Tuesday’s Morning Joe continued to stoke fears over the Trump Administration with just two weeks to go until election day. Co-host Mika Brzezinski claimed people were “hurting” because “everything he had said and promised has come true,” while also claiming women were “becoming sterilized” because of Trump policies. Later, Jonathan Martin gave a revisionist history take on the economy amid the 2024 election and the use of the Transgender issue by Republicans, as he called it a “boutique” issue that was used when “people were doing better.”
The discussion built off Trump’s rally in Kansas on Monday. The constantly present co-host Joe Scarborough began with anger over Trump campaigning against Democratic Kansas Senate candidate Adam Hamilton, who he called the “antithesis of what Donald Trump does every day when he lies about people.”
Scarborough then turned to the Trans issue and said, “So, it's really rich, Mika, that this campaign is ending this way again, with lies about Trans kids being, being like transitioned between third and fourth, you know, what, between like Phys. Ed and shop class. They take him in the back room and give him surgery? But do people really believe this?”
In more ‘Morning Joe’ Trump attacks, Mika Brzezinski said, “In this Trump presidency, everything he has said and promised has come true. And people now are hurting because of it.”
She also claimed, “Women are stuck holding babies that are not alive in their stomachs for weeks… pic.twitter.com/Xadwx7nf84— Nick (@nspin310) October 20, 2026
He later added, “He’s the head of a cult. A personality cult.”
Brzezinski joined in and said, “some will believe him,” before she began her Trump “analysis”:
But I think the one thing that may change, we shall see in the elections, is that in his past campaigns, whether it be for midterms or for himself, for his own run for the presidency, is maybe some people, and we know these people, saw it as shtick. Like, ‘Oh, he doesn't mean it.’ You know, ‘he doesn't mean it.’
Well, in this Trump presidency, everything he has said and promised has come true, and people now are hurting because of it.
She continued with some wild claims about healthcare:
Hospitals have been shut down. They can't get their health care. Women can't get life-saving abortion care. Women are stuck holding babies that are not alive in their stomachs for weeks and months, and becoming sterilized because of what has happened under his policies and his connections and his decisions.
Brzezinski lamented, “And people can't afford groceries. People can't afford houses. People can't afford health insurance. This is where we are now, listening to that shtick. And so I just wonder if it hits differently now.”
In a revisionist take on the economy under Joe Biden on Morning Joe, Jonathan Martin declares that the “Trans issue was a good boutique issue” in the 2024 election “because people were doing better,” but now it no longer works for the GOP. pic.twitter.com/QbsMmybzBh
— Nick (@nspin310) October 20, 2026
Later, Jonathan Martin turned to discuss the Republican use of the transgender issue in their campaigns against democrats, while using some revisionist history about the economy in 2024:
There's something called a boutique issue. In the campaign parlance. A boutique issue is something that you can afford when gas is not $4.50 a gallon. And in 2024, the Trans issue was a good boutique issue because people were doing better. And so it was effective.
The economy under Biden was not as great as Martin portrayed, as the administration was marked by high inflation that the media covered very differently compared to the first two years of Trump’s second term.
Martin continued to bash talk about Trans issues, like biological males in women’s sports and Trans surgeries for minors, and called the usage “counterproductive” compared to “day-to-day cost of living issues.”
Scarborough joined in with more minimization of the issue, as Morning Joe has done in the lead-up to the midterms, and harkened back to the 2024 ‘They/Them’ Ad against Kamala Harris: “Kamala Harris got stuck with that issue and didn't really push back hard enough against it, if he pushed back at all. But that doesn't work in ‘26.”
The analysis also neglected the economic undertones of the 2024 ad, which also added focus on the economy
But still, Scarborough concluded, “Like, Americans are starting to understand this is something that they're just making up now in 2026.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
October 20, 2026
6:18:50 AM Eastern
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And I've got to say, deeply offensive that he actually is attacking the pastor of the largest Methodist church in America who preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you listen to his sermons, that's what he does, which is the antithesis of what Donald Trump does every day when he lies about people, when he's angry, when he attacks other people, not for political differences, but just attacks him personally and spreads lies.
So, it's really rich, Mika, that this campaign is ending this way again, with lies about Trans kids being, being like transitioned between third and fourth, you know, what, between like Phys. Ed and shop class. They take him in the back room and give him surgery? But do people really believe this?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well.
SCARBOROUGH: I'm afraid some people actually do -
BRZEZINSKI: I’m afraid they – He is the president of the United States, using the power of the podium, of his platform.
SCARBOROUGH: He’s the head of a cult. A personality cult.
BRZEZINSKI: But he's the President of the United States, and some will believe him. They will, even at this point. But I think the one thing that may change, we shall see in the elections, is that in his past campaigns, whether it be for midterms or for himself, for his own run for the presidency, is maybe some people, and we know these people, saw it as shtick. Like, ‘Oh, he doesn't mean it.’ You know, ‘he doesn't mean it.’
Well, in this Trump presidency, everything he has said and promised has come true, and people now are hurting because of it. And they can't get to the hospital. Hospitals have been shut down. They can't get their health care. Women can't get life-saving abortion care. Women are stuck holding babies that are not alive in their stomachs for weeks and months, and becoming sterilized because of what has happened under his policies and his connections and his decisions. And people can't afford groceries. People can't afford houses. People can't afford health insurance.
This is where we are now, listening to that shtick. And so I just wonder if it hits differently now.
(...)
6:24:55 AM Eastern
JONATHAN MARTIN: There's something called a boutique issue. In the campaign parlance. A boutique issue is something that you can afford when gas is not 450 a gallon. And in 2024, the Trans issue was a good boutique issue because people were doing better. And so it was effective.
BRZEZINSKI: Right.
MARTIN: When times are tough, voters aren't only not moved by the Trans issue, they're actually angered when they hear that because they're saying, ‘Why are you telling me about trans surgery and kids? I'm out here trying to fill up my tank, and I can't afford it.’
Not only isn't it helpful, I actually think it's counterproductive to do all those ads when voters are focused so clearly on day-to-day cost of living issues
BRZEZINSKI: On their lives!
SCARBOROUGH: Well, yeah. And the thing is also what people are starting to find out now is, and that's brilliant analysis. And you're right, it's a boutique issue. Even though nobody had gotten a transition surgery, I believe in 2024, even though that was Donald Trump's own Bureau of Prisons policy, Kamala Harris got stuck with that issue and didn't really push back hard enough against it, if he pushed back at all. But that doesn't work in 26.
Like Willie said, people are understanding now. You know, it's like there was a huge war in Utah about this a few years ago, and Spencer Cox said, ‘Wait a second. We're fighting about three high school students that are Trans?’
You had the head of the NCAA come on, and they asked, how many athletes was in NCAA, in the NCAA. And I think he said over 100,000, hundreds of thousands. How many trans athletes are there? He said, I think he said, single digits, maybe ten.
Like Americans are starting to understand this is something that they're just making up now in 2026. And so, so it's it's so small in people's lives compared to groceries compared to gas bills compared to their rent, compared to interest rates on everything they own their cars, their credit cards, their homes, everything.
(...)
