The entire opening segment of today’s Morning Joe was devoted to Joe and Mika’s suggestion that President Trump is, literally, demented.
The show repeatedly cited Douglas Brinkley’s claim that in his recent interviews, Trump showed himself to be in a “confused mental state.” Joe made his view very explicit. Focusing on a statement Trump made about the Civil War, Scarborough said: “my mother has had dementia for ten years. That sounds like the sort of thing my mother would say today.”
Scarborough went on to twice suggest that the president can’t remember what he said five minutes ago. Mika portentously declared that “we’re going to say—maybe no one—I’m not sure he’s okay. I’m not sure he’s okay. You have that feeling with people who are not okay, where it starts to dawn on you that they are not okay.”
Scarborough also suggested that Trump’s mental state has deteriorated in recent times.
What’s next? Will Democrats jump on this theme to start talking about the 25th Amendment, and its provisions for the involuntary removal of a president deemed to be incompetent? Morning Joe tread on very provocative ground today.
Note: Joe echoed an MSM theme—that President Trump was unaware that Andrew Jackson died before the Civil War. In fact, Trump said that the war might have been averted if “Andrew Jackson been a little bit later.” That clearly seems to indicate Trump’s regret that Jackson wasn’t around at the time of the war.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War . . . People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War. Why could that one not have been worked out?. . .MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Douglas Brinkley framed it this way: “it seems to be among the most bizarre recent 24 hours in American presidential history. It was just surreal disarray and a confused mental state from the president. Joe, you were equally perplexed, tweeting: “though it seems impossible, this is getting worse by the day. Is the president spinning even more out of control?”. . .JOE SCARBOROUGH: Meacham, we can ask you the easy question, of course, about Andrew Jackson. Obviously he was wrong about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War by a matter of about 15 years. I want to ask you the more difficult question: do you follow Douglas Brinkley in your assessment that the President of the United States, certainly over the past 48 hours, has appeared to have a “confused mental state?”. . .JOE: He started as if nobody has asked this question before. Why did we even have a Civil War. My mother has had dementia for 10 years. That sounds like the sort of thing my mother would say today.. . .JOE: He said not so long ago that we could be headed to a “major, major war” with North Korea, and now he’s honored to meet [with Kim Jong-un]. Again, it’s as if he doesn’t remember what he said five minutes ago . . . He doesn’t remember what he said just five minutes ago. He doesn’t know his own positions on a health care bill that he’s passing. He seems confused.. . .JOE: You’ll see that we’re not talking about whether Trump is a huckster or not. We’re talk about how mentally, there is a marked change in this man even in the past five years.. . .MIKA: We’re going to say what maybe no one—we’ll do it again—I’m not sure he’s okay. I’m not sure he’s okay. You have that feeling with people who are not okay. It starts to dawn on you that they are not okay.JOE: And it’s getting worse.. . .JOE: It’s beyond bizarre. And Mika, I want to end this where you began it. There is nobody in the White House that is capable of stopping him from doing serious damage by the day to American alliances, and to American treaties, and to America’s standing across the globe.And yes, this man has been erratic from day one. But it has gotten worse. He has, as Douglas Brinkley said, a confused mental state that has gotten worse.
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