MSNBC's Morning Joe kicked off the week on Monday by running a clip of Donald Trump suggesting Biden should take a cognitive test, like the one he passed with his own former White House doctor Ronny Jackson, but he said Ronny "Johnson."
This led to several unfunny gibes, with Joe Scarborough calling John Heilemann "John Heinz" and then Heilemann calling Joe "Jim" and "Chuck" (Chuck Scarborough was an NBC anchor in New York city.)
SCARBOROUGH: I'm not good at this politics thing.
MIKA: Ugh [makes a face, either at Joe's antics, or Trump's].
SCARBOROUGH: But I'm guessing that if you're going to make fun of your opponent for being cognitively disconnected from, from facts and figures, it's probably good for you to not be disconnect cognitively from facts and figures as Donald Trump was this weekend.
JOHN HEILEMANN: Well, Jim, it's good to see you this morning here on Monday. [Mika chuckles, Scarborough sardonically winks.] Or is it Chuck? Chuck Scarborough? Jim Scarborough?
The funny part came came when Joe Scarborough attacked Trump's "right-wing stooges" for suggesting Biden's mentally failing. As if Scarborough isn't a stooge for Biden, angrily arguing Biden's the sharpest he's ever been?
SCARBOROUGH: The Trump campaign has -- understands they have a serious problem with Donald Trump on facts, on issues, on you name it. Because they have to keep engaging in cheap fakes to try to make Joe Biden look bad.
And you go to this weekend; and they've done it over the past several weeks. They've got the New York Post doing it, the RNC's doing it, all of these right-wing stooges on X are doing it. And [laughs] if you have to make [pauses] stuff [instead of "shit" which he recently said] up, if you've gotta make stuff up, obviously, you don't feel like you have a strong enough campaign to win outright.
MIKA: No. I mean, they're grasping in many different ways, but I think that's just Trump being Trump, getting names wrong and getting information wrong. And I don't think he cares
At the end of the segment, Scarborough said he feared having a president like Trump with storm clouds of "World War II" on the horizon. That was, of course, an allusion to Trump mistakenly warning, recently, about the danger of Biden leading us into World War II rather than III.
But Mika didn't get the joke, and just took the line at face value, flatly agreeing, "yeah, absolutely." Maybe she thought it was Joe's bumble, and didn't want to draw attention to it.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
6/17/24
6:00 am EDTDONALD TRUMP: Joe Biden has no plan. He's got absolutely no plan. He doesn't even know what the word inflation means. I don't think if you gave him a quiz. I think he should take a cognitive test like I did. I took a cognitive test, and I aced it. Doc Ronnie. Doc Ronnie Johnson. Does everybody know Doc Ronnie Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: No, actually, they don't know him. They don't know Ronnie Johnson.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: They don't know Ronnie Johnson. Who's Ronnie Johnson?
MIKA: There's nothing like mocking your opponent's mental acuity --
SCARBOROUGH: There's a Randy Johnson. He was a pitcher --
MIKA: And messing up the name of the doctor who actually administered your own cognitive test who is sitting in the audience.
SCARBOROUGH: Person, man, woman, horse, Ronnie Johnson.
MIKA: The name of Trump's former White House physician turned U.S. Congressman is Ronnie Jackson.
SCARBOROUGH: Wait, what?
MIKA: Not Johnson.
SCARBOROUGH: What?
MIKA: Good morning. And welcome to Morning Joe.
SCARBOROUGH: That's kind of confusing.
MIKA: It's Monday, June 17th. So what else is new, right?
With us, we have NBC News national affairs analyst and a partner and chief political columnist at Puck, John Heilemann.
SCARBOROUGH: John Heinz: personal, close friend of mine.
MIKA: Pulitzer Prize columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post, and MSNBC political analyst Eugene Robinson. Chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, Peter Baker. And the co-host of MSNBC's The Weekend, also doing Way Too Early, also co-host of Morning Mika, Symone Sanders-Townsend. Thanks for all of you being in early on Monday morning. So -- [Scarborough cuts her off]
SCARBOROUGH: So John, John, John, Heilemann.
MIKA: Oh. Right.
SCARBOROUGH: I figure. I'm not good at this politics thing,
MIKA: Ugh [pulls a face].
SCARBOROUGH: But I'm guessing that if you're going to make fun of your opponent for being cognitively disconnected from, from facts and figures, it's probably good for you to not be disconnect cognitively from facts and figures as Donald Trump was this weekend.
JOHN HEILEMANN: Well, Jim, it's good to see you this morning here on Monday. [Mika chuckles, Scarborough sardonically winks.] Or is it Chuck? Chuck Scarborough? Jim Scarborough?
SCARBOROUGH: Joe.
HEILEMANN: Joe Scarborough.
MIKA: Yeah.
HEILEMANN: I mean, glass houses, man, you don't want to be throwing stones at --
MIKA: Yeah.
HEILEMANN: People who live in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones. That's all I'll say about that.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, you know, and the thing is, too, it's getting, it's getting really more obvious, Mika, that they have, the Trump campaign has, understands they have a serious problem with Donald Trump on facts, on issues, on you name it. Because they have to keep engaging in cheap fakes to try to make Joe Biden look bad.
And you go to this weekend; and they've done it over the past several weeks. They've got the New York Post doing it, the RNC's doing it, all of these right-wing stooges on X are doing it. And [laughs] if you have to make [pauses] stuff [instead of "shit" which he recently said] up, if you've gotta make stuff up, obviously, you don't feel like you have a strong enough campaign to win outright.
MIKA: No. I mean, they're grasping in many different ways, but I think that's just Trump being Trump, getting names wrong and getting information wrong. And I don't think he cares. Our top story -- [Mika grimaces as Scarborough again cuts her off.]
SCARBOROUGH: Well, you know, I fear having a president like that, I really do. With storm clouds of World War II on the horizon.
MIKA: Yeah. Oh, for sure. Absolutely.
