We have often zinged Joe Scarborough's false-modesty shtick of describing himself as a "simple country lawyer." The egotistical Morning Joe host clearly hopes people will react by thinking--or better yet, exclaiming--"No, Joe. You are one of America's most brilliant legal minds!"
On today's show, Scarborough decided to defy the mockery and double-down on his shtick. Three times in one segment, as he reran audio of Trump pleading to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" him 11,780 votes, he pointedly described himself as, yes, a "simple country lawyer."
For good measure, Joe upped the false-modesty ante by adding, "I fell off a turnip truck and landed in front of Congress." Watch Mika make that "here he goes again" face.
MSNBC analyst and Washington Post editor Eugene Robinson obligingly ran with Scarborough's line. The South Carolina native described himself as coming from an area where there were also turnip trucks--although Robinson had the good grace not to claim he'd fallen off of one.
Scarborough proceeded to run his braggadocious hobby horse into the ground. Introducing Chuck Rosenberg, an MSNBC contributor and former US Attorney, Scarborough described Rosenberg, in contrast with Joe's supposedly humble past, as "a man who, trust me, did not just fall off a turnip truck."
We would agree with Scarborough that he has plenty to be modest about on his lawyering. The difference being...we're serious!
In other news, "MSNBC Republican" Elise Jordan said that, given the supposedly "insane and inane" things he says, Trump "should be in a straitjacket and given some kind of injection." Imagine the liberal-media outrage if a conservative commentator suggested that Biden be given the Nurse Ratched treatment!
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
1/9/24
6:08 am ETJOE SCARBOROUGH: And as Donald Trump goes into this election, and he says crazier things every day, and they're getting crazier, Donald Trump's numbers, likely, will go down again.
ELISE JORDAN: Joe, you would hope so. You would hope that, insane rantings that sound like someone should not be in power, rather, they should be in a straitjacket and given some kind of injection, you would hope that that would not just be dismissed by a lot of voters.
But, unfortunately, as we've seen, there are plenty of Republican voters who are willing to look away and dismiss it just as theater, just as performance, because they are so against, the polarization is so strong and they're so against the other side. And all that matters is defeating the other side. And you look at how the electorate in this country has become so radicalized, where two out of ten Americans see the other side as the enemy, not just political opposition but the enemy. And so I worry that Donald Trump is winning when attention is on him, no matter how insane, or inane, his comments are at a given moment.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: He calls the Secretary of State of Georgia and says, steal this election for me. Take a listen.
DONALD TRUMP [speaking to Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger] I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. There's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated.
SCARBOROUGH: There's nothing wrong, Donald Trump says, with lying through your teeth! Finding 11,780 votes.
Listen, you know, I don't like to admit this, Gene, but I'm a simple country lawyer, all right? Just a simple country lawyer.
I fell off a turnip truck and landed in front of Congress. And I served in Congress for a few years. And let me tell you, even as a simple country lawyer, me and the thousands and thousands of people who are elected every two years to serve in Congress, it seems like thousands, everybody there would know, that'ss tealing an election. And that is illegal.
EUGENE ROBINSON: Yeah. And you know, I grew up in a town where, there were turnip trucks where I grew up, too.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah!
ROBINSON: And still, and still, anybody, the driver of the turnip truck, you know, the people who loaded the turnips and unloaded them, they all knew that stealing an election was illegal.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: Let's bring in right now former U.S. Attorney and MSNBC contributor Chuck Rosenberg, a man who, trust me, did not just fall off a turnip truck yesterday and wind up inside the studios of 30 Rock, like me.
