When it came to catastrophizing Donald Trump, it was a game of Can You Top This on today's Morning Joe.
The opening bid came from The New Yorker's Susan Glasser:
"I'm just really concerned that we're hurdling towards a kind of unprecedented . . . crisis from Donald Trump."
A distraught Joe Scarborough responded:
"Yikes. Thank you so much for that, Susan. We are now depressed for the rest of 2023 and all of 2024. We fear into 2025."
But Scarborough upped the ante, accusing Trump of being responsible for the death of a 75-year-old man in Utah whom the FBI shot to death after he had made explicit assassination threats and reportedly pointed a gun at agents.
Self-styled simple country lawyer Scarborough broke out the "but for" rule: that but for Trump's allegations of a deep state, stolen elections, etc., that man wouldn't be dead.
Concluded Scarborough:
"This man paid for it with his life! He bought into the lies. He bought into the conspiracy theory. And now, because of Donald Trump, you know, you could make the argument, he's dead! You can make the argument that he is dead because of Donald Trump."
So what's next, Joe? If under your but for rule, Trump is responsible for the man's death, should Jack Smith issue a new superseding indictment, charging Trump with homicide?
Smith's successful prosecution of Trump on such a charge would certainly be complicated by the fact that, as Scarborough was obliged to acknowledge, it was Trump's own Truth Social that alerted the FBI to a serious threat that the man had made.
But hey, Smith just needs to make Scarborough a member of the prosecution team. The world's greatest simple country lawyer will surely be able to convince a jury of Trump's guilt!
Joe Scarborough accusing Donald Trump of being responsible for the death of a man who was shot to death by the FBI after making assassination threats and reportedly pointing his gun at agents. was sponsored in part by GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the meningitis B vaccine, Liberty Mutual, Amazon, Sleep Number, Chevrolet, and Citi.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
8/11/23
6:09 am EDTJONATHAN LEMIRE: Any 50/50 ball in this case is going to Trump from Judge Cannon. She's been very deferential to his team's arguments. And that does seem why that Jack Smith is trying to move forward on a tight case here on the election interference.
And Susan Glasser, it's not just that it's January 2nd, the day after New Year's, which Trump was fixated on in his Truth Social post, but that's less than two weeks out from the Iowa caucus. That Iowa is January 15th, so Donald Trump --
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Have they set that already, January 15th?
LEMIRE: January 15th --
SCARBOROUGH: Okay.
LEMIRE: The Republican date for the Iowa caucus. So that's less than two weeks out. So this is what, this is just the first example of how often that his, Donald Trump's legal issues, are going to overshadow his efforts to come back to the White House.
SUSAN GLASSER: Well, that's right. I mean, there's a collision course that's happening. There's no question about it. Between the 2024 primaries and, you know, Donald Trump's role in courtroom dates in 2024.
My, my concern for a while has been, though, that, you know, millions of Republican voters will have ended up voting before these charges end up being resolved. I mean, January 2nd is an opening bid from the prosecutors. Let's stipulate to the idea that the judge wants it to move forward quickly and that it slips not too much.
Well, that means you're going to have this extraordinary split-screen spectacle of Donald Trump on trial in a criminal courtroom every day. You have to show up for that, unlike a civil case. Right in the middle of the campaigning.
So he will be, basically, fusing his campaign message is that he's a victim in this courtroom. And we've already seen, I think, a preview of the kind of vituperative attacks that he's going to launch as part of both his legal defense and his political defense.
So, I'm just really concerned that we're hurdling towards a kind of unprecedented, once again, crisis, you know, from Donald Trump.
You know, his incredible self-absorption is leading us right back into a national drama in which we're not going to be able to get this guy out of our heads.
2024 is going to be, once again, the personal drama of Donald Trump inflicted on all of us, really.
SCARBOROUGH: Uh, yikes. Thank you so much for that, Susan. We are now depressed for the rest of 2023 and all of 2024. And we fear into 2025.
We're learning more about the shooting death of a man who posted online threats to assassinate President Biden and several other Democratic officials.The FBI says Craig D. Robertson pointed his gun at agents early Wednesday morning when they tried to serve warrants in his home in Provo, Utah. Agents shot and killed him after he didn't respond to their commands.
Earlier this week, Robertson posted that he was preparing his camouflage and sniper rifle for President Biden's trip to Utah. The FBI says they've been monitoring the 75-year-old's online activities online for months.
A senior FBI official confirmed to NBC News that Donald Trump's own social media site, Truth Social -- I guess they're part of the deep state now, alerted the FBI to Robertson's online activity back in March. It was actually the responsible thing to do.
The warning was prompted by an extremely graphic threat made against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. First of all, thanks, again, to the people at Truth Social. It said, this is a real threat to the President of the United States.
But as far as Trump goes, it's, it's, it's hard to come up with an argument -- you know, Dave, they'll tell you, when you're in law school, and you're trying to figure out who is liable, there's "the but for test."
But for Jonathan Lemire driving, you know, driving wildly down a street after the Red Sox loss, take him from the scene, but for Jonathan, there wouldn't have been that crash at the intersection, where doors opened up and it was kegs, kegs rolled all across. It was a tough childhood that you had in Boston.
But in this case, if you do that test, it's hard to imagine this man being dead, but for the --and, and, and pointing rifles at the FBI, and, and, and threatening to assassinate Joe Biden for stealing the election.
It's hard to imagine this ever happening but for Donald Trump's continued lies. Again, this guy keeps lying.And it's his most intense followers who pay for it. Some pay for it with their Social Security checks that they send to scam drives to help for his legal defense. Others pay for it by sending, spending years in jail because they actually listened to him leading up to January 6th.
And this man paid for it with his life! He bought into the lies. He bought into the conspiracy theory. And now, because of Donald Trump, you know, you could make the argument, he's dead! You can make the argument that he is dead because of Donald Trump.
AL SHARPTON: No, you -- and you wouldn't be too far removed from exactly that.
