When Joe Scarborough's time at MSNBC comes to an end, perhaps he could get a gig at a smaller Vegas lounge doing impressions.
The notion arises given Scarborough's penchant for imitating the accents of people he seeks to denigrate. Thus, as we have noted, he has put on a heavy southern accent to mock James Comer, who does have a southern accent, and has done the same re Mike Johnson, who doesn't. In doing so, Scarborough propagates the "dumb Southerner" sterotype. Not only false, but odd, coming from a born-and-raised southerner like Scarborough.
Today, Scarborough not only made up a voice for a president of a "big country" who asked about being delinquent on his NATO payment. He adopted what you might call a goober accent to mock people who would believe Trump's remarks on Saturday about that l eader calling him "sir," asked if Trump would defend his country if attacked by Russia. Trump said he told him that if his country were delinquent in its payments to NATO, he wouldn't defend it, and to the contrary would tell "them," i.e. Putin, to do "whatever the hell they want."
It might seem strange coming from Trump, who's been sued repeatedly for not paying people on time. As president, Trump did demand our European allies pay more of their share into NATO, and they did. But the point here is Scarborough mocking Trump backers as idiots who will buy any "lie" Trump tells about what leaders said to him.
You'll hear Scarborough wonder "how stupid would you have to be" to believe that, and then put on his goober accent to imitate the supposedly gullible MAGA man in the audience.
The vain Scarborough was so proud of his supposed voice-impression skills that when Mika called for the clip of Trump's statement to be played, Scarborough pushed back, saying: "You want to play it? Because I thought my imitation sounded great. Just why would you want to play it?"
In the world of liberal identity politics, it's fine to mock the accents of Trump supporters. But can you imagine the outrage if a conservative mocked the accent of someone from one of Biden's key demographic groups? But he breaks out the hillbilly routine on a regular basis.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/12/24
6:19 am ETMIKA BRZEZINSKI: As war rages in both Europe and the Middle East, Donald Trump is encouraging Russia to attack our NATO allies.
During a campaign speech in South Carolina on Saturday, Trump recounted a conversation he allegedly had with a fellow world leader while he was president.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: By the way, by the way, it was one of those crazy, "and someone stood up and said, sir, sir," and he said they were from a big country. Sir, sir, if they don't pick -- if we don't pay, what will you do, sir?
Nobody's saying that!
MIKA: Anyhoo.
SCARBOROUGH: What a jackass. How stupid would you have to be in that audience to go, [puts on goober voice] oh, well, did they really say that? That's amazing. I can't believe a big country president would say that.
MIKA: Anyhow.
SCARBOROUGH: But it's just stupid! Like, he is now so desperate to support Vladimir Putin and undercut America's allies in Europe, he's making up a "sir" story.
It's not even, it's not even a good lie for Donald Trump. Like, you can tell he's losing it! Like, he's losing his touch. This is when Elvis couldn't even get -- he's so fat, he couldn't even get the scarves from around his neck to throw to the audience. He just kind of sat there, and looked down, and sang.
Remember, remember, Heilemann, when they had to hold the microphone for fat Elvis when he was playing piano?
JOHN HEILEMANN: 100%, yes.
SCARBOROUGH: He lost all his moves. This is Donald Trump. It's, it's a story that a third grader would go, why's he lying to me?
And you know, the people in the audience, they can't be that dumb to say, [puts on goober voice] oh, big, big country person said, sir? What if we don't [pay]?
Like, this guy, this guy will do any thing to justify defending and supporting Vladimir Putin, and getting us all ready for -- this is the dangerous part. When he's president again, he's getting us ready for him to be an autocrat.
HEILEMANN: Sure.
SCARBOROUGH: A dictator, and a guy who's gonna tell Vladimir Putin, sweep, sweep in.
MIKA: Play it.
SCARBOROUGH: You want to play it? Because I thought my imitation sounded great. Just why would you want to play it?
HEILEMANN: I like Joe's imitation better. Why would we play the sound? Just stick with Joe's. It's the best version.
MIKA: Play it.
SCARBOROUGH: Okay, baby, let's do this.
DONALD TRUMP: One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, well, sir, if we don't pay, and we are attacked by Russia, will you protect us? I said, you didn't pay? You're delinquent? He said, yes. Let's say that happened. No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills!
SCARBOROUGH: Again --
MIKA: It's like his, "You're fired."
SCARBOROUGH: Again, well, it's just stupid because it's, it's a lie. Nobody said that. What president? Like what President? Did President Merkel say that, Donald? Did President Theresa May say that? Did President Macron? Who said that?
I mean, John Heilemann, I'm serious. It's so stupid. The level of stupidity, like, to actually believe that story and cheer for it, really, it makes my teeth hurt. So mind-bogglingly bad.
