"A district the Republicans should have won."
That's how, on today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough described yesterday's special election in New York's 3rd district, won by the Democrat, Tom Suozzi, who represented the district from 2017 to 2023, and so was the virtual incumbent in the race. He won the district in 2018 by 59-41 percent, and in 2020 by 56-43.
The election was held to fill the seat vacated by serial fabulist Republican George Santos, only the third person since the Civil War to be expelled from the House. There was surely significant voter sentiment wanting to punish Santos retroactively.
Moreover, it was in a district that in 2020, per Ballotpedia, Biden carried by over 10 points (although, before correcting himself, Willie Geist had said, trying to support Scarborough's point, that Trump won the district in 2020.)
Scarborough blamed Trump for the loss. This despite the fact that Mazi Pilip, the Republican candidate, had distanced herself from Trump, never endorsed him, declined to say if she even voted for Trump in 2020—and is reportedly still a registered Democrat!
Moreover, running to be the successor to the disgraced Santos, if there was one thing Pilip absolutely had to avoid was being caught "embellishing"—to use Santos' phrase—her resume. But the Democrats at the New York Times published an article on how Pilip had described herself on social media as having been a "paratrooper" in the Israeli military, she was not: "She was an armorer maintaining weapons in the paratrooper’s brigade, not a paratrooper or trained parachutist. She did not face combat."
Trump's post on her loss might have been ungracious, calling her a "very foolish woman" for failing to endorse him. But the fact is that Pilip was anything but a MAGA candidate. But Morning Joe the Biden Adviser Show had to parrot a statement put out by the Biden campaign, as read by Geist: "Donald Trump lost again tonight. When Republicans run on Trump's extreme agenda even a Republican-held seat, voters reject them."
Morning Joe even needled Trump by adding a statement from Nikki Haley saying "Donald Trump continues to be a huge weight against Republican candidates. Until Republicans wake up, we will continue to lose."
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
2/14/24
6:03 am ETJOE SCARBOROUGH: So Willie, the big news coming out yesterday in the political world, sure to shake up the Republicans, yet another loss in an off-year election.
I mean, the Republicans just continue to lose. They continue to underperform. This continues to happen in the age of Trump. If you're running in a special election, in the age of Trump, you're most likely going to lose. I mean, Democrats just over -- I mean, Donald Trump has turned the Democratic party into the Kansas City chiefs of special elections. Just, it's always -- there's always areaction. And there was again last night.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh, yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: In a district Republicans should have won, again!
WILLIE GEIST: Exactly. In a district that Donald Trump just won in 2020. A district that George Santos took in 2022. And now it goes back to the Democrats. They're celebrating this morning after former Congressman Tom Suozzi's special election win in New York's third district.
The victory against Nassau County legislator Mazi Pilip flips that district from red to blue, cutting now Republicans' razor-thin majority in the House even closer. He replaces disgraced former Congressman George Santos who was ousted last year.. . .
After Suozzi's win last night in New York, the Biden campaign wrote in a statement, "Donald Trump lost again tonight. When Republicans run on Trump's extreme agenda even a Republican-held seat, voters reject them. Trump and the MAGA extremists in the House are already paying the political price for derailing a bipartisan deal to secure our borders and to fix our broken immigration system."
Nikki Haley's campaign also reacted to last night's Democratic victory in New York, writing, "Let's just say the quiet part out loud. Donald Trump continues to be a huge weight against Republican candidates. Until Republicans wake up, we will continue to lose. Time for a new generation of conservative leadership that doesn't turn off the American people."
Donald Trump, as you can imagine, blamed anyone but himself for the loss, calling Pilip, the Republican candidate, a "very foolish woman" and saying his MAGA supporters stayed home again yesterday.
So, Joe, I think I misspoke. I said Trump won in 2020. I meant, Joe Biden won by eight points in 2020. Then it flips to Santos, a Republican, by eight points in 2022. And now this is looking like another eight-point win, or so, for the Democrat Tom Suozzi, a known entity there, a guy people trust.
