If, as Michael Kinsley once said, "a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth," Joe Scarborough committed a gigantic gaffe on today's Morning Joe. Commenting on a Democrat bill that would have made it illegal for campaigns not to report offers of foreign assistance to the FBI, Scarborough said:
"Mitch Mcconnell is saying that Democrats want to take over broad swaths of elections, when all we’re doing is trying to stop Russians."
"We're" doing? Yup, Scarborough, and his fellow Democrats.
Here's the transcript:
MNSBC
Morning Joe
6/14/19
6:03 am EDTMIKA BRZEZINSKI: After President Trump declared that he is open to receiving information from foreign countries against his opponents in the 2020 election, and that he would only maybe let the FBI know about it, Democratic Senator Mark Warner attempted to pass a bill that makes it illegal for campaigns not to report offers of foreign assistance to the FBI. But that bill failed to pass by unanimous consent yesterday when Republican senator Marcia Blackburn rose to object, claiming that the proposal would be too much of a burden on campaigns.
. . .
But Senate Republicans have so far chosen not to work on the issue. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has blocked bipartisan election security legislation passed through the House in March, a position he reaffirmed last night.
MITCH MCCONNELL: I’m open to considering legislation, but it has to be directed in a way that doesn’t undermine state and local control of elections. The Democrat law would like to nationalize everything. They want the federal government to take over broad swaths of the election process, because they think that would somehow benefit them.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: John Heilemann, how rich that Mitch Mcconnell is saying that Democrats want to take over broad swaths of elections, when all we’re doing is trying to stop Russians. All we’re doing, those of us in the media that are asking for this, those on Capitol Hill that are asking for this, are just trying to stop Vladimir Putin, or China, or Iran, or Turkey, or any of our other adversaries at times, we’re trying to stop them.
Apparently aware of having spoken too truthfully, Scarborough awkwardly tried to cover himself: "all we're doing, those of us in the media that are asking for this, those of us on Capitol Hill that are asking for this."
Nice try, Joe, but the cat was already way out of the bag. For some time now, Scarborough has identified with the most rabid Democrats in their all-out war on President Trump. Not that there's been any doubt, but nice of Scarborough to confirm it in his own words.
