Joe Scarborough Wages Epic Battle With Morning Joe Crew Over Whether White Supremacy ‘Is Who We Are’
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough pushed back at length when show regulars Mike Barnicle and Eddie Glaude Jr. insisted that the White Supremacy embodied by the Buffalo mass shooting “is who we are” as a country.
On Wednesday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the host opened the second hour with a lengthy denunciation of Republicans who push “replacement theory,” including the anti-Semitic dimension that some overlook.
Barnicle used his turn to deliver a television essay on the “shopworn” idea that “This is not who we are” as a country — a phrase that President Joe Biden invokes frequently.
One of the more shopworn phrases that we’ve heard repeatedly over the past few days with reference to Buffalo, this the latest example of who we are, is the phrase “This is not who we are.”
That’s not true. This is who we are. We are living in a country that has a virus without a vaccine. And we’ve been living in this country all of our lives. And it’s surrounded us all of our lives.
…
There will be another Buffalo. And what happens with social media is the outrageous becomes normal. In our fury, our anger, our unrest, our divisions about what happened in Buffalo, where people shopping for groceries were killed because they were Black. That’s all. That’s the single reason they died, their skin color. So we’re shocked. We’re upset. We’re angry. We’re mystified. Until next weekend, right until a playoff game begins. Until another shooting occurs. And then we’ll start this all over again. So I don’t know whether it’s beyond legislation or beyond hope, but I do know one thing.
This is who we are.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed “it is,” then veered away from the premise, until Scarborough then voiced his disagreement moments later:
What I do want to say is… I don’t believe this is who America is. I do believe this is who a large segment of our society is. I do believe that Donald Trump gave a lot of people permission in their minds to behave the way they behaved in Charlottesville. To behave the way they they behaved in Pittsburgh, the way they behaved in San Antonio, the way they behaved, sending the wrong message is not understanding, again, the power of those words that lead to those guardrails being taken down, that lead to the violence. I, I will say, and I think I’m probably in the minority here, I do want to offer people hope that are watching today. I believe just like Donald Trump lost in 2020. Just like Republicans in the House lost in 2020. Just like extremists. Some extremists lost yesterday in North Carolina. Some extremists lost yesterday in Idaho in the Republican primary, some extremists won in Pennsylvania. I do believe that these people will lose in the fall.
A few minutes later, Glaude pushed back.
Brzezinski agreed with Glaude briefly, then Scarborough talked for five solid minutes about Joe Biden and Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump, at one point reminding the control room to put Glaude back onscreen because apparently, their attention wandered too.
Glaude pushed back for another minute or so before Scarborough resumed making his point, that “we as a country on the issue of race, have made remarkable progress over the past 50 years,” and that “over the past five years… we’ve taken a detour.”
“If you’re Black or a woman, you’re pretty discouraged,” Brzezinski said.
Barnicle closed by saying “You know, when we say this is who we are, it doesn’t mean that we have no hope. We always have hope as Americans. This is the greatest country that God ever created. It has done more good in the world than all of the other nations combined. So I have hope, and I’m sure Eddie has hope. And most people watching today have hope.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
