Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:03 pm
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough’s latest lame defense of Donald Trump was that Trump is only placing a role when he behaves like a racist bigot.
Video and transcript via Media Matters:
JOE SCARBOROUGH (HOST): Fake it ’til you make it. Fake it until you make it. And that is a question. I will say, though, one of the great ironies of this campaign, I’ve said it here on the show every day, is anybody — and Donny certainly has known Donald for a long time — anybody that knows Donald knows that that Donald last night was closer to the Donald Trump that we’ve all known for decades than the character he’s playing. Because make no mistake of it, make no mistake of it, this loud, screaming, racially insensitive, at times race-baiting buffoon that gets behind microphones at political rallies, that’s Donald Trump playing a role. I just think — unless the Donald Trump that we’ve known for 20 years is not the Donald Trump. And so I’m saying —
KATTY KAY: It’s also the Donald Trump that came up with the Muslim ban and the Mexicans being rapists and things that he’s said about women. Those are his statements, he owns them.
SCARBOROUGH: Right, right, Katty. And that’s exactly what I was saying about the guy that gets behind the microphone. I’m just saying, this is an interesting pivot because as he goes to teleprompter, he’s actually becoming more of the Donald Trump that Donny and Mika and myself and everybody else has known for decades, which is really bizarre, that he’s got to go to teleprompter to be more naturally himself. I’ll ask you this question, again. Because the list of offenses are so long. The Mexicans, the Muslims, John McCain, Megyn Kelly, etc., etc. Have you in 20 years of knowing Donald Trump behind closed doors — and I’m not asking for you to vouch for his character, I’m just trying to make this point — have you ever heard him say the first thing in private that was close to being racially insensitive. Never, right? Never.
Just because Trump used the word regret in a sentence during a rally in Charlotte, NC doesn’t mean that everything that the Republican nominee has said was all part of some big act.
If Trump was playing a role, as Scarborough suggested, what does that say about the fact that the Republican Party nominated a guy who played to racists and bigots?
There is no good way to explain Trump’s decades of behavior as playing a role. Trump wasn’t playing a role when he went birther on President Obama. Trump wasn’t playing a role when made bigoted and sexist remarks as a private citizen.
It isn’t surprising that fellow rich conservative white men like Joe Scarborough think that Donald Trump is a great guy.
On the same morning that Scarborough was trying to defend Trump, the Trump campaign released their first general election campaign ad, which fearmongers about and bashes immigrants:
https://youtu.be/3mKzYPt0Bu4
The Republican Party isn’t going to be able to save itself by pretending that Donald Trump was just acting or kidding. The American people know who Trump really is, so forcing him to read a script that uses a few words that sound potentially humbling isn’t going to work.
The Joe Scarborough apology tour for Donald Trump is back in business, as the Republican Party continues to try to sell the unsellable Trump as presidential.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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