That was ugly! Today’s Morning Joe offered a prime example of the notion that the bitterest political fights are the ones between members of the same party. Joe Scarborough and Bill Kristol got into a nasty spat over Kristol’s accusation that in the early days of the campaign, Morning Joe had been supportive of Donald Trump, and by extension bears some responsibility for his rise.
An angry Scarborough shot back “you lied!” and laid out the case that he had declared early on that he wouldn’t vote for Trump, had analogized his call for a Muslim ban to Germany circa 1933, and said that Trump’s reluctance to reject David Duke’s endorsement was disqualifying.
Long after Kristol had left the set, Scarborough circled back to again condemn people “lying about what Mika and I said.”
Note: This Insurrectionist has followed Morning Joe‘s coverage of Trump throughout the campaign. Early on, the show was a lonely voice in the MSM saying that Trump had a real chance and needed to be taken seriously. But beyond that, the show was a friendly venue for Trump, resulting in him being a very frequent call-in guest.
Eventually, though, there’s no doubt that Scarborough became a scathing critic of Trump. Although even then, there was a point when the press reported a possible reconciliation between the two, and as we reported here, Scarborough’s tone once again became friendlier.
BILL KRISTOL: He’s going to be a failed, fluke presidential candidate and he should be ignored on election night and Republicans need to say that.MIKA BRZEZINSKI: A failed fluke?KRISTOL Yes. He won the nomination in a flukey way.JOE SCARBOROUGH: A flukey way?MIKA: They elected him, and nominated him. That’s not a fluke!KRISTOL: Well, I hope it was a fluke.MIKA: He defeated 16 people.KRISTOL: He did, and that’s unfortunate. Some Republicans refused to support him and he’s going to lose the general election.MIKA: That’s not a fluke!KRISTOL: I think it was a fluke in some ways. And in other ways, he tapped into some deep anxieties. I mean, he got a minority of the vote.MIKA: A fluke is something no one expected.KRISTOL: He got a minority–okay, fine. The Republican party [inaudble: ‘should feel bad’?]– does that make you feel better? Does that make you feel better about it, Mika? You feel great because the Republican party nominated a guy who is really a bad guy as president and you think it’s funny and amusing.MIKA: No, I actually think Republicans need to come clean on themselves, including leaders of the Republican party.KRISTOL: Well thank you. What does come clean on themselves mean.MIKA: Be honest about what’s right and wrong.KRISTOL: What’s wrong is Donald Trump. This show — this show [sarcastic tone] was very tough — this show was really tough on Trump in late 2015 and early 2016.JOE SCARBOROUGH: We were.KRISTOL: Are you going to pretend that?JOE: We were.KRISTOL: Oh fine. If that’s your way of rewriting history, that’s fine with you guys.MIKA: You mean when Joe hung up on him when he wouldn’t answer a question. Do you mean when he peppered him with questions –KRISTOL: A lot of people accommodated Donald Trump at different times. But I’m not going to get into it, we don’t have to [relitigate?] this.JOE: No, no, no. You just did. You lied. Please don’t come on my air and lie. You said in late ’15, in early December — I can’t even believe you are doing this, I don’t know why you’re so bitter.KRISTOL: I’m not bitter. I’m trying to say that Republicans need to –JOE: You’re practically crying. You’re practically crying.KRISTOL: I am upset about this election. I think it’s a sin that Donald Trump is the nomineeJOE: In early December — in early December 2015 we compared it to Germany 1933 what he was doing.KRISTOL: Oh, that’s just junk, really.JOE: Really?KRISTOL: Really. And you treated him that way when he called in, is that right?JOE: Yeah, we treated him tough.KRISTOL: [sarcastic] You treated him tough. You asked the most tough questions.JOE: We did.KRISTOL: Look, we don’t need to get into this.JOE: It’s too late. It’s too late. You’re bitter — you come on here practically crying, we’ve got it on tape, you’re screaming at Mika. You don’t even know what she’s going to say.. . .JOE: Really quickly, I think we need to stop right here for one second, Mika, and explain. Now, for 95% of the people who watch this show you know that since last September we have said that we can’t vote for Donald Trump and you know that in December after this — what was — this Muslim ban said I could never vote for a Republican that proposed that and also said this is what Nazi Germany looked like — or what Germany probably looked like in 1933. After David Duke — again, that was three months before any vote was cast in the primary. If we just want to get the timeline straight.Because we’ve had so many people lying about what Mika and I have said. Really, if it were just on Twitter that would be one thing but it’s actually a lot of media people actually lying. They never get the timeline right. So even three months beforehand, David Duke, I said it was disqualifying, first thing I wrote for the Washington Post, I said when he was ignorant about David Duke, that that was disqualifying, I think that was like in March. Anyway, I say all this to say a lot of people probably watching this morning and they’re saying oh, God, what are they doing and we get a lot of people that just aren’t smart, that are extremists on the far left or far right saying oh, they’re for Donald Trump. No we’re not. We’re actually for accuracy here.
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