Not surprisingly, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough found plenty to complain about in President Trump’s speech announcing the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. During Monday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough complained about how “the President of the United States went on talking about how Baghdadi died like a ‘dog, a coward...whimpering and sniveling.’”
According to Scarborough, President Trump’s word choice made him sound more like two late Middle Eastern dictators than the President of the United States.
Taking a page out of Chris Cillizza’s playbook, Scarborough and friends whined about the contents of President Trump’s speech. Scarborough contended that Trump “sounded not like a President of the United States; he actually sounded like Saddam Hussein after torturing people, sounded like Muammar Gaddafi after he would torture people.” He added that the President’s remarks were “deeply un-American” and “deeply troubling” and an example of his “strongman instincts.”
Throughout the segment, panelists argued that Trump’s rhetoric in announcing the death of al-Baghdadi helped ISIS recruit new members. Panelist Ayman Mohyeldin alleged that the Commander-in-Chief was “trying to paint a picture of how this guy died precisely in a way to try to either antagonize either his followers or his…or his organization in the way that it is trying to recruit.”
Mohyeldin continued:
I think the President in his speech, in his comments, and to the point about the dogs, just added more recruitment to the fire because you’re going to have a lot of people saying this is how this symbolic leader of the organization died according to the President, and that is going to be used to recruit another generation of extremists who are going to come out, be more extreme, more vicious, more violent in going after not just the United States but their allies and proxies in the region.
Later, Princeton University Professor and frequent MSNBC guest Eddie Glaude claimed that Trump’s “John Wayne Bravado reflects a deep insecurity in Donald Trump. That insecurity was evidenced in his comparison of the murder of Baghdadi...with Obama’s and Osama Bin Laden.”
Glaude later concluded that “all of this has to do with...what he thinks being a man means. And so what we heard yesterday with ‘he died like a dog, he was whimpering,’ was Donald Trump kind of performing his hypermasculinity.”
After he finished psychoanalyzing the President, Glaude recycled Mohyeldin’s talking points: “what Donald Trump did yesterday over 48 minutes will lead to the recruitment of other desperate young folk who will be attracted to an ideology because the big United States is doing what it typically does.” Would Glaude prefer it if “the big United States” decided not to kill al-Baghdadi?
While a foreign policy victory like the killing of a high-profile terrorist would normally cause Americans to unite, the liberal media’s Trump Derangement Syndrome has made them determined to stop that from happening. Further, they’ve instead devoted themselves to nit-pick every word of President Trump’s speech in an effort to paint him in the most negative light possible.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Monday’s edition of Morning Joe is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
10/28/19
07:02 a.m. Eastern
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It’s just past the top of the hour now on this Monday, October 28th and still with us, we have MSNBC Contributor Mike Barnicle, White House Reporter for The Associated Press Jonathan Lemire, the President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haas, and columnist and associate editor for The Washington Post, Dave Ignatius. And joining the conversation, professor at Pince…Princeton University Eddie Glaude Jr and co-host of Morning Joe First Look Ayman Moyheldin, and journalist-in-residence at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Elise Labbott. But we’ll start the new hour with this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed…
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
OBAMA: At my direction, the united States launched…
TRUMP: A dangerous and daring nighttime raid.
OBAMA: A small team of Americans carried out…
TRUMP: Their mission in grand style.
OBAMA: Over the years I’ve repeatedly made clear.
TRUMP: We will continue to pursue the remaining ISIS terrorists.
OBAMA: May God bless you and may…
TRUMP: …God bless America. Thank you. Any questions?
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
BRZEZINSKI: The raid that killed Bin Laden was a seminal moment in the Obama administration. How al-Baghdadi’s death shaped the Trump presidency, that’s the question we’re looking at this morning.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: That is the question we’re looking at. And of course, Richard Haas, the President of the United States went on talking about how Baghdadi died like a “dog, a coward, a whimpering…whimpering and sniveling.” He sounded not like a President of the United States. He actually sounded like Saddam Hussein after torturing people, sounded like Muammar Gaddafi after he would torture people. It was again, just like the chants of “lock him up” last night at the game, it was deeply un-American, deeply troubling. I’m, I’m, I’m curious, though. We…let’s step back from the President’s bungling stage craft, step back from all of his un-American strongman instincts and let’s just look at the geopolitical implications of what happened yesterday.
(…)
07:14 AM
SCARBOROUGH: Ayman Moyheldin, you look the language that he used. Let’s see. He…that he died like a dog, a coward; whimpering, sniveling, crying. First of all, this…this sounds so much like that so-called phone call from two Chinese leaders that Donald Trump’s people admitted that he lied about to try to calm the markets back in August; sounds so much like just something that he makes up because the Secretary of Defense himself, who obviously was on the calls more than the President, said he never heard anything like that. But this language, sniveling, he died like a dog. It’s…it’s just ripped straight out of the playbook of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, the worst of the worst strong men.
AYMAN MOYHELDIN: Yeah, and…and I think as some here have noted on the table and elsewhere, there’s a lot of question as to whether or not that could have even physically been possible. I mean, ultimately, if you think of the fact that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a tunnel, how exactly was the President able to kind of paint this picture of how he died in those final seconds if he did not have some kind of like live audio or video stream in very close quarters? So, put that aside for a moment; think about what the President here is trying to do. He’s trying to paint a picture of how this guy died precisely in a way to try to either antagonize either his followers or his…or his organization in the way that it is trying to recruit. But take yourself out of this for a moment here and try to imagine yourself and if I can for a moment, connect the dots of what all of the threads that we’re talking about here. Picture yourself a young Arab Muslim man, in either Beirut protesting the corruption in the government there or in Baghdad or in Libya. You have the President of the United States trying to paint this picture of who or what ISIS was, talking about all of the…the hateful ideology that it espoused. But at the same time, on the younger side, if you’re a person who believes in democracy and reform, trying to think that the region is going in a different direction, seeing the widespread corruption that is happening, protesting on the streets with no reform, and you’re suddenly drawn into this moment of where do I go, where does the recruitment of an organization like this go for the next phase? You talked about how Al Qaeda evolved into Al Qaeda in Iraq, you have got Al Qaeda in Yemen. ISIS is doing the same thing. You now have ISIS splinter groups in North Africa, you have ISIS splinter groups in Afghanistan. So, the killing of al-Baghdadi himself while…
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
MOYHELDIN: …is obviously symbolic, is not necessarily tactical in the sense that it’s going to destroy the organization. And I’ve said this before, bullets and bombs kill terrorists. They don’t defeat terrorism. We’re losing big picture questions of what are we going to do in the region to defeat this ideology or try to refrain it from expanding? And I think the President in his speech, in his comments, and to the point about the dogs, just added more recruitment to the fire because you’re going to have a lot of people saying this is how this symbolic leader of the organization died according to the President, and that is going to be used to recruit another generation of extremists who are going to come out, be more extreme, more vicious, more violent in going after not just the United States but their allies and proxies in the region.
(…)
07:21 AM
MIKE BARNICLE: Eddie, he died like a dog; crying, screaming, whimpering. Delta Force is the greatest military unit the world knows. It shows America’s reach. We can go anywhere at any time and successfully help democracy and rescue people and…and kill our enemies, but those words uttered by the President of the United States, talk about a film clip that an 18-year-old, unemployed, desperate, hopeless young person in Egypt or in Saudi Arabia or in Yemen or in Iraq and Iran look at and what do they think? You can’t defeat an idea with…
EDDIE GLAUDE: Right. I mean, as…as Ayman said earlier, it’s going to add fuel to the fire for recruitment. I mean, I can see it plastered all over inter…all over the internet. Look, this John Wayne bravado reflects a deep insecurity in Donald Trump. That insecurity was evidenced in his comparison of…of…of the murder of Baghdadi with…with Obama’s and…and Osama Bin Laden. All of this has something to do with what he takes to…what he thinks being a man means. And so, what we heard yesterday, with “he died like a dog, he was whimpering,” was Donald Trump kind of performing his hypermasculinity. Right? He’s the man. I will…I’m John Wayne with my six-shooters. I’ve gone out and done X, Y, and Z. Now, the good thing is this; that Muslims across the region are delighted. Baghdadi has been killing Muslims like on a rampage. They are happy that this man is dead and in the ground but what we do know is that what Donald Trump did yesterday over 48 minutes will lead to the recruitment of other desperate young folk who will be attracted to an ideology because the big United States is doing what it typically does and plus, he just told them that what they’re there for anyway is to protect oil anyway so…
BRZEZINSKI: Wow. That is for sure.
