Joe Scarborough: self-hating Southerner?
Scarborough -- originating from the "cracker counties" of the Florida panhandle -- sometimes likes to stress his Southern upbringing, and describe himself as a "simple country lawyer" who attended two southern state universities.
But the Morning Joe host has developed an ugly habit of mocking southern Republicans by putting on their supposed accents. We've caught Scarborough doing that twice in the case of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, who at least sports an accent. Check out this instance of Scarborough fantasizing Comer saying [at 0:25], of his supposed lack of evidence against Joe Biden regarding Hunter's influence peddling:
"We ain't got nuthin' but a squirrel fryer and a hound dog."
Today, Scarborough tried to ridicule Speaker of the House Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Calling him "Jesus's man in Congress," Scarborough, putting on a heavy southern accent, imagined Johnson saying [at 1:47]:
"All you got to do is look at the Bible. That's what I do."
Regional accents are great. America would lose a lot if everyone spoke blandly like a network news reader. But the simple fact is that Mike Johnson doesn't have a detectable Southern accent, or a lagniappe of a Cajun twang.
Have a look and listen to this clip of Johnson at a recent news availability. Not a hint of a below-the-Mason-Dixon-line drawl. By coincidence, last week I was in Johnson's home town of Shreveport, Louisiana. Believe me, he doesn't sound anything like the typical native. He could represent Nebraska.
The irony is that Scarborough's spiel today, quoting a New York Times column by Never Trumper David French, was about how "MAGA men" like Rudy Giuliani and Johnson are obliged to "lie." But not only does Scarborough—the man who summers on Nantucket—engage in some nasty condescension to Southerners, he was the one manufactured Johnson's supposed accent.
Scarborough, who occasionally touts his Baptist background, really hates Johnson's religious talk and then relates it to those MAGA men: "this guy that uses Jesus as a political shield, and claims that he may be the Aaron or the Moses. What does he do? He embraces the Big Lie."
For her part, Mika Brzezinski gloated at the prospect that Rudy will not have "a penny left to his name" when the two plaintiffs in the defamation case are "done with him."
As we have noted, Scarborough has attacked Trump for speaking of illegal immigrants "poisoning the blood" of America. But breaking out an ugly medical metaphor of his own today, Scarborough described MAGA Republicans as having been "infected" by Trump.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
12/19/23
6:00 am ETNEWSMAX HOST ROB SCHMITT: Your initial allegations, you still believe them to be true?
RUDY GIULIANI: Yeah, well, of course, they'll sue me again for it when I say that. But, yeah, I do! But they want me to lie. They basically, they are suing me in order to lie to them. I'm sorry. I can't do it.
And the most important thing is, it doesn't have to be absolutely true. It has to be supportable. They have to prove that I was deliberately lying, which I wasn't.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, what, what's so fascinating about what he just did there.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, that was good stuff. Good stuff.
SCARBOROUGH: It's as if he read David French's column yesterday in the New York Times talking about MAGA Man.
MIKA: Mm-hmm.
SCARBOROUGH: And what it takes to be a MAGA Man. And he mentioned Rudy Giuliani as the prime example, but listed Mark Meadows, Kari Lake, listed a number of other people who may have all done different things in the past, may have all had different backgrounds, different political ideologies. But said the key was once they became infected by Trump, there were two things you had to do.
And again, David French wrote this before Rudy went on and lied again last night. He said, number one, you have to lie. The key is, if you're going to follow Donald Trump, if you're going to be a part of Donald Trump's team, you've got to be a liar.
. . .
What Rudy Giuliani just did there was, first, as David French said, you gotta lie. You've got to, you've got to twist reality. In this case, it was the biggest lie of all.
Oh my gosh, I forgot, Jesus's man in Congress. The guy says [puts on Southern accent], "All you need to do is look at the Bible, and that's what I do." The Speaker of the House!
What did he have to do to get to power? Liz Cheney told us. But Liz didn't really have to tell us because we already knew. He embraced—this guy that uses Jesus as a political shield, and claims that he may be the Aaron or the Moses. What does he do? He embraces the Big Lie.
And then when he's called on it, remember that first press conference? The anger, the rage, people shouting down the press for even bringing up the fact that this Speaker, this guy who claims Jesus as like, as this political badge of honor. The biggest liar of all! Embracing the biggest lie of all in politics.
. . .
MIKA: But they act utterly delusional. Because the lies that they stick by are literally, so obviously lies, that it's hard to watch. It's hard not to laugh out loud.
But in this case, you know, it's defamation. And just like E. Jean Carroll --
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
MIKA: -- learned she can do to Donald Trump, what the two women who Rudy Giuliani defamed are learning, is that they're going to have to work harder to shut him up.
SCARBOROUGH: Go back.
MIKA: To stop his lying.
SCARBOROUGH: Keep after it.
MIKA: Go back to court. Take him back to court. And he will not have a penny left to his name. And he will be shut up. And he will not be able to say a word, ultimately, when they're done with him.
