On today's Morning Joe, a screaming Joe Scarborough [see screencap] harshly condemned Speaker Mike Johnson as a liar and phony Christian for endorsing Trump's opposition to the border bill. Scarborough repeatedly imagined Johnson speaking in a heavy southern accent, though he has none, and made multiple snide references to Johnson's Bible.
This, from the quondam conservative who, it was recently revealed, has turned into a Biden phone buddy and frequent adviser. You might call Scarborough a Biden flunky par excellence.
As supposed proof of the border bill's conservative bona fides, Scarborough read at length from the Wall Street Journal's editorial board column, "A Border Security Bill Worth Passing."
But as Ann Coulter has written on this very subject, in her column entitled, "Media unaware the WSJ is for open borders:"
This was the pitch: "By any honest reckoning, says the Wall Street Journal editorial page, by [screams] any honest reckoning -- but that's something Mike Johnson wouldn't know anything about. By any honest -- honest is the word, Mikey. Look that up in your Bible that you've, you've made up -- by any honest reckoning, this is the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades."
He also hammered the Speaker for not reading the bill. As if the Morning Joe crew has read the entire bill??
Even Mika was put off by Scarborough's phony imitation of Johnson's non-existent southern accent. Watch at 0:30 into the clip, as Mika grimaces [see screencap] as Scarborough once again launches into Johnson's supposed drawl. Mika then skeptically asks Scarborough, "Is that going to be his voice?"
At least when Joe pulls the bumpkin-accent thing with Rep. Jim Comer ("squirrel fryer"!) there's actually an accent.
And what does it say about Scarborough's apparent disdain for his roots that the born-and-raised Southerner buys into the "dumb Southerner" stereotype? We can imagine Joe attempting his best Locust Valley lockjaw when he summers on Nantucket.
Knowing what we now do, you have to wonder whether, as he rants on, Scarborough's thinking, "my boy Biden is gonna love this, and make his aides watch it!"
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/6/24
6:13 am ETJOE SCARBOROUGH: And of course, you have the Speaker of the House, who claims that the Bible guides him. Claims that Jesus, I guess, must have told him, I don't know -- I didn't read this part of the Sermon on the Mount -- but to gain power by lying, to gain power by pushing the big lie. As Liz Cheney said, he was the chief proponent of the big lie. He didn't believe it, but said, [puts on strong southern accent] "I need to do this to get close to Donald Trump." And so, he's now going around lying, [southern accent] "Well, I've seen enough. This bill is too liberal."
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Is that going to be his voice?
SCARBOROUGH: That is his voice.
MIKA: Okay.
SCARBOROUGH: And so, he's done that. And then Lankford goes, "Well, gee, would have been nice if you actually [screams] read the bill!"
MIKA: It's 370 pages.
SCARBOROUGH: If you would have actually read the bill before saying that. Again, I guess in his Bible, God, I've heard about the Jefferson Bible. But the Johnson Bible, holy sh -- nikees! That must be some Bible that tells you to lie. Tells you to lie about elections. Tells you to lie to get into power. Tells you to lie, and you admit that you're a liar to get into power, to get close to Donald Trump. And now you're lying about a bill you haven't even read.
Guess who has read the bill. [As image of Johnson appears onscreen] Not that guy! Not that guy. Cause Mar-a-Lago tells him to jump, and he goes, [southern accent] "How high?" That guy hasn't read the bill. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, as Willie said, they've read the bill, Mikey. They don't care if Mikey likes it or not. They read the bill, and this is what they have to say, Gene Robinson. It's unbelievable.
[Reading from WSJ editorial] A border security bill worth passing. The Senate bill has reforms Trump never came close to getting. By any honest reckoning, says the Wall Street Journal editorial page, by [screams] any honest reckoning -- but that's something Mike Johnson wouldn't know anything about. By any honest -- honest is the word, Mikey. Look that up in your Bible that you've, you've made up -- by any honest reckoning, this is the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades. Previous immigration talks have involved trading security measures for legalizing more immigration. There is little of that in this bill. This is almost entirely a border security bill, and its provisions include long-time GOP priorities that the party restrictionists could never have passed only a few months ago.
Are you listening, Mikey? Just because Donald tells you to jump doesn't mean that you have to put America's security at risk.
