MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough likes to call himself a “true conservative” on his daily MSNBC show Morning Joe, yet his recent flip-flop on Second Amendment rights makes him anything but a conservative. He’s a typical MSNBC “demagogue,” NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell declared on April 25 as he and Fox News anchor Sean Hannity chastised the MSNBC host.
In their weekly “Media Mash” segment, the Media Research Center president and the Fox News host went through numerous examples of Scarborough’s bombastic and hostile language towards conservatives, from guns to the recent CPAC conference. After Scarborough smeared that the NRA has made millions of dollars on the Newtown shooting, Bozell called Scarborough’s commentary “radical kook stuff” akin to what you hear from “Occupy Wall Street.”
Hannity and Bozell proceeded to hammer Scarborough for flip-flopping over gun control, going from a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, to a gun-control proponent. Bozell called Scarborough’s harsh language, “bomb throwing of the worst rhetorical kind and personal insults. Now, he's aiming them against people who supported exactly what he supported.” The two concluded by counseling Scarborough to, “never call yourself a conservative again.” [Watch the full “Media Mash” segment below the page break.]
See transcript below.
Fox News Hannity
April 25, 2013, 9:37 p.m. EDTSEAN HANNITY: And welcome back to Hannity. Time for "Media Mash." Every week we expose the mainstream media's liberal leftist bias, but tonight, we are going to focus on one left wing journalist, NBC News’ Joe Scarborough, who not only claims that he speaks on behalf of all conservatives in this country. He knows best, but the examples we're about to show reveal this could not be further from the truth. Joining me now none other than the president of the Media Research Center, Brent, Brother Bozell. How are you, sir?
BRENT BOZELL: Brother Hannity, how are we doing?
HANNITY: You know this has been a long time in coming. I used to be friends with Joe. Joe used to I think be a conservative. Let's start with Joe's ripping of the NRA because it's relevant to the new NBC Joe. Let's go back and look at the present Joe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE SCARBOROUGH (Morning Joe, January 11): Can we just breakthrough the B.S. here. This is not for the NRA about second amendment rights. This is about gun manufacturers making millions and millions and millions of dollars. This is about retailers making millions and millions and millions of dollars. Do you know how much money these people have made over the slaughter of 20 innocents in Newtown? Do you know how much richer these rich gun manufacturers have gotten over the past month? And how the NRA uses that tragedy to gin up fears and web sites use that tragedy to gin up fears that they're coming to take your guns away?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right, let’s just get your reaction because we have Joe back in his Congressman days, now he's doing the liberal Morning Joe show and he's the NBC version of what a, quote, "conservative is." What do you make of that?
BOZELL: Well, I think that there are two issues going on here. One is if you take that position, close your eyes. That's Chris Matthews, that’s Al Sharpton, that's the most radical of the radical left position that the NRA is going on and hoping people will die so that they can make money off of it. That's the kind of "Occupy Wall Street" language that you hear out there. It is radical kook stuff. And that is Joe Scarborough in his own words. But the second thing is that it is a complete reversal of what Joe Scarborough made himself famous on and it is a complete reversal on what he still maintains he is, which is which is a Republican in good standing.
HANNITY: All right, let me play now what he's saying about Republicans ripping them for not supporting gun control, then we're going to look at the old Joe Scarborough. But this is the morning liberal Joe, NBC's version, the establishment loving Joe Scarborough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCARBOROUGH (Morning Joe, April 8): I can't believe that Republicans, first of all, aren't going to support it. But secondly, won't let background checks against rapists, people who have committed manslaughter in the past, people with mental illness, dangerous mental illness, I can't believe those Republicans are going to allow the entire Republican Party to be the party that basically put rapists' rights over parents' rights.
SCARBOROUGH (Morning Joe, April 18): You do not ignore when 90 percent of the American people on an issue of public safety. You don't do it. They did it yesterday and I've got to say, mark it down. This is going to be a turning point in the history of the Republican Party as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Alright now let's butt that against what Joe Scarborough and of course he's running in a very conservative district in the panhandle of little old Florida, he had a very different position. Let's put some of it on the screen. And a questionnaire, he said the NRA must elect and support candidates who will view the gun rights issue as a constitutional battle. The founding fathers did not give us the second amendment to protect our rights to shoot ducks. Our constitutional right to bear arms, so we may protect our family in the manner we choose, no compromise. And by the way, he felt the same way about assault weapons. So he would argue I changed after Newtown. I would argue that he wants to be loved by the establishment and Joe Scarborough is no conservative as he's portrayed.
BOZELL: Yeah. But look, Sean, you can change your mind. That's perfectly fine. But if you listen to the words in that last clip you saw, that was a personal attack. That was Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid. That was bomb throwing of the worst rhetorical kind and personal insults. Now, he's aiming them against people who supported exactly what he supported. You can have a difference of opinion, but you don't have to go radical left. He's gone radical left, fine. But Joe, please, my buddy, never call yourself a conservative again.
HANNITY: He's going to because -- and he impugns the character of everyone else. He actually said about CPAC is only about anger and hate. We've got the tape of that. Let's roll this tape of, yes, the morning liberal show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCARBOROUGH (Morning Joe, February 26): So many of those people are shams. They're not true conservatives. And we can see it now. They don't care about winning. They care about hate, resentment, selling books, talk radio, things that at the end keep us out of the White House for another --
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And there is a game going on --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: What a cute couple?
BOZELL: I'm going to let you in on a little secret you didn't know. He is so jealous of you and he's so jealous of Rush Limbaugh and so jealous of Mark Levin. Look at those gratuitous attacks against talk radio. Let me tell you something, he and his sidekick announced that they were going to take a brief three-week hiatus from their radio show. Do you know when that was?
HANNITY: When was that? They had a radio show?
BOZELL: One thousand ninety four days ago. Three years ago and they didn’t come back.
HANNITY: Here is my thought though. The NRA, they are the number one supporters and the number one group involved in teaching gun safety classes and you know what? If Joe really cares about preventing Newtown or another school shooting or another tragedy, then support the rights of putting retired policemen and military in our schools so that we protect them like we protect our politicians, our sports stars, our Hollywood stars, and our money. And maybe he even has --
BOZELL: Sean he’s just another demagogue -- he's just another demagogue at MSNBC.
HANNITY: Shocker. All right, good to see you. Thank you, Brent Bozell.
