Morning Joe devoted today's opening segment to urging Democrat voters not to get "complacent." Joe Scarborough and Kasie Hunt argued that there are troubling signs that President Trump might have hidden strength, and that we could be in for a repeat of 2016 if Democrats get complacent.
They were largely riffing off a Thomas Edsall column in the New York Times, "Biden Is Not Out of the Woods." Edsall's point is that there is under-the-rader Trump strength in certain demographics, and in particular that many more Republicans than Democrats have registered in recent months in battleground states.
Joe and Kasie also pointed to a tweet by Biden's campaign manager in which she wrote: "There is still a long way to go in this campaign, and we think this race is far closer than folks on this website think. Like a lot closer."
Scarborough bragged about having warned back in 2016 that Trump could win. And he whined that: "Mika and I and Willie and others would be yelled at for simply suggesting that Donald Trump could be elected president of the United States and get 270 electoral votes."
Except that . . . three months before the 2016 election, Scarborough said Trump "knows he's going to lose." And when asked by Willie Geist whether he believed the Republicans won't win the presidency, replied: "I believe that without a doubt."
So, some convenient revisionist prognostication by Joe!
And in April of this year, Scarborough was displaying, regarding the 2020 election, the same sort of "arrogance" he was condemning in other MSM members regarding 2016. He spoke of the fate of the Republican party "after Trump loses this fall." So who's arrogant now, Joe?
Morning Joe's warning to Democrats not to get complacent was sponsored in part by Applebee's.
Here's the transcript. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
10/15/20
6:00 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: The warning from the Biden camp. And it is an important warning with 19 days to go. We’re going to show some polls that show Joe Biden far ahead, but if you talk to the Biden people, they do say it’s much closer.
And there’s a great article this morning in the Times by Thomas Edsall, and he brings up, he talks about how much closer this race could be.
First of all, there are a lot of white voters without college degrees who are registering, who didn’t vote in 2016, and also he quotes Dave Wasserman's data. In Florida, since the state's March primary, 195,000 Republicans have been added to the rolls. Only 98,000 Democrats. In Pennsylvania, since June, Republicans plus 135,000, Democrats only 57,000. In North Carolina, since March, Republicans up 83,000. Democrats only 38,000. And Arizona is the exception where Democrats are outperforming Republicans.
But Edsall lays out quite a few data points that should give a lot of Democrats reasons to worry with 19 days to go, and to stop them from being as complacent as they were four years ago when Mika and I and Willie and others would be yelled at for simply suggesting that Donald Trump could be elected president of the United States and get 270 electoral votes.
KASIE HUNT: Well, I remember being laughed at, Joe, when I said on this very program that when I was covering Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the final weeks that it didn’t feel like a winning one. They — her staffers — laughed at me, as it turns out that was exactly what was happening.
And, you know, I think it’s a combination of things, and you’re right to point out these signs that are under the radar, I mean, that is what happened in 2016. There was a lot going on under the radar that the people missed.
There are some signs that there is more potential Republican strength than perhaps is being accounted for. There is also this question about people potentially getting complacent. This assumption that everything is fine, I don’t need to vote . . . Especially considering how many completely unpredictable things have happened in the year 2020 it seems like a warning that is pretty relevant right about now, just 19 days out.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, it certainly does. Thank you so much for sticking around, Kasie. We appreciate it. And you know, Willie, after the arrogance we saw from the Democrats and, yes, from the mainstream media four years ago, if you even suggested that Donald Trump might get to 270 electoral votes. Complete arrogance, complete mocking attitude. It certainly — this serves as a reminder and sort of a bucket of cold ice water over everybody’s head that's saying this race is over, that we still have a long way to go.
