“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough slammed the reported terms of a proposed deal between Iran and the United States, calling it a “complete and total surrender” on the part of President Trump.
“This is a disaster. The president keeps talking about how we’re going to end Iran’s nuclear program. This deal, as people recognize, does not do that, and if you punt the ball, the Iranians will never do a deal,” Scarborough said Tuesday. “Trump, if he did this deal, would find himself in a position far weaker than Barack Obama ever was in. That’s just data. That’s not opinion.”
“If somebody says ‘Fake news’ to that, well, that person’s lying and they reveal themselves as a liar because we’re talking about data. We’re talking about numbers. We’re talking about the fact that we’re in a worse position if we make this deal than we were before the war,” Scarborough continued. He also noted that Republicans like Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Roger Wicker have all said as much, adding, “In a very ominous sign, the hard-liners on the Far Right in Iran who have taken over the government are saying that as well.”
“This is a deal that would be a complete and total surrender for the United States of America. Iran cannot have nukes. This still will allow them to keep nukes,” the MS NOW host explained. “It will allow them to continue making money off the Straits and be in a better position economically and politically after the war than they were before the war. That seems like a losing proposition.”
Scarborough acknowledged that Trump has found himself in a “catch-22 situation” with the conflict in Iran, thanks to the Middle Eastern country’s current economic leverage in the situation.
“Does he end the war and help Americans on gas prices? Or does he leave an Iran that still has nukes, that has more power of the Strait [of Hormuz] than before the war and that will be more ominous, more dangerous and more of a threat to the Gulf allies that told the president not to get into this war at the beginning?” Scarborough asked. “Right now, he’s stuck in the middle of that and the Iranians are not giving him an off ramp.”
That said, the “Morning Joe” host argued that Trump has no one to blame more for his current situation than himself.
“Idiots have been knocking idiots and they’re just idiots,” Scarborough said Tuesday morning. “So much of the MAGA movement is fueled by hatred of experts. Well, let me tell you what experts told everybody about Iran: Don’t go. Don’t go into Iran, because if you go into Iran, they’ll cut off the Strait immediately.”
“I told him on the phone, ‘Iran is not Venezuela. Don’t listen to Lindsey Graham. Don’t do it. Iran is not Venezuela.’ But he thought it was,” he concluded. “Sometimes, actually, you do need to pick up the phone and call one or two [experts] because they will stop you from getting involved in what … could be one of the greatest military defeats in the past century.”
Scarborough’s comments came after the United States struck Iran in “self-defense” overnight, despite the cease-fire.
