During Donald Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski helped boost his visibility by providing extensive coverage on their MSNBC show Morning Joe. However, as Trump’s campaign progressed, the relationship soured, leading Scarborough to eventually leave the Republican Party. Now, Morning Joe has become a reliable platform for daily critiques of Trump and MAGA Republicans.
In a recent segment, they played a clip of Trump insulting the military service of then-rival candidate John McCain, reigniting past controversies.
This resurfaced in light of a recent offense involving Trump’s conduct at Arlington National Cemetery, prompting frequent Morning Joe commentator Mike Barnicle to finally voice what many have been reluctant to say outright.
BREAKING: In a must watch moment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Mike Barnicle calls Trump a “damaged, delusional, old man” and SLAMS the media for making absurd false equivalencies between Trump & Harris.
This needed to be said. RT so all Americans see this.pic.twitter.com/8AVv5EKQIm
— Trump L’s (@Trump_Losses) September 4, 2024
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Barnicle recalled an agreement he had with a Democratic senator during Trump’s 2015 campaign—due to Trump’s comments about McCain, it seemed inevitable that he would lose the election. To their shock, Trump went on to win.
Barnicle emphasized how Trump has maintained a firm grip on the Republican Party ever since, a dynamic the GOP has been struggling with for years. Now, with Trump once again closing in on the presidency, Barnicle questioned how the country ended up in this position.
“Today we have a damaged, delusional old man who again might get re-elected to the presidency of the United States. He is that close to it again; how did this happen? How does it happen that a man, who speaks the way he speaks, deranged sometimes, delusional sometimes.”
The current campaign contrasts Trump with his Democratic opponents, shifting focus from the long-standing criticisms of President Biden’s age to a re-energized campaign under Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris’s involvement has shifted the narrative, highlighting Trump as the aging candidate out of touch with the country’s needs.
Yet, despite Trump’s repeated offenses and erratic behavior, the media often covers him with a false equivalency, placing him on the same level as Harris rather than focusing on the real dangers he presents.
“Some of the things he posts on Truth Social, his website, you cannot repeat on American television. You wouldn’t repeat the words in front of your children. That’s who he is. How did we get here? How did the Republican Party get here?” The continues, “There’s a false equivalency going on in the coverage of this race, in that Donald Trump can say whatever crazy things he wants to say about submarines and sharks and electric batteries. Whatever he wants to say; and it’s not really covered in the sense that it’s covered describing, who said it, why he said it and who the man is. Trump, out of his mind. And always in that story, in the false equivalency by too many reporters and too many American newspapers. There’s also, btw, Kamala Harris: Changed Her Mind of Fracking. Alway throw in something like that in the coverage of the story. It’s ridiculous!”
The ongoing dialogue between Trump’s candidacy and the Democratic opposition highlights how, despite years of controversies and offenses, Trump remains a formidable figure in American politics—one who is reported on more for spectacle than substance.
Featured image via screengrab.
