As we've documented over the years, Joe Scarborough has a bad habit of riding a favorite word or phrase [one that invariably insults a Republican] into the ground.
Scarborough's all-time favorite is, of course, "fascist," which he employs at every opportunity to denounce Donald Trump. Here's just one example, where the f-word was used 19 times in one segment!
Scarborough mounted his hobby horse yet again on today's Morning Joe. This time, it was to trumpet an unusually nasty turn of phrase that a Democrat leader deployed against congressional Republicans.
Today's Morning Joe opened with a clip of Democrat House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries slurring congressional Republicans and their hearings as a "malignant clown show." He paused his phrasing like he was playing Barack Obama:
JEFFRIES: The Republican hearings that have unfolded over the last few days, and throughout this entire Congress, are a malignant clown show that are not designed to address issues that impact the health, the safety and the economic well-being of the American people. But instead, peddle outlandish and out-of-control conspiracy theories.
"So true," said Scarborough, repeating the phrase multiple times during the show's opening segment. Mika Brzezinski echoed as usual: "Good one!" Joe pretended it was the name of a punk band in the Nineties, and Willie Geist cited the rap group Insane Clown Posse.
Even the normally decorous Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post got into the act, saying that the sale of the Washington Commanders NFL team from the widely-disliked Dan Snyder to a new owners group signalled that "our own malignant clown show is over."
MSNBC is so firmly centered on Democrat messaging that they can't imagine how badly they would have freaked out if a Republican leader had said the House January 6 Committee was a "malignant clown show." Back then, they called those hearings "an incredible service to democracy," and lamented that they were somehow being under-reported by some media outlets!
Note: Mika's mention in the clip of Trump's "ominous comments that seem to be calling for a January 6th-style response to his legal issues," was a reference to an exchange Trump had with Simon Conway. When the radio host asked Trump if he is concerned that his supporters would "go out of their right mind" if Jack Smith jailed him, Trump responded:
"I think it's a very dangerous thing to even talk about, because we do have a tremendously passionate group of voters, much more passion than they had in 2020 and much more passion than they had in 2016. I think it would be very dangerous."
Joe Scarborough's multiple mentions of Dem leader Hakeem Jeffries' descripton of Republicans as a "malignant clown show" was sponsored in part by GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the meningitis B vaccine, Abbvie, maker of Skyrizi, Servpro, Dish, Priceline, and Amazon.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/21/23
6:00 am EDTHAKEEM JEFFRIES: The Republican hearings that have unfolded over the last few days, and throughout this entire Congress, are a malignant clown show that are not designed to address issues that impact the health, the safety and the economic well-being of the American people. But instead, peddle outlandish and out-of-control conspiracy theories.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know it's so true. That's House leader Hakeem Jeffries not holding back. Willie, I thought the reference to my favorite punk ska-band, insane. What was it? What was it?
WILLIE GEIST: Malignant clown show.
SCARBOROUGH: Malignant clown show.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: A good one!
SCARBOROUGH: Best 1990s punk ska-band out there.
MIKA: Okay [wanting to move along.]
GEIST: A close cousin, Joe, to the Insane Clown Posse, of course, out of Detroit.
SCARBOROUGH: That's it, yes. But that ain't a malignant clown show.
MIKA: Well, he makes a good point . . . And speaking of the former president, we'll play for you his ominous comments that seem to be calling for a January 6th-style response to his legal issues.
SCARBOROUGH: See, you see, here's the problem. Willie --
MIKA: There are a lot of problems there!
SCARBOROUGH: There are a lot of problems, but he needs to read the room. This does not help him with Jack Smith. I don't know. Maybe this helped him with a contract dispute in New Jersey, when he'd throw words around like that.
MIKA: Threatening stuff.
SCARBOROUGH: Doesn't help with Jack Smith. Does it?
GEIST: No. I had the same thought when I heard that last night, which is, you're about, likely, about to be indicted for, part of the indictment, for inciting a riot. It would be wild, everything else getting people to go to the Capitol. And now you're sort [chuckles] of implying that your supporters might do that again, if the Justice Department does, in fact, indict you. Not the best legal strategy, though. I don't even know which lawyers he has around him anymore, if they can mention that to him. But it doesn't appear to be breaking through any legal advice he may be getting. He's just going to keep being him.
MIKA: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: It's a malignant clown show.
MIKA: Hard thing to be his laywer. With us, we have former White House director of communications, of President Obama. Jennifer Palmieri. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and associate editor of the Washington Post and MSNBC political analyst Eugene Robinson, and White House editor for Politico, Sam Stein, filling in for the very, very lazy Jonathan Lemire.
GEIST: Wow.
SCARBOROUGH: Seriously. How many days is that guy going to take off?
MIKA: Right?
SAM STEIN: It's your words. Your words.
MIKA: Yeah. So lazy.
SCARBOROUGH: This might be the second --
MIKA: Second day in five years he's taken off? I don't know.
SCARBOROUGH: Now, look. We have Sam. And what do we call that? A malignant clown show.
MIKA: Oh, no! Stop!
. . .
EUGENE ROBINSON: Let me, I'm shocked that we haven't yet mentioned, we're 12 minutes into the show, we haven't mentioned the one real, big story in Washington today. Which is, the NFL owners approved the sale of the Washington football team. The Commanders, from Dan Snyder to Josh Harris.
The long national nightmare is over. And -- you know, everything is bright and sunny again.
SCARBOROUGH: Yes!
ROBINSON: So, our own malignant clown show is over.
