During Monday’s edition of Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski brought up the “problem that Sarah Sanders had over the weekend,” referring to the owner of the Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington, Virginia’s decision to kick out the White House Press Secretary because of her politics. Brzezinski described the incident as an “absolutely legitimate problem” while at the same time dismissing it, asking “who cares at this point?”
Never-Trumper Elise Jordan seemed to suggest that Sanders deserved to be kicked out of the restaurant: “Should someone who lies constantly and enables the President's lies be openly welcomed in society wherever they please? Should they face any kind of social or societal pressure? I’m increasingly weighing towards yes, even though I’m all about civility.”
While Sanders and other Trump administration officials probably don’t expect to be “openly welcomed” with open arms in public, they probably don’t appreciate being publicly shunned or kicked out of places either.
Jordan ultimately seemed to think that Sanders’ decision to “constantly give false information from that podium to the American taxpayers” justifies her treatment and finished her remarks by bringing the conversation back to “the thousands of children who have been separated from their parents.”
Panelist Richard Haas proclaimed his disagreement with the owner of Red Hen Restaurant’s decision to kick the White House Press Secretary out of her restaurant, saying that it violates the spirit of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, describing it as “politically counterproductive” and lamenting the “descent of America into tribalism.”
Jordan jumped back in: “I think it comes down to though, the question of how we’re viewing the Trump Administration these days. Is it increasingly an authoritarian, is it creeping authoritarianism or is it just a normal Presidency? I think that changes how we deal with it and how we look at it and reflect on it.”
Co-host Joe Scarborough agreed that the Trump Administration represents “increasing authoritarianism,” stressing that his real concern lies not with the Trump Administration but the 42-45 percent of Americans who support him; adding that the #resistance must work to move them away from President Trump, describing him as “abhorrent.”
Scarborough admitted that kicking people out of college campuses, movie theaters, and restaurants is helpful in that effort, in addition to pointing out that “I don’t think that calling them racists and I don’t think kicking them out of restaurants will move them.” Hopefully, frequent panelist Donny Deutsch got the message. Last week, he equated anyone who supports President Trump to a Nazi.
To see the relevant transcript, click "expand."
MSNBC's Morning Joe
06/25/18
06:14 AM
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Elise Jordan, I say this because it is from our vantage point, all we can do even though this is a very, very emotional issue and it’s very hard not to get really pulled into the magnitude of the problem, but this President constantly tests the limits on the facts and that’s a really nice way of putting it, and I have never seen, ever in almost 11 years of doing this show, people come up to me on the street, not to “hey, I watch you on TV,” but “hey, please do something.” “Hey, what can we do?” “I am so upset.” I have never seen such a visceral reaction everywhere I go just talking to people who want to do something, who want to say something, which I think is why it’s almost infuriating to hear the White House manipulate these issues, and even the problem that Sarah Sanders had over the weekend, which is a absolutely legitimate problem, but who cares at this point?
ELISE JORDAN: But it goes back to the anger over plenty of Americans know that they are being lied to constantly, and they want the truth. And should someone who lies constantly and enables the President’s lies be openly welcomed in society wherever they please? Should they face any kind of social or societal pressure? I’m increasingly weighing towards yes, even though I’m all about civility, but I do think that there are choices. And Sarah Huckabee Sanders has made her choices and she has decided to constantly give false information from that podium to the American taxpayers who are paying her salary. Donald Trump has chosen to do that. Facts matter. The context that we present the facts matter, and this is not going away because we have thousands of children who have been separated from their parents and we don’t even know the full magnitude of it.
BRZEZINSKI: Where are they?
NICHOLAS CONFESSORE: Just to add to that, I think that what happened with Sanders. Look, she was politely asked to leave a restaurant and her meal was comped. I’m not super worried about that as a breach in civility. I too, like Elise, I think that it is worrisome to me that in the long-term that the country loses its ability to talk to itself about important things. And I think that if Trump drives everybody’s conversation to a Trumpian level, we will all regret it down the line. But I don’t think that asking her to leave a restaurant is a five-alarm fire. The owner did it politely and said, look this is my place, I oppose what you guys are doing, comped the meal. It was actually pretty polite, the whole thing.
MIKE BARNICLE: Outside, apart from the restaurant.
RICHARD HAASS: May I just disagree on this though? I actually respectfully disagree in the interest of civility here.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And by the way, I disagree, and I disagreed when Joe Biden was, you know, told not to, you know, come into the bakery.
HAASS: One of the first landmark pieces of civil rights legislation was the public accommodations, 1964. And we fought for the right of Americans to be served, whether it was in restaurants, hotels and not to be denied on the basis of religion, national origin, the whole list of things. Now, politics, ironically enough was not one of them. But what happened the other day violates the spirit of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be focusing on other things, which are inherently more important. I hear you, but it just seems to me, one, besides that it’s politically counterproductive. I think your point is the big point. This is a descent of America into tribalism, and this is dangerous. One of the things we should have learned the last year and a half is we can’t take things for granted in this country, we should not take for granted the fact that this has essentially been a peaceful democracy and our differences have never gotten bigger than what we could handle in a peaceful way. This is the sort of thing that makes me uneasy about some of the trajectory of this country, so I think it’s serious.
ELISE JORDAN: I think it comes down to though, the question of how we’re viewing the Trump Administration these days. Is it increasingly an authoritarian, is it creeping authoritarianism or is it just a normal Presidency? I think that changes how we deal with it and how we look at it and reflect on it.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: It’s increasing authoritarianism, but the problem, the focus, at least for me, is not the Trump Administration. The focus are the 40, probably 2 percent now. 42 to 45 percent of Americans who support Donald Trump, and the question is how do they move away from a candidate, from a politician who is using race constantly? Who is lying every day, who is subverting the rule of law every day, who works every day to undermine the power of the Federal judiciary? I don’t think we do that by kicking them out of our restaurants or by in something little, fun little engagement I had this weekend. We don’t do it by saying if you support Donald Trump, you are a racist. Because at the end of the day, my concern is with that 45 percent, why are they supporting this man? I don’t understand it, but I know this. For the rule of law to be protected, for Constitutional norms to be protected, for America’s role in the world to be protected, for our allies to be protected, for America’s standing across the globe to be protected, for free markets to be protected, for our way of life and decency to be protected, they need to be moved away in my opinion, from supporting a man who is…who is so abhorrent to what President’s been. I don’t think calling them racists and I don’t think kicking them out of restaurants will move them. At the end of the day, politics is about making friends. It’s about converting people to your cause. How do you do that? It’s not running around screaming on college campuses and in movie theaters and in restaurants, that you are a racist. Get out of here.
