Despite having quit the Republican party, and serving as a scathing critic of Donald Trump, Joe Scarborough's shtick is to continue to claim that he is a conservative. In particular, Scarborough likes to boast, as here, that he's a "small-government conservative."
We've debunked Scarborough's claim to conservativism in the past, as here, where we caught him arguing in favor of preserving Roe v. Wade.
But Friday, Scarborough put a final nail in the coffin of his claim to be a "small-government" conservative by explicitly embracing Hillary Clinton's big-government agenda.
Morning Joe rolled a clip of Hillary at the New York Democrat Convention, lambasting Republicans:
"Republicans will claim they’re on the side of parents and family values, but they will do nothing for actual parents or families. Nothing on child care. Nothing on paid leave. Nothing to help working moms and dads get by and get ahead."
Moments later, Scarborough parroted Hillary's spiel almost word for word:
"A do-nothing Republican House, that is running around talking about protecting parents, protecting families, protecting children, and their answer is trying to have culture wars over Dr. Seuss, banning books in schools. But Hillary's right. You go down the list. Nothing for child care. Nothing for paid leave. Nothing for working moms or dads. Absolutely nothing."
So Scarborough, please: once and for all, give up the "I'm still a small-government conservative" charade. Start telling it like it is, Joe: you're a big-government, Hillary-lovin' liberal!
Hillary tossed two little hand grenades in her speech. First, she actually resurrected her allegation of a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy! She said that whenever things get tough for Trump, Fox News and the conservative "noise machine" come after her, and are doing so now! That was a reference to the Durham report, which suggests that her campaign was indeed involved in spying on Trump. Scarborough has repeatedly blasted the Special Counsel investigation.
Next, she unsubtly suggested that she might sue someone for slander. Sarah Palin's libel lawsuit against the New York Times was dismissed earlier this week because she couldn't prove "actual malice" on the Times' part. Hillary said that conservative attacks on her are "getting awfully close to actual malice." In other words, she's claiming that she might have a valid lawsuit to bring against those dastardly conservatives.
After listening to Clinton's tirade, Scarborough seemed ready for the two-time loser to run for president one more time: "Tan, rested and ready. Hillary in ’24....rank-and-file Democrats, they’re not so sure they don’t want to see her on the ballot one more time. And I tell you, yesterday she laid it all out there a lot more clearly than Democrats have been able to do over the past year or so."
On Morning Joe, supposed "small-government conservative" Joe Scarborough embracing Hillary Clinton's big-government agenda was sponsored in part by Celebrity Cruises, Volvo, Google, Sleep Number, and Ameriprise.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/18/22
6:04 am ETHILLARY CLINTON: And we can’t get distracted, whether it's by the latest culture-war nonsense, or some new right-wing lie on Fox or Facebook. By the way, they’ve been coming after me again lately, in case you might have noticed. It's funny. The more trouble Trump gets into, the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get.
So now his accountants have fired him, and investigations draw closer to him. And right on cue, the noise machine gets turned up, doesn’t it? Fox leads the charge with accusations against me, counting on their audience to fall for it again. And as an aside, they’re getting awfully close to actual malice in their attacks.
Republicans will claim they’re on the side of parents and family values, but they will do nothing for actual parents or families. Nothing on child care. Nothing on paid leave. Nothing to help working moms and dads get by and get ahead. They will do nothing to invest in our schools, or make college more affordable. They’ll ban books but do nothing about guns. They'll make it harder for people to vote, but easier for big corporations to bust unions. They'll let polluters trash our environment, and let Donald Trump trash our democracy.
. . .
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Tan, rested and ready. Hillary in ’24. I mean, listen, you talk to people close to Hillary, they tell you there’s no way she’s ever going to do it again. Elizabeth Bumiller, you talk to Democrats, rank-and-file Democrats, they’re not so sure they don’t want to see her on the ballot one more time. And I tell you, yesterday she laid it all out there a lot more clearly than Democrats have been able to do over the past year or so.
. . .
I will say, she defined the situation right now with a Republican Congress, especially a do-nothing Republican House, that is running around talking about protecting parents, protecting families, protecting children, and their answer is trying to have culture wars over Dr. Seuss, banning books in schools.
But Hillary's right. You go down the list. Nothing for child care. Nothing for paid leave. Nothing for working moms or dads. Nothing to actually make the lives of, of, of children in America, of parents in America easier. Absolutely nothing.
