Somewhere in Joe Scarborough's storied past, he apparently became convinced that insults of your enemies will stick—if you repeat them often enough. Maybe it worked for him in the halls of high school.
And thus, a regular Morning Joe feature consists of Scarborough and his sidekicks repeating a litany of insults about their political opponents. Today's targets were Republican candidates, and Joe & Co.'s slurs of choice were "freak," "weirdo," and "wackadoodle," with an assortment of other epithets scattered in. We counted no fewer than 27 insults hurled at conservatives.
Scarborough kicked things off by complaining "there has not been a positive profile written about Kamala Harris in at least two years." This is apparently required? (Maybe he complains because Kamala apparently calls Joe for political advice.)
This is not just, you know, the far right that, that constantly attacks her, thinking that White people in their mother's basement who are 44-years-old with Cheetos smeared all over their face and their boxers are going to love the stories, cause it's going to make them feel superior as white men who are in, at such a good station in their life.
And who does Joe imagine his viewers are? Maybe his elevated peers in Jupiter, Florida, and summering in Nantucket. They live in mansions and have their maid fetch the Grey Poupon?
Scarborough says despite the media's failure to puff Kamala, she's beating DeSantis in early polls. He tweeted this, too:
MEDIA BIAS ALERT: Kamala Harris hasn’t had a positive profile in a year. DeSantis sneezes and he’s framed as the rising star of politics. And yet the Great White Hope STILL loses is every head-to-head matchup with Harris. The VP also draws even with Trump. https://t.co/w6Z8kVHuw4
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) July 3, 2022
The panel then launched its barrage of insults at Republican candidates. In addition to Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, Eugene Robinson, and Michael Steele all chipped in with their "wackadoo" slurs of choice.
Mediaite took notice on Tuesday of Scarborough mocking J.D. Vance as two-faced and using a "cringeworthy" impression of a "South Park character." They didn't note that Scarborough happily hosted Vance back in 2016, when he wasn't a Republican candidate and was describing Trump as "just another opioid."
Morning Joe preaches to its largely liberal audience. But will the show's brand of juvenile name-calling impress those in the persuadable middle? We'll see come November.
Morning Joe slurring Republican candidates as, among other things, "freaks," "weirdos," and "wackos," was sponsored in part by Angi, Servpro, and UPS.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/12/22
6:04 am EDTJOE SCARBOROUGH: There has not been a positive profile written about Kamala Harris in at least two years. This is not just, you know, the far right that, that constantly attacks her, thinking that white people in their mother's basement who are 44-years-old with Cheetos smeared all over their face and their boxers are going to love the stories, cause it's going to make them feel superior as white men who are in, at such a good station in their life.
. . .
As bad as the Democrats have been, the Republicans are just crazy. Voters are like, yeah, I've got problems with the Democrats, but those people, those insurrectionists and those weirdos, those freaks.. . .
WILLIE GEIST: The freaks and weirdos.
SCARBOROUGH: We've been talking for some time about parallels actually with France . . . They thought Le Pen understood how they lived better, she probably had policies they supported more. But they said, she's a freak. She's a weirdo. We don't want that wackadoodle running our country [Michael Steele laughs.]
. . .
These Senate races in, in '22, whether you're looking at Ohio, or looking at Pennsylvania, and some of them in Georgia, they're like: we don't want the crackpot. We don't want the crackpot in our state. We may agree with them on policies. Maybe we think the Democrats are too progressive. But we just can't have a weirdo representing us in Washington, D.C.
. . .
I don't know, I think maybe Republicans have finally pushed the envelope too much with some of these insurrectionists and freaks.
MICHAEL STEELE: I think Rick James did a song about some of those freaks ["Superfreak"]. Just, you made me think of that when you said that about Le Pen . . . And I think people are sitting there and going, to your point, okay, we'll leave the freaks over there.
. . .
EUGENE ROBINSON: Elections are choices. And voters are going to have to make these choices. And they're not going to choose wackos.
. . . .
SCARBOROUGH: And this hypocrite, J.D. Vance, who's acting like a freak . . . They picked insurrectionists, wackos, freaks, and conspiracy theorists . . . These people are weirdos! Wackos.
. . .
STEELE: Wackos, freaks.
. . .
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And it's just so terrible, though, with the wackadoos. What they've done.
