Believe it or not, Joe Scarborough still has an MSNBC show that’s influential in Washington and is still embarrassing himself on national television in ways that are truly awe-inspiring.
Scarborough on Tuesday delivered what he clearly believed would be a sure face melter. “It’s troubling to me he calls Orban one of the strongest leaders and says it in a wonderful way,” he said, referring to remarks President Trump made earlier in the week about Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “Of course, this is a person who shut down all of his opponents, politically. He’s tapped reporters’ phones. He’s destroyed independent news agencies. He’s led phony tax investigations into reporters that were critical of him, chased them from the country.”
Shut down all of his political opponents, you say?! Used the state to silence hostile media, you say?!
Despicable! Deplorable! Degenerate!
It’s interesting, though, that Scarborough is very much okay with virtually all of those things when they take place outside of Hungary.
The current U.S. president and his party are literally attempting to throw his most politically threatening rival in prison. In one of the 2 billion ridiculous criminal cases against Trump, a Democrat prosecutor is trying to void out his entire life’s work in real estate development. The Democrat-appointed judge overseeing the case has preemptively sided with her, suspending Trump’s business licenses before there has even been a trial.
Back in February, Biden went to Europe to continue his rhetorical fellating of Ukraine and President Zelensky, who Biden described as “a man whose courage would be forged in fire and steel.” He said it was an “honor” to be by Zelensky’s side as they “stand up for democracy” together.
For the uninitiated, Zelensky has indefinitely suspended elections in Ukraine, and before he found himself at war with Russia, he had shut down three TV stations for airing content sympathetic toward Russia. He has since “consolidated all TV platforms in Ukraine into one state broadcast and restricted political rivals” (NPR, July 8, 2022).
But after Biden’s speech of adoration, Scarborough could hardly contain himself as he fondly reflected on Zelensky’s bastion of democracy. “For those of us that believe that western democracy and that Jeffersonian democracy and that the freedoms that we believe in in this country and that we strive to — to live up to, even when we fall short,” he said, “this was the good stuff.”
What a dork. Scarborough is the living embodiment of that “Kombucha Girl” meme picturing a woman who tastes the drink and can’t determine whether she likes or detests it.
Authoritarian praised by Trump? “It’s troubling to me.”
Authoritarian praised by Biden? “The good stuff!”
Scarborough is still someone important in Washington. Fascinating.
