In an exchange on June 23, MSNBC Morning Joe Hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough went on a rapid fire, rambling analogy rant, comparing President Trump to a developing dictator, the leader of North Korea, and the bumbling, buffoonish Nazis of a 60s TV sitcom.
“You can do some work reading history,” Brzezinski said, “and reading books about how dictatorships happen, the development of very negative forces taking over. And what you are seeing is either this, happening right now, or someone who’s not well. There’s very few options.”
“I think it’s actually more like Hogan’s Heroes, you know, than anything else” Scarborough interjected, referring to the 60s comedy about clever Allied prisoners repeatedly outsmarting their bumbling Nazi guards. “Oh, we have a Sergeant Schultz, and we have a [Colonel] Klink.”
Brzezinski also brought up an interview she had with Pulitzer Prize-winner Jon Meachem the day before, where she set him up to compare Trump to Kim Jong Un. “He stretched as best he could to Nixon, and then we had to move outside the United States of America to find a parallel, and I believe it was North Korea.”
This type of exchange is becoming more and more common for Morning Joe, with Scarborough and Brzezinski going from remotely diagnosing Trump with dementia on May 2, to comparing him to “a kid pooping their pants” on June 1.
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:
BRZEZINSKI: It’s sad for the country. This is unprecedented, to have a president who behaves this way. Can anyone go back in history –
SCARBOROUGH: “Well, you asked Jon Meacham yesterday.
BREZEZINSKI: I tried
SCARBOROUGH: He went back to Thor.
BRZEZINSKI: He stretched as best he could to Nixon, and then we had to move outside the United States of America to find a parallel, and I believe it was –
SCARBOROUGH: Ok. So, I can’t wait to hear –
BRZEZINSKI: North Korea.
SCARBOROUGH: What Kasie Hunt has to say, once we read the news on –
BRZEZINSKI: It does feel like a developing dictatorship. Anyhow. Senate Republicans rolled out their healthcare bill today, and it took little time before they were met with internal resistance.
SCARBOROUGH: See, that’s the sort of thing – that’s an inside voice saying what you just said.
BRZEZINSKI: No, it’s not.
SCARBOROUGH: You say you want to be like Greta [Van Susteren], who’s like – Greta pulls back before she says things like that.
BRZEZINSKI: I’m going to actually channel Greta, and have an even tone. But I will say you can do some work reading history, and reading books about how dictatorships happen, the development of very negative forces taking over. And what you are seeing is either this, happening right now, or someone who’s not well. There’s very few options.
SCARBOROUGH: I think it’s actually more like Hogan’s Heroes, you know, than anything else. Oh, we have a Sergeant Schultz, and we have a Klink.
