Morning Joe despises Donald Trump. So yes, the show would clearly be delighted to see him humiliated by Nikki Haley in the GOP primary.
On the other hand, Morning Joe just as clearly wants Biden to win re-election. So why, on today's show, were Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski so happy that Haley declared that she is staying in, despite losing the New Hampshire primary to Trump? After all, the strongest argument that the show made for Haley was that she can beat Biden, whereas Trump supposedly can't.
Why would Morning Joe be boosting the Republican who, in their opinion, has the best chance of beating their boy, Biden?
Could this be a Br'er Rabbit and the Briar Patch tactic by Morning Joe? Are they boosting Haley because they actually believe that Trump has a better chance of beating Biden, and thus would prefer Haley, whom they secretly think is the weaker candidate, to be the nominee?
Doubtful. Polls show Haley doing much better than Trump against Biden. And Morning Joe show reported on the Biden campaign declaring the GOP race over, with Trump as the candidate, precisely because they believe Trump to be the more beatable candidate.
Moreover, Mika seemed sincerely passionate in urging Haley to take New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu with her on the primary campaign trail, because he is willing to go hammer and tongs against Trump, whereas Haley could be reticent to do so. Mika concluded by imploring Haley to "go in 100%" against Trump.
It's a puzzlement. If Haley, despite the currently long odds, somehow manages to win the Republican nomination, it would be fascinating to see how Joe Scarborough would handle things. Would the self-described conservative, whose policy positions align much more closely with Haley than with Biden, actually support her in the general election? Or would he find a way to weasel out and support Biden? You can bet MSNBC viewers would demand the usual fealty to Democrats.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
1/24/24
6:02 am ETJOE SCARBOROUGH: Willie, I was glad, I was glad to see Nikki Haley stay in last night. There's so many people that have done these halfway measures. They've been weak. They pretty much assigned themselves to be nothing but Donald Trump's lapdogs for the rest of their political career.
For Nikki Haley, there's only one way through this. There's -- I mean there's light way down there at the end of the tunnel. And the way you do it is, you win and you just keep at it, you keep going.
And maybe you don't win outright, but you win a war of attrition. Because this, this candidate she's running against, Donald Trump, more untethered from reality than ever. And let's face it, you know, it's very sad. I saw it in my parents. Nikki Haley saw it in her parents. It's just, you know, it's just nature. I mean, he's losing -- he's losing more than one or two steps. He gets confused up there.
There's no reason why Nikki Haley shouldn't stay in this race, and again, possibly win a war of attrition, and find herself after all of these trials and all of the chaos, find herself as the Republican nominee this, this summer.
That said, Donald Trump is freaking out.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: He's threatening her.
SCARBOROUGH: He had a meltdown last night. He threatened her. Again, more reason to stay in the race. Cause again, he's more detached and more radical than ever.
And also, the Biden campaign, trying to pretend she's not there. Like, they're saying the general election's begun. Forget what happened last night. Don't, don't listen to what Nikki Haley does. Why? Well, it's very obvious. They want to run against the crazy guy. They don't want to run against -- look at that, look at that split screen. Who do you think -- who on this planet other than the extreme MAGAs, think that Joe Biden wants to run against the woman on the right? Nobody. Nobody.
Republicans know Donald Trump is the only person on that screen that Joe Biden's gonna beat. They know that, Willie. That's what makes this so fascinating. Will they be too stupid to vote that way in the upcoming contest? I think they will!
. . .
DONALD TRUMP: You have the very, the now very unpopular governor of this state [crowd boos]. This guy, he's got to be on something. I've never seen anybody with energy. He's like hopscotch.
. . .
SCARBOROUGH: Here we have Donald Trump mocking Chris Sununu, who made it clear yesterday, and has made it clear throughout this campaign he is not a man to be mocked. He's on Fox News yesterday saying that Donald Trump had gotten too old, that he was almost 80. And the Fox News host chimed in --
MIKA: [Imitating Fox News host] He's 77.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, said, he's 77. To which Chris Sununu said, yeah. Almost 80. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll go over math later, and then talked about all of his senior moments.
And by the way, they were shouting "geriatric" from the crowd yesterday at Nikki Haley's event. This is what's freaking Donald Trump out. He's being exposed.
As just for the record here, I'm reading from The Hill, despite what Trump claimed that, that, that Sununu is very unpopular, he has a 63% approval rating, compared to Donald Trump's 42% approval rating in New Hampshire. And as Chris Sununu said, I've never lost an election. You have.
And you think, Mika, and I agree—she should take Chris Sununu to South Carolina.
MIKA: Everywhere she goes.
SCARBOROUGH: Everywhere she goes.
MIKA: Because I think, you know, I think everybody has a different kind of point where they feel that they're pushing things too far. I think that Nikki Haley is, you know, a very strong, Southern woman. And, you know, at the same time, there might be some, some, you know, brakes in her brain where she thinks, oh, I can't go that far.
Chris Sununu is showing her, yes you can. When you're speaking the truth about someone who had sex with a porn star and then took the money for his campaign. Let's start right there. Someone who defamed and raped a woman. Let's start right there. Someone who stole documents and admits to it and says they're his, let's start right there.
You know foreign policy. Go in there. Go after him. And let's talk about the threat that he poses to our democracy. I think that he can show her that it's actually easy once you push through that.
But Republicans have kind of like these brakes they put on in their brain where they're too afraid to go too close to Donald Trump. At this point, if she wants this campaign to continue, I don't think she has any other choice but to go in 100% after him.
