For weeks, Democrats have been growing frustrated with Republicans who haven’t condemned President Trump for not conceding to Joe Biden, but the wordsmiths on MSNBC’s Morning Joe took it to a new level Monday when they used creative new analogies to illustrate their impatience.
Alluding to “a lot of conversations” she allegedly had with anonymous “Republicans,” Kasie Hunt reported that she had been told privately that, “[A]t the end of the day, if he loses, we are not gonna — we are not gonna let the ship go down in flames.”
The ship, of course, represented the Republican Party.
Co-host Joe Scarborough loved the comparison. Speaking of not only the Republican Party, but of the conservative movement at large, he remarked: “Well, I mean, and they are letting the ship go down. Uh, they’re on it, with Donald Trump.”
Naturally, Scarborough couldn’t help but compare Trump’s legal challenges to coups and civil wars:
The — I mean, this is — this is what we always accused radicals on the left of wanting to do. Of overthrowing the government. I mean, this is — this is — I mean, I couldn’t even imagine Marxists trying to pull this off in America, but Donald Trump’s Republican Party is, Mika. They’re trying to conduct a coup, and in the State of Georgia, where there’s now a civil war, news break… he lost the State of Georgia to Joe Biden and things are only going to get worse the longer this — this moves forward.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski unsurprisingly hijacked the discussion and switched the topic to COVID by initiating a duet of vocal outrage, blaming Trump and Republicans for supposedly not caring about all the people who have perished because of the virus (a call back to some of her previous comments).
Scarborough then uncorked the grand finale of the analogy contest with a reference to the infamous Jonestown massacre: “This is all about Donald Trump. People calling in to Rush Limbaugh, saying they’re ready to die for Donald Trump. Really, is this Jonestown?”
Perhaps the Morning Joe hosts have a point. Or, more likely, their fixations with burning ships and tragic cult massacres show how removed they were from reality.
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Here’s the transcript:
Morning Joe
11/23/2020
6:21:06 AMKASIE HUNT: This is the be all and end all, right? This is the end of the road here, and if this you still keep going with this, I mean, I don’t underst — I don’t know how you come back from — from something like this. It’s very, very hard to see, and — and I think I’ve said before, I had a lot of conversations before this with Republicans who privately said, “at the end of the day, if he loses, we are not gonna — we are not gonna let the ship go down in flames.” The ship being the Republican Party and all of the history that is behind it. All of — all of the people that came before, that built what it became. We are not gonna let the ship go down in flames with this guy, with Donald Trump. But that’s what we’re watching right now, and, you know, I don’t know. And the Electoral College deadline is an important one to watch. The Georgia election is — is one to watch. If — if Donald Trump refuses to leave the White House, I’m not sure anyone’s reporting that that’s as far as he’s gonna take this, but what are they gonna do if that happens? Um, I don’t know. Because their track record would suggest that they’re not gonna do anything.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, I mean, and they are letting the ship go down. Uh, they’re on it, with Donald Trump. Uh, not only —
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Actively, actually.
SCARBOROUGH: — not only the Republican Party, but also the conservative movement. You can start reading from Edmund Burke, through Russell Kirk, through William F. Buckley, listen to the words, the speeches of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, you will see nothing that justifies the radicalism. The — I mean, this is — this is what we always accused radicals on the left of wanting to do. Of overthrowing the government. I mean, this is — this is — I mean, I couldn’t even imagine Marxists trying to pull this off in America, but Donald Trump’s Republican Party is, Mika. They’re trying to conduct a coup, and in the State of Georgia, where there’s now a civil war, news break, Donald Trump lost the State of Florida [sic] to Joe Biden. I’m sorry, the State of Georgia, he lost the State of Georgia to Joe Biden and things are only going to get worse the longer this — this moves forward.
BRZEZINSKI: Well, I mean, I don’t know if it matters to the Republicans at all, but the backdrop to this is very bad short term news on the coronavirus, and the numbers —
SCARBOROUGH: They don’t — they don’t care.
BRZEZINSKI: — surging all over the place and the president tweeting all weekend long—
SCARBOROUGH: They don’t care.
BRZEZINSKI: — about himself, and about the election he wants to steal. That’s who they’re aligning with.
SCARBOROUGH: They don’t — they don’t really care about the people dying.
BRZEZINSKI: So, there was break —
SCARBOROUGH: They — they real — ‘cause if they did, they would let Joe Biden start working his transition, so they could start getting the vaccines ready, and they could make up a plan to distribute vaccines from across the — to across the country,
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: — to 300 million people, to get the economy started again. To get the economy started again, but they don’t care. This is all about Donald Trump. People calling in to Rush Limbaugh, saying they’re ready to die for Donald Trump. Really, is this Jonestown?
BRZEZINSKI: People are dying.
SCARBOROUGH: Really? Yeah. You — you don’t have to say you’re willing to die for Donald Trump, because hundreds of thousands of people already have died because of Donald Trump, and it’s only going to get worse —
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: — if — if — if this doesn’t stop, and if we don’t allow the President-Elect to start preparing, as record number of cases continue to skyrocket up, Mika, and way too many Americans are dying every day.