Joe Scarborough has made it a habit to mock House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer as a comical hillbilly, like the goofball sheriff from The Dukes of Hazzard. He suggested in September that Arnold the Pig from Green Acres could do a better job in Congress than Comer.
On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough—raised in the Florida panhandle and educated at the University of Alabama—was back attacking Comer and his probe of the Biden family influence-peddling business, claiming they have no evidence of wrongdoing:
"Well, we ain't really got nuthin' but a squirrel fryer and a hound dog."
Later, Scarborough piled on the backwoods stereotypes, saying:
"Comer and his gang are running for the hills. In their coon hats, holding a squirrel fryer in their left hand and a shotgun in the right!"
Scarborough's comments came in the context of Hunter Biden's announcement that he would comply with the subpoena to testify before Comer's committee. But Scarborough, in an act of journalistic malfeasance, twisted the facts. He implied that the subpoena was for public testimony, but "now" that Hunter has agreed to testify, Comer has decided to hold a private hearing. He called it "pathetic," and then Willie Geist echoed that like an Ed McMahon sidekick. "Hunter called their bluff," Willie claimed.
In fact, as MSNBC's own parent network, NBC, has reported, the subpoena was for a "closed-door interview."
In other words, it is Biden who is trying to change the ground rules, not Comer.
So who's holding the squirrel fryer now, Scarborough?
The irony is that, when it suits him, Scarborough will brag about his Southern background, describing himself as "a simple country lawyer" who was raised in the Southern Baptist church and attended state schools in two Southern states. But when convenient for purposes of bashing a Republican, being Southern is a cause for mockery.
As an adopted son of the South, I take umbrage, suh!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
11/29/23
6:00 am ETJAMES COMER: Hunter Biden is more than welcome to come in front of the committee. If he wants to clear his good name, come and say these weren't 20 shell companies, they did something. He's more than -- he's invited today.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, that's -- he has to be happy --
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: That's great!
SCARBOROUGH: -- because Hunter said he's going to --
MIKA: Hunter is in.
SCARBOROUGH: Hunter wants to go, and he wants to speak before the American people.
MIKA: Right!
SCARBOROUGH: Wants to clear his name.
MIKA: He's more than invited.
SCARBOROUGH: Wants everybody to hear -- you know, this poor Comer guy.
MIKA: He's been trying to get Hunter --
SCARBOROUGH: He wants him because he keeps making a fool of himself, cause he says, "well, we ain't really got nuthin' but a squirrel fryer and a hound dog" --says something like that.
WILLIE GEIST: What was the first one?
MIKA: Squirrel fryer, remember?
SCARBOROUGH: Squirrel fryer.
GEIST: Ok. Oh, fryer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [As Scarborough originally pronounced it, sounded like he might have been saying "fire."]
SCARBOROUGH: Squirrel fryer and a hound dog.
. . .
This Comer thing, as you were asking me, Willie, I heard you were asking me about this Comer thing, he says, just come to our committee! Come to our --
So Hunter says, okay. I'll come to your committee. He goes, all right. We better do this in private now. [Starts screaming, bangs desk] Now, they don't want the American people to see what Hunter Biden has to say. They have been spraying bs for a year about this guy, two years about this guy. He keeps saying, [adopts Southern accent] oh, well, if he was innocent he'd come down to our committee. Well, he'll be coming down to the committee. And now they're like, oh, no, we don't want it to be public. We don't want the public to see this, we've got to hide it behind closed doors. How pathetic.
GEIST: How pathetic that is. And Hunter Biden called their bluff. He said, all right, I'll come down there, but I'm not going to do in private and let you spin what I said and cherry-pick and misinterpret and spin out to the public, and go on Fox News afterward and say things that I didn't say. Let's put it out into the open so the public can decide for themselves.
And now they're saying, well, I'm not so sure we want that to happen, because the whole point of this exercise is for us to spin this and to misinterpret the information.
SCARBOROUGH: And so, again, the ultimate humiliation. All we hear is Hunter Biden, oh, Hunter Biden is afraid to talk. Hunter Biden -- Hunter Biden is now saying, okay, that's cool. I'm coming.
And now, it's Comer and his gang that, that, that are, that are running for the hills. In their coon hats, holding, holding a squirrel fryer in their left hand and a shotgun in the right!
