Since Joe Scarborough has built his MSNBC show around bashing Republicans and President Donald Trump, how else could he spin the Sunday cave-in by Senate Democrats on the government shutdown as anything other than a liberal victory?
And not just any win. On his Monday show, he compared the move by Senate Democrats to retreats of George Washington and the British against Adolf Hitler.
A temporary retreat, he argued, is part of the long game of beating Trump. “It also happened when George Washington retreated from Long Island in 1776. That retreat helped us eventually win the Revolutionary War. And let’s make you feel better. My God, there have been movies made about Dunkirk. I mean, one of the great retreats in the history of modern warfare allowed the British to live to fight another day,” he said on his morning show on Monday.
What’s more, Scarborough said it proves that only Democrats care about the needy, even though the Sunday procedural vote was an acceptance of what the Republicans have been offering for over 40 days in their bid to end the government shutdown.
“Why did these Democrats do what they did? This is very easy to explain. Well, because Democrats, unlike a lot of Republicans, actually care about the hungry. They just do,” he said.
“Democrats live to fight another day with the political winds finally, for the first time in a year and a half, at their backs,” he said in a twisted and unrealistic argument that easily made his rant the weekly choice for our Liberal Media Scream.
Joe Scarborough on Monday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC:
If I were at a town hall meeting, and I did hundreds and hundreds of town hall meetings, and if I were a Democrat, this would be easy. I would go in tonight, go, ‘Let me tell you what happened. We fought Donald Trump. We fought him like hell. We fought the Republicans. We fought them like hell. And all we wanted to do, not help liberals, not help Democrats. We wanted to help people in their own home districts. We wanted to help them with food assistance. We wanted to help them paying their healthcare bills. But they were obsessed with giving tax cuts to billionaires, to multinational corporations, to tech monopolies.’ I mean, damn, even this last week, we were still finding out that they were extending tax cuts to crypto tycoons. They were extending new tax cuts, by the way they were interpreting the law, to tycoons in foreign real estate, foreign real estate tycoons.
And at the same time they were doing that, they were fighting like hell to stop people in red state America from getting a little bit of a helping hand on their healthcare costs, which are exploding through the roof. And to get some food assistance so their kids could eat.
So, we’ve framed this debate, and while we framed this debate in a way that puts us in a powerful position as we move forward over the next year, guess what else we did? We had historic wins in Virginia. We had historic wins in New Jersey. We had a historic win in California, and Donald Trump’s approval ratings are lower now than they’ve ever been, according to CNN — according to four out of five polls last week, his approval ratings when it comes to the economy are in the 30s.
So, yes, sometimes you declare victory, sometimes you win. And then I would give a couple of historical analogies because, after all, who at a town hall meeting doesn’t like historical analogies? I would talk about how sometimes Katty Kay’s strategic retreats actually lead to eventual victory. And I can tell you that happened for us as Republicans after the government shutdown ended. But it also happened, I mean, not to rub salt in the wound, but it also happened when George Washington retreated from Long Island in 1776. That retreat helped us eventually win the Revolutionary War. And let’s make you feel better. My god, there have been movies made about Dunkirk. I mean, one of the great retreats in the history of modern warfare allowed the British to live to fight another day.
….
Why did these Democrats do what they did? This is very easy to explain. Well, because Democrats, unlike a lot of Republicans, actually care about the hungry. They just do. Are Republicans going to be rewarded because they don’t give a damn about helping the hungry in their own districts? I say no because Democrats care about the hungry, because Democrats understand if this continues, families will not be able to be together over Thanksgiving, over the holidays. And for many, that’s the only time they get to see their children, they get to see their grandchildren.
They understand the chaos was building and that disasters could be happening. That’s pretty easy. And also, I’m sorry, it’s just true whether you like it or not, Democrats live to fight another day with the political winds finally, for the first time in a year and a half, at their backs. The polls have all shifted, and they will stay that way when the next debate comes up on giving working Americans a little bit of help, being able to afford their healthcare.
Brent Baker, the Steven P.J. Wood senior fellow and vice president for research and publications at the Media Research Center, explained our pick: “Scarborough proved his driving motivation every morning is to spin the news to put Republicans and President Trump in the worst light and provide an uplifting narrative for liberals to tout. Of course, Scarborough didn’t explain how he can say Democrats are the ones who truly care about those who need federal food assistance when only eight of 47 Democratic senators voted to provide that funding, by voting to end the shutdown, while 52 of 53 Republican Senators have consistently voted to keep the government open and thus never endanger the food aid.”
Rating: FOUR out of FIVE screams.