperate to get people in other states to put themselves up to commit perjury. To claim they were actual electors when they were not.
And in so doing, Donald Trump is putting even more people in legal jeopardy. Again, you think about all the people, right now, the working-class Americans, middle-class Americans, that went to Washington on the January the 6th because their president told them that the election was stolen. He was lying, of course. And he knew that he was lying. But he did it anyway, because he wanted to stay in power at all costs.
All those people, now in jail. And the question is, are we a land that allows billionaires, that fly around on 757 jets, that have golf courses all over the world. Are we going to allow them to actually push other people to do, do the most unspeakable acts to cops, brutalize cops, try to overturn the federal government, trash the United States Capitol, the people's House, the epicenter of freedom across the globe, and let him go about their merry way?
No man's above the law!
MIKA: No.
SCARBOROUGH: No man -- and it is about time that Donald Trump is held account for what he did on January the 6th
. . .
And I just want to underline again, working-class Americans, middle-class Americans --
MIKA: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: -- who follow Donald Trump. They're sitting in jail now with their lives. They're lives --
MIKA: Shattered.
SCARBOROUGH: Pretty shattered because of Donald Trump.
MIKA: Destroyed.
SCARBOROUGH: Because of Donald Trump. And he's still wandering around the world in his 757.
MIKA: With ancient artifacts.
SCARBOROUGH: Stealing ancient artifacts.
