Leave no crisis unexploited. That seems to be the attitude of the hosts and journalists on Morning Joe, Friday. They slammed Donald Trump for having a “clumsy, ham-fisted” and “sociopathic” response to the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Leading the way was Joe Scarborough, who accused the GOP official of spreading disinformation and telling people “to go back to work if they want to,” which he called “the quickest way to turn this epidemic into a pandemic.”
At one point, liberal Morning Joe regular Donny Deutsch screeched that this is“one more instance of [Trump’s] sociopathic behavior.”
“The crisis is here,” the co-host stated, and “governments -- including our own, I would say especially our own -- are responding … just as you had with China at the beginning of this outbreak,” when officials in that nation kept details of the disease secret from the public.
Scarborough also claimed that Trump said the outbreak would “go away magically” when the weather gets warm in the spring, which co-host Mika Brzezinski described as “a miracle” if that happens.
The co-host also noted: ”You just look at all of his statements, and it’s almost as if Donald Trump is actively working to tank the stock market, which keeps collapsing for a reason.”
Scarborough explained:
[B]ecause ... officials are panicked, they’re going to the President of the United States talking about possibly the worst drop that they’ve ever had in business.
It rivals and may actually end up being far worse than what happened on 9/11.
And Trump thinks, Scarborough noted, “that actually being cheerful and lying to the American people, and they’re obvious lies … about the disease is only making the markets more concerned, which is why, once again, we had a collapse on Wall Street” on Thursday.
Brzezinski again joined the discussion by claiming: “This is where his lies don’t work for people at all. That will be uniform across America, including his people.”
At that point, Scarborough discussed what makes a person a good leader. “If you’re a CEO, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, and you have this crisis coming, there’s only one thing you need. You need truth. You need certainty.”
In addition, the co-host added: “[W]hat I’ve learned from great leaders in the past is you give the bad news up front. They tell you this is gonna be bad. This is how we prepare for it.”
Then, “when it turns out it’s not as bad as you prepared for, suddenly you look at that leader and say: ‘She knows what she’s doing.’”
With that said, left-wing regular Deutsch asked: “Why would we expect a president who lies an average of 7.4 times a day over the last three and a half years to tell the truth about something important?”
Deutsch declared: “Here’s the speech Trump needs to give: ‘Look. This is serious. We’re gonna figure it out. The best people in the world are working on it. We’re gonna have an every-other-day update.’” Instead, he stated, Trump’s reaction to the outbreak is “one more instance of his sociopathic behavior.”
A transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
Morning Joe
3/6/2020
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Governments, including our own, I would say especially our own, other than China, are responding a clumsy, ham-fisted way. And unfortunately, just as you had with China at the beginning of this outbreak, you have the President of the United States who is actually spreading disinformation, trying to tell everybody there’s nothing to be worried about, telling people to go back to work if they want to. His words, “go back to work” while you have the Caronavirus. That is the quickest way to turn this epidemic into a pandemic. The President of the United States also this week saying that it’s just going to go away magically.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: A miracle.
SCARBOROUGH: There’s going to be a miracle. You just look at his statements and it is almost as if Donald Trump is actively working to tank the stock market. It keeps collapsing for a reason. It’s collapsing because airline officials are panicked. They are going to the President of the United States, talking about possibly the worst drop they’ve ever had in business. It rivals, and may actually be far worse than what happened on 9/11. He has other leaders talking about the supply chain across the planet being broken up. And he thinks that actually being cheerful and lying to the American people --- and they are obvious lies --- lying to the American people about the disease, the virus, about being able to work even if you have the virus, talking about how it’s just going to go away when the weather warms up. That’s only making the markets more concerned, which is why, once again, we had a collapse on Wall Street once yesterday and once again this morning and stock futures way down.
…
DONNY DEUTSCH: Why would we expect a president who lies on average of 7.4 times a day over the last three years tell the truth on something important? Yes, leadership is about honesty. And the market is reacting to the one thing they always react to: Uncertainty. Here is the speech Donald Trump needs to give: “Look, this is serious. We are going to figure it out. The best people in the world are working on it. We are going to have an every-other-day update.” And that is it. There’s only one way to handle it: Direct, truthful, strong and you can still put --- I don’t want to say a happy face on it --- but say “we will figure it out. We are the United States of America and I’m here to protect people and we are going to go overboard to protect people,” where he is doing the opposite. He is leaving people unprotected. One more instance of his sociopathic behavior.
