During Tuesday’s edition of Morning Joe, co-host Joe Scarborough discussed the explosive recently found in left-wing billionaire George Soros’s mailbox. After talking about how President Trump and “backbenchers in the Republican Congress” have blamed Soros for funding the caravans and “one fake conspiracy after another,” Scarborough insinuated that Republicans deserve blame for the explosive device, in addition to saying that racism motivates the anti-Soros rhetoric: “You have got to point the finger back at the President and these Republican members of Congress that have just been spreading these conspiracy theories that have anti-Semitic overtones to them.”
A discussion about the migrant caravan making its way to the US-Mexico border preceded the conversation about Soros. In addition to facing accusations of anti-Semitism, the Morning Joe panel repeatedly did their best to paint President Trump as a racist. Kimberly Atkins of The Boston Herald mocked President Trump’s suggestion that Middle Easterners have infiltrated the caravan, in addition to accusing him of using “Middle Eastern” as a code word for terrorists.
Later, Atkins criticized President Trump for describing himself as a “nationalist,” slamming him for “embracing a term which has been made to stand for not just isolationism in a international context, but really just appealing to a certain constituency, even within the United States, white male constituency at the exclusion of all others.” According to Atkins, “the closer we get to the election, the more open he is with the use of xenophobic, Islamophobic, racist rhetoric because they, he sees this as a campaign advantage.”
Scarborough picked up where Atkins left off, slamming the President for using “racial overtones” when talking about the caravan. After panelist Mike Barnicle brought the conversation back to Soros, proclaiming that “words are weapons out there. You know, the caravan, Middle Easterners in the caravan, MS-13 in the caravan, George Soros funding it, we see what happens with a bomb being planted in George Soros’s mailbox.”
In recent weeks, the confrontations between left-wing protesters and Republican lawmakers and candidates have turned violent. A left-wing protester punched Minnesota State Representative Sarah Anderson after she confronted him for kicking down one of her campaign signs while first-time candidate Shane Mekeland suffered a concussion after a liberal protester punched him at a restaurant.
Ironically, an activist associated with George Soros himself was arrested for assaulting the campaign manager for Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt.
As NewsBusters has previously reported, the networks have largely remained silent on these attacks as well as the vandalism of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office; probably because they simply do not suit the media narrative of “evil” Republicans and “patriotic” Democrats. .
A transcript of the relevant portion of Tuesday’s edition of Morning Joe is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Morning Joe
10/23/18
08:38 AM
WILLIE GEIST: Also joining our conversation, Washington Bureau Chief for the Boston Herald and an MSNBC Contributor Kimberly Atkins. Kimberly, great to see you. We’ve been talking about the President using this rhetoric and overstating what this caravan is and the threat to America. But he’s also blaming the Democrats, who have not been in power now for two years or so. President Trump has controlled the White House, Republicans have controlled Congress. He had everything what he wanted in place to stop what he believes is this invasion from the southern border and yet he continues to blame Democrats.
KIMBERLY ATKINS: Right, well, look, whatever you think about the President, he is very good at messaging to his supporters, to the key constituencies who he’s seeking to appeal to ahead of an election. Things like facts have not stood in his way before and they’re not standing in his way now. Yes, he is blaming Democrats for this. He is really demonizing these people, who are migrating en masse, in part to remain safe, as they make their way through Mexico because it is a very arduous and dangerous journey and saying things that we’ve heard before that they are criminals, that they are bringing crime, somehow inexplicably mixing in Middle Easterners being in there. He’s not even saying terrorists. He’s just using Middle Eastern as a code word for terrorists. That, of course, isn’t true either; that they’re being funded by Democrats, that they’re…But if you talk to Trump supporters, they…reporters do all the time, they say these aren’t people who are in crisis. These are people who are being funded by George Soros because that is what Donald Trump and other conservatives are saying. And the message is landing. That’s the biggest contrast right now between Democrats, who are have having a much harder time messaging against it, counter-messaging against this in a way that is resonating and is being repeated by their supporters the way that it is on Donald Trump’s side.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, by the way, Willie, we heard the name George Soros brought up by the President of the United States. We’ve heard the name George Soros brought up by back benchers in the Republican Congress, blaming him for funding these caravans, blaming him for funding one, you know, fake conspiracy after another. Last night, from what I understand, a explosive device was found at George Soros’s Westchester home. In part, you’ve got, you’ve got to point the finger back to the President and these Republican members of Congress that have just been, been spreading these conspiracy theories that have anti-Semitic overtones to them towards George Soros.
WILLIE GEIST: Well, George Soros is the boogeyman. We hear it from Donald Trump’s mouth, we hear it from Republicans’ mouth that he’s funding every dark conspiracy they believe is taking place around the world and you’re right. About 45 minutes to an hour north of New York City, up in Westchester County, where George Soros has a home, he wasn’t home but an explosive device was found in his mailbox yesterday. The police up there detonated it proactively. It didn’t explode on its own but someone sent what they believe was an explosive device to the home. It was placed in the mailbox of George Soros just outside New York City.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Wow. That’s…
SCARBOROUGH: Well, you know, so Kimberly, I guess the question is, will this work? The President, one lie after another lie after another lie. But I had a relative yesterday talking about this invasion of migrants coming. And I had a college educated friend e-mail me yesterday asking how were we going to stop America’s borders from being invaded. They’re coming, they’re coming. The lie is working.
ATKINS: It is. It lands. I mean, we hear from this, I hear from it from people who tweet or e-mail me after stories that I write about this, that there is an invasion in the country. The phrases that we hear the President say; if we don’t have a border, we don’t have a country. Well, we do have a border and a country and rules, but there’s also reasons why we are seeing these migrations toward the border and the President now is seeing this as election gold. Republicans for a while, Republican strategists have been saying that the more the President talks about immigration, the better it is for him. And I think the President also loves to gravitate, right around this time, before an election, whether it’s a special election or the midterms, he graduates toward these culturally divisive issues. I’m sure he will probably tweet about NFL protests again before the elections come in two weeks. We have seen him talking about migrants in a way that’s very divisive. We saw him last night say “I’m a nationalist. You’re not supposed to say that.” But used that word. You’re not just saying that he’s calling himself that, but urging his supporters to use that word. It’s that same pushing against “political correctness” and sort of embracing a term which has been made to stand for not just isolationism in a international context, but really just appealing to a certain constituency, even within the United States, white male constituency at the exclusion of all others. He’s now embracing that word. The closer we get to the election, the more open he is with the use of xenophobic, Islamophobic, racist rhetoric because they, he sees this as a campaign advantage.
SCARBOROUGH: Mike, you look at what he’s been talking about, talking about this invasion coming from Honduras. Of course, he’s called Hispanics breeders this past year, accused Mexicans of being rapists at the beginning of his campaign. You can go down…there’s a laundry list. But again, it’s not just culturally divisive issues that he's pointing to now. It’s just, it is…there are racial overtones that are so obvious. He’s talking about Middle Easterners in there. But again, we talked about this in 2016. Let’s talk about it right now. Border crossings, historically, are at a low point now and they were at a low point at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency where there was actually a negative flow, net flow into the United States, more people going back to Mexico than coming here from Mexico, something of course that, again, the President…that would completely undermine the big lie.
MIKE BARNICLE: Yeah. Well, it doesn’t matter to him, Joe. Words are weapons coming out of his mouth. We grow immune to it because we listen to it each day and we talk about it each day. But words are weapons out there. You know, the caravan, Middle Easterners in the caravan, MS-13 in the caravan, George Soros funding it, we see what happens with a bomb being planted in George Soros’s mailbox.
