Pro Political Tip For Mika Brzezinski: When praising Joe Biden, DO NOT, under any circumstances, talk about his "touch."
And yet, on today's Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski violated that rule. Expressing her sadness at Biden leaving the race, Mika thrice extolled Biden's "touch."
Mika, Mika, Mika! You say "touch," and for millions of Americans it brings to mind unsettling images. Biden's "touch" with the daughter of Dem Sen. Chris Coons, seen here, is just one of many such examples.
MIKA: He had authenticity and touch. Whether you saw it or not, but everything about him, even sometimes the stutter and the bumbling was part of the touch, part of the sort of empathic, very loving, very clear, clear-eyed touch that he had, that allowed him and enabled him to be an effective president.
A bit earlier, trying to explain why Biden dug in his heels before eventually relenting and quitting the race, Joe Scarborough spoke of the Democratic establishment having repeatedly "s---" on Biden. Scarborough suggested that Biden and his family and top advisers wanted to prove that, like Rocky, there was one more fight in him.
In that same paean to Biden, Mika made two absurd accusations against the Republicans. First, she claimed that Republicans had already begun a "hate campaign" against Kamala Harris. Mika, it's not a "hate campaign" -- it's a campaign. Exposing Kamala's word salads and "deep thoughts" on things like "the passage of time" is an entirely valid venture into informing Americans about her.
Mika also accused Republicans of deliberately mispronouncing Harris' first name as Ka-MA-la. There are countless examples of politicians of all stripes making the same mistake, including—yup!—Biden himself [see 48 seconds in]!
Finally, Mika warned her fellow Dems that Trump would be hard to beat, telling them not to make the same mistake they made in 2016, when they laughed at Trump's chances. Was that a shot at Mika's fellow MSNBC host, Joy Reid, who famously laughed at Ann Coulter when, in 2015 on Bill Maher's show, Ann said that Trump was the Republican with the best chance of winning the general election?
Notes
- Scarborough, egomaniac that he is, was so eager to bloviate on Biden's departure that he rudely cut off Willie Geist, who had opened the show by describing the Dem rules for nominating Biden's replacement. Scarborough sarcastically asked executive producer Alex Corson for two more hours on Dem logistics.
- Scarborough also went out of his way to credit former Morning Joe regular Mark Halperin for breaking the news on Friday that Biden would quit on Sunday. Video here. Halperin hosts a once-or-twice-daily 2Way Zoom/YouTube, bringing on top strategists and pollsters from all sides, but also allowing time for non-professionals to express opinions and ask questions.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/22/24
6:02 am EDTWILLIE GEIST: Since Biden left the race, his delegates are free to support whoever they choose. The president does not have to release his delegates. So, let's pause there, Joe.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
GEIST: The delegates are part of this.
SCARBOROUGH: I think, I think it was good at the top of the show. I think we should read all the subsections of the Democratic National Committee's charter, and Alex, could we go a couple more hours on that? Because I don't think anybody wants reactions to anybody here.
GEIST: I saw where that was headed. Executive decision, you cut it off.
SCARBOROUGH: Thank you, thank you.
. . .
JOE SCARBOROUGH: By the way, just to be really clear here. And Jonathan, I'll let you finish up on this. To be really clear, Ricchetti and Donilon loved Biden. They heard Biden counted out time and time and time again. The family heard the Democratic establishment just absolutely [pauses] shit on Joe Biden time and time and time again.
And what did he do? He always exceeded expectations. He became President of the United States, as we all remember in 2020, with the entire Democratic establishment mocking him, saying he wasn't good enough, he wasn't up to it. So, as a background, you can understand why Ricchetti and Donilon said, hey, let's do it again, Rocky. Come on, one more fight, you can do it.
. . .MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, obviously, on many levels, I'm really sad. Joe Biden is a patriot. I love him, I love his family, and I love what he's done for the country.
He had authenticity and touch. Whether you saw it or not, but everything about him, even sometimes the stutter and the bumbling was part of the touch, part of the sort of empathic, very loving, very clear, clear-eyed touch that he had, that allowed him and enabled him to be an effective president.
But all that turned against him after the debate for all the reasons that we discussed. And he would say, no time to complain about it. Let's move on. It's go time. And Democrats really have a moment of momentum here, and my hope is that they grab it and run with it. Get unified. Get organized. Get coordinated. No more infighting.
Donald Trump is not easy to beat. He is not easy to beat, and anyone who thinks he is is back at 2016 when they're laughing at the concept. And you can see how quickly they tried to steal the unity narrative. And I've heard from inside Republican circles and right-wing media that the hate campaign against Kamala Harris has begun.
You'll notice they purposefully pronounce her name wrong. They say Ka-MA-la. They do it all the time. It is on purpose. But the talk is to start that hate campaign and get it going and start it churning.
