The cast of MS NOW’s Morning Joe assembled on Tuesday to rain on the upcoming America 250 celebrations by observing how every time the country makes racial progress, it also relapses soon after. Not content to simply give a history lesson, co-host Joe Scarborough led the panel in saying the current Trump Era is one of those relapses.
Scarborough declared that “I didn't hear the N-word growing up in public schools. I just didn't because I was the first class in 1969 that was integrated in rural Mississippi. So, the world I grew up in, you know, and, you know, and then as I move through life, I, we all know there's racism. We all know there's problems. Barack Obama was elected president, and you're thinking we're moving forward.”
However, he also lamented, “But what Eddie's book talks about is for all of those gains, for all of those victories, we have had this nasty habit of resetting as a nation. We did it after the Civil War. We did it after Reconstruction. We did it time and time again, and we're in one of these nasty resets right now.”
MS NOW looks forward to America 250 with Joe Scarborough trying to say the current Trump era is akin to the era of Klan or something "all of those victories, we have had this nasty habit of resetting as a nation. We did it after the Civil War. We did it after Reconstruction. We… pic.twitter.com/5QhlAfQF5e
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 26, 2026
Scarborough then set the straw man on fire, “And I just got to say, Gene, for people that say, ‘Oh, don't talk about that. Just say America is great.’ I mean, spiritually, every great story is about somebody who has fallen. You know, Peter, who rejected Jesus three times the night he died, the night before he died. And then was the rock upon which Jesus built his church. We have to look at the bad. We have to look at the ugly to understand where we can go and why it will be so great when we finally move toward being that more perfect union.”
The Atlantic contributing writer Eugene Robinson was eager to echo Scarborough, “Well, yeah, Joe, you know, if you want to, if you want to believe in America, then believe in the struggle. Believe in the struggle against the blood and soil white nationalist view of this country.”
Robinson also claimed, “I just finished a book, you know, that looks at 200 years of history through the lens of my family and what I saw so clearly with these repeated times when the nation is essentially forced to move closer to that vision of Thomas Jefferson's vision: all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with unalienable rights— and gains ground. And then it's taken back and it is taken back brutally in a often a deadly manner. And yet the struggle continues and it gathers strength again. And it tries again to push the nation forward.”
He also parroted the idea that Trump is comparable to those historical racist movements, “We seem condemned to repeat the past not once, not twice, but again and again and again. And we're clearly right now, in one of those moments—one of those taking back moments. It's not a coincidence that Barack Obama is followed immediately by Donald Trump. Not a coincidence.”
Nobody is saying don’t “look at the bad.” What they are saying is stop acting like today is analogous to slavery, the Klan, or Jim Crow, because it clearly is not.
Here is a transcript for the May 26 show:
MS NOW Morning Joe
5/26/2026
7:38 AM ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I didn't hear the N-word growing up in public schools. I just didn't because I was the first class in 1969 that was integrated in rural Mississippi. So, the world I grew up in, you know, and, you know, and then as I move through life, I, we all know there's racism. We all know there's problems. Barack Obama was elected president, and you're thinking we're moving forward.
But what Eddie's book talks about is for all of those gains, for all of those victories, we have had this nasty habit of resetting as a nation. We did it after the Civil War. We did it after Reconstruction. We did it time and time again, and we're in one of these nasty resets right now.
EUGENE ROBINSON: Yup.
SCARBOROUGH: And I just got to say, Gene, for people that say, “Oh, don't talk about that. Just say America is great.”
I mean, spiritually, every great story is about somebody who has fallen. You know, Peter, who rejected Jesus three times the night he died, the night before he died. And then was the rock upon which Jesus built his church. We have to look at the bad. We have to look at the ugly to understand where we can go and why it will be so great when we finally move toward being that more perfect union.
ROBINSON: Well, yeah, Joe, you know, if you want to, if you want to believe in America, then believe in the struggle. Believe in the struggle—
SCARBOROUGH: Right.
ROBINSON: —against the blood and soil white nationalist view of this country. As you know, I just finished a book, you know, that looks at 200 years of history through the lens of my family and what I saw so clearly with these repeated times when the nation is essentially forced to move closer to that vision of Thomas Jefferson's vision: all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with unalienable rights— and gains ground. And then it's taken back and it is taken back brutally in a often a deadly manner.
And yet the struggle continues and it gathers strength again. And it tries again to push the nation forward. We seem condemned to repeat the past not once, not twice, but again and again and again. And we're clearly right now, in one of those moments—
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
ROBINSON: —one of those taking back moments. It's not a coincidence that Barack Obama is followed immediately by Donald Trump. Not a coincidence.
