Friday on Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski sparred over the uncanny similarities between the reception of Barack Obama the candidate and Donald Trump the candidate. Scarborough reminded viewers that back in 2008, Obama supporters blindly followed the candidate’s promise of “hope” and “change” to the polls. Contrast that with Donald Trump in 2016, who is constantly chastised for his lack of specificity amidst his loud promises to make America “great” again.
Scarborough first called Brzezinski out for worshipping then-candidate Obama, sans specific policy solutions and all.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got to say, with all due respect, Mika, you and immediate members of your family didn't care four years ago or eight years ago when you all were running around screaming hope and change. Hope and change. What does that mean? And Barack Obama, remember? He said when I get elected, people will look back on this as the moment when the oceans began to recede. The Earth began – what?
BRZEZINSKI: The seas will part.
SCARBOROUGH: What?! So Donald Trump's talking about making streets safer. Barack Obama is saying he's going to do a Moses thing. And you got Democrats saying, okay, the Moses thing is cool, but can he really clean up the streets? So that's what I kept hearing.
Scarborough made a very compelling argument, lest we forget that “hope” and “change” weren’t exactly specific policy initiatives on how to fix the economy.He said that. He literally said that. People will look back on this as the time when the oceans began to recede. It was like Moses. And he just held his hands up in front of a fake Greek columns, and everybody said all hail Moses. All hail Moses. Hope and change. And they sold it like a diet coke. And people bought it. No explanation about how he was going to be Jesus.
BRZEZINSKI: That's a lit bit of an overstatement.
SCARBOROUGH: That's not an overstatement. Is that an overstatement?
MARK HALPERIN: It has been said and so it will be written.
Suddenly “Make America Great Again” doesn’t sound so bad after all.
View Full Transcript Here:
07-22-16 MSNBC Morning Joe
07:26:22 AM – 07:28:39 AMKATY TUR: In the debate, though, I think what he's going to be very good at is turning it around and going on the offensive against Hillary Clinton with a pithy one-liner that will get played on the news cycle over and over again.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
TUR: My question is, at what point do the American people look up at their television screens and say how are you going to do this? This all sounds wonderful, but can you give me a plan on how this is going to get done? How are you going to work with congress? What do you, how do you believe you’re going to be able to balance the budget in the way you say you’re going to do? When you're talking about your tax plan, how are you going to reconcile that with the analysts who say that you're going to create incredible debt from it.
BRZEZINSKI: So when you ask people who are voting for Donald Trump that question –
TUR: They don't seem to care.BRZEZINSKI: They don’t care; they go “he’s going to figure it out.”
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got to say, with all due respect, Mika, you and immediate members of your family didn't care four years ago or eight years ago when you all were running around screaming hope and change. Hope and change. What does that mean? And Barack Obama, remember? He said when I get elected, people will look back on this as the moment when the oceans began to recede. The Earth began – what?
BRZEZINSKI: The seas will part.
SCARBOROUGH: What?! So Donald Trump's talking about making streets safer. Barack Obama is saying he's going to do a Moses thing. And you got Democrats saying, okay, the Moses thing is cool, but can he really clean up the streets? So that's what I kept hearing –
BRZEZINSKI: I wasn't saying it critically.
SCARBOROUGH: That’s what, no, no, I'm just talking about Democrats eight years ago were like, oh, he's going to make the oceans recede.
BRZEZINSKI: [Laughing] Oh stop. [Rolls eyes] We were not saying that.
SCARBOROUGH: No, he said that!
TUR: But does that make it –
WILLIE GEIST: He did. Yeah, he did.
SCARBOROUGH: He said that. He literally said that. People will look back on this as the time when the oceans began to recede. It was like Moses. And he just held his hands up in front of a fake Greek columns, and everybody said all hail Moses. All hail Moses. Hope and change. And they sold it like a diet coke. And people bought it. No explanation about how he was going to be Jesus.
BRZEZINSKI: That's a lit bit of an overstatement.
SCARBOROUGH: That's not an overstatement. Is that an overstatement?
MARK HALPERIN: It has been said and so it will be written.
[BRZEZINSKI LAUGHS]
SCARBOROUGH: Such a democratic crowd. But I love Cleveland anyway.
