Question for Cokie Roberts and Joe Scarborough: does the name Hillary Clinton ring a bell? On today’s Morning Joe, NPR’s Roberts and Scarborough proclaimed Donald Trump “morally tainted.” Roberts took it one step further, also declaring “morally tainted” those who support Trump.
Scarborough asked Roberts whether she’d ever seen “a candidate so morally tainted, so challenged that people are calling him a racist and calling him a con man, at the same time saying we support him?” Roberts said no one has ever seen anything like this, and for good measure, citing her roots growing up in the Jim Crow South, suggested Trump’s candidacy was a “stain” taking the country back in that direction. But when it came to being morally tainted, Hillary’s name never crossed the lips of Roberts or Scarborough.
Now it’s true that no prominent Democrats have called Hillary corrupt and unethical but nevertheless declared their support for her. But is that because neither Hillary nor those supporters are “morally tainted,” or to the contrary are her supporters that much more tainted for refusing to acknowledge the truth about Hillary’s taint? Are Joe and Cokie rewarding Dems for observing the Law of Omerta?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: There are a lot of Republicans exposed right now, saying he’s a con man but they’re supporting him. He’s a racist but they are supporting him. He exits the stage, what is the lasting impact on the Paul Ryans and the Marco Rubios and the Rudy Giulianis and the entire Republican party?COKIE ROBERTS: They’re morally tainted! I mean, there’s just no question about that. You can’t say he’s a racist and what he said was textbook racism but I support him because he’s the nominee of my party.. . .JOE: Obviously you grew up in politics around your mom and dad, have you ever seen anything like this –COKIE: No. No.JOE: — where you have a candidate so morally tainted as a candidate, so challenged that people are calling him a racist and they’re calling him a con man, at the same time they’re saying we embrace him, we support him?COKIE: Nobody’s ever seen anything like this. Not only did I grow up in politics, I grew up in the Jim Crow South. And we spent the last 50 years trying to bring people together instead of push people apart. And so that becomes a terrible stain on the country.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY