Morning Joe Blasts GOP's 'Baseless' LA Claims — Then Floats Their Own Midterm Conspiracy

Can the Morning Joe crew possibly be this oblivious to its hypocrisy?

The panel spent Tuesday morning blasting Republicans for raising questions about suspicious vote counting in the Los Angeles mayoral primary — then immediately launched its own sweeping conspiracy theory about how Republicans plan to steal the 2026 midterms.

Mika Brzezinski led the way, claiming President Trump was "amplifying baseless claims of election fraud in California" after reality star Spencer Pratt, whom Trump endorsed, went from an eight-point election night lead for second place to finishing third—and thus out of the runoff—once mail-in ballots were counted. Trump had posted: "Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the LA runoffs after the big lead he had. Rigged elections."

Mika retorted: "Here we go again."

She then began spinning the anti-GOP conspiracy theory on the 2026 midterm elections:

"I think the bigger picture is, there seems to be some sort of preparation going on here. That's just my analysis. But it doesn't feel good looking ahead to the midterms, the way these Republicans are behaving."

Willie Geist concurred: "You're not alone in that thought, by the way, Mika."

Jonathan Lemire eagerly joined in, warning that Republicans are "laying the groundwork" for two possible plays: claiming irregularities and interfering with the vote, or, "They could say, 'Well, the voting result is illegitimate, and we're not gonna honor it,' and therefore not give the Democrats, let's say, the House of Representatives."

Richard Haass took the paranoia even further, describing a "two-part strategy" and "multi-phase, multi-prong strategy" that included redistricting, voter repression, ICE troops at polls in Democratic districts, seizing voting machines and ballot boxes, and ultimately mounting "the most concerted assault" on a "free and fair election this November" during America's 250th anniversary year.

Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei chimed in with this gem: "Every time you call into question whether or not our elections are valid, you weaken the soul of the country." VandeHei was oblivious to the fact that his own panel was doing exactly what he claims weakens a country's soul: preemptively calling into question the validity of this November's elections by painting Republicans as conspirators already plotting to overturn results.

The hypocrisy is staggering. This is the same crew that spent years defending or ignoring Democratic election challenges — from Stacey Abrams' endless "Jim Crow" claims in Georgia to Hillary Clinton's refusal to accept 2016 and the Russia-collusion narrative. Yet when Republicans note strange swings in a blue-city primary, it's suddenly a dire threat to democracy and "preparing the ground" for assaulting the republic.

Morning Joe’s hypocrisy meter is permanently pegged.

Note: Although Mika rarely hesitates to make her points, she typically does so without being snide or nasty. But with Joe Scarborough away today, Mika borrowed one of her husband's disagreeable habits: condescendingly talking down to conservatives. Thus, describing California's ballot-counting process, she said: "I'll speak slowly for those who are confused," and proceeded to do so.

Here's the transcript.

MS NOW
Morning Joe
6/9/26
6:06 am EDT

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: President Trump amplifying baseless claims of election fraud in California. This continues as vote counts show his endorsed candidate, Spencer Pratt, has been defeated in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Trump took to social media yesterday, writing in part, quote, "Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the LA runoffs after the big lead he had. Rigged elections." Here we go again. 

. . . 

That's how California counts its ballots every year. I'll speak slowly for those who are confused. 

. . . 

But I think the bigger picture is, there seems to be some sort of preparation going on here. That's just my analysis. But it doesn't feel good looking ahead to the midterms, the way these Republicans are behaving.

WILLIE GEIST: You're not alone in that thought, by the way, Mika. 

. . . 

JIM VANDEHEI: Yeah, I mean, it really sucks for democracy. This is the stuff you see happen in a broken country, in a Third World country, where they've not been able to govern effectively. Every time you call into question whether or not our elections are valid, you weaken the soul of the country.

. . . 

JONATHAN LEMIRE: What they're doing is laying the groundwork. 

MIKA: Yeah, what's really going on?

LEMIRE: Two different plays they could take while claiming conspiracies as we look towards November's midterms. They could claim irregularities, they can claim conspiracies and actively take measures to interfere with the vote. 

Or, they could say, "Well, the voting result is illegitimate and we're not gonna honor it" and therefore not give the Democrats, let's say, the House of Representatives.

RICHARD HAASS: Absolutely. So what we're seeing now is a two-part strategy. One is before people cast their votes, one is after. 

The before, things like redistricting is gonna be a real issue. Voter repression, having ICE or other troops around and so forth, making it really hard to reach polling stations in largely Democratic districts. That's the pre-vote process. 

Then you have after the votes, how do you ensure the integrity of the process? Don't be surprised in November if we see voting machines and ballot boxes seized, and so forth, in order to prevent fraud, but what we're gonna find is local officials may find themselves no longer in control of mail in ballots. And then, as you're right, this could end up in the House or whatever. So what we're seeing is a multi-phase, multi-prong strategy. 

Here we are. This is the two hundred fiftieth year of this country. Yeah, well, here we are. We're meant to be honoring, celebrating the Declaration, and we probably right now are facing, in some ways, the most concerted assault, potentially. Hopefully won't happen, but these rumblings, this is really worrisome stuff. This is preparing the ground, as you say, for a serious pushback against, I think, a free and fair election this November. So people ought to take this seriously.