The hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” torched President Trump over his recent comments about letting Iran “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego, pointedly asking, “What’s the joke?”
At a rally in Nebraska Monday night, Trump tried to downplay the effects of the Iran War to those in attendance. “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” Trump said. “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over very soon.”
“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough wasted little time Tuesday morning taking Trump to task over those comments.
“We’re talking about the President of the United States talking about the obliteration of San Diego and Los Angeles. As a joke? That’s what I’ve already heard this morning. ‘Oh, he was just joking. You people just don’t get,’” Scarborough said, continuing, “Not funny, if you’re an American who actually believes that presidents should do more than divide us.”
Co-host Willie Geist went on to echo Scarborough’s sentiments, calling out those who have already tried to characterize concerned onlookers as overly sensitive, easily upset liberals.
“There are certain things that you ought to be upset about, and if he was joking, what’s the joke?” Geist asked. “Embedded in that alleged joke is, ‘Well, California is blue. Those are lefties. So let them bomb L.A. and San Diego. We’ve got to protect Omaha and the places I care about.’ That’s not the voice, obviously, of an American president.”
Scarborough lamented the cheers that Trump’s comments received and the state of the Republican Party a decade after the president’s first election.
“What it suggests, folks, is just how low this president has taken himself and his party after 10 years in American politics — that people in that audience laughed at the prospect of 10 million or so other Americans being wiped off the face of the earth by a nuke from Iran,” Scarborough observed.
“There’s no bottom here,” co-host Jonathan Lemire said in agreement with Scarborough. Meanwhile, fellow co-host Mika Brzezinski questioned the validity of calling the president’s comment a joke at all.
“I think it’s generous to say it’s a joke,” Brzezinski said. “I think this is all part of the ‘He Didn’t Mean It!’ mind game that he plays with his party and his supporters and the American people.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video above.
