“Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski torched President Trump for pushing “baseless” claims about the L.A. mayoral race after Nithya Raman pulled ahead of Spencer Pratt for the second place spot in the election, accusing the president and his allies of trying to “undermine American democracy.”
After Raman overtook Pratt’s spot in this November’s L.A. mayoral runoff election against incumbent Karen Bass, Trump took to Truth Social to call California a “3rd world nation” with “rigged elections.” Brzezinski pushed back hard against that claim, noting at the top of Tuesday’s segment on the subject, “California’s slow vote counting process, driven by the state’s heavy reliance on mail voting, delays final results. That is known.”
Brzezinski then turned her ire toward Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson and Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson for supporting President Trump’s claims and suspicion about the L.A. election results.
“Johnson and Johnson, just pushing the president’s factually incorrect policy stories about California,” Brzezinski observed. “Donald Trump knows, as does everybody in Washington, that California always takes 30 days, by law, to count their votes. That is what the state did when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor.”
“That is what it did when Republicans took back control of the House in 2022. That is what it did when Republicans maintained their House majority in 2024. That’s how California counts its ballots every year,” Brzezinski said, remarking, “I’ll speak slowly for those who are confused, like Johnson and Johnson.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself in the video below.
Brzezinski slammed Trump and his allies even further for seemingly only questioning the legitimacy of elections when Republicans lose.
“They only say elections are legitimate when Republicans win them, even in California, especially now in California. These are cynical Republicans [making] seemingly autocratic gestures that undermine American democracy,” Brzezinski said. “These men know the law. The only time they say elections in California or elsewhere in the U.S. are legitimate is when Republicans win or when they know the cameras are rolling and they’re performing for President Trump.”
“Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist echoed Brzezinski’s criticisms of Republican leadership, as well as her concerns about the lasting impact claims like Trump’s could have on the future of American democracy.
“This is such a corrosive lie,” Geist said. “One of the stories of the Trump era is not just that Donald Trump lies and pushes these conspiracy theories that then are echoed across his friendly media outlets, across podcasts and then swallowed whole by many people in this country. It’s that you have leadership — not podcasters, leadership — the Speaker of the House, Ron Johnson, the Vice President of the United States, who just fall in line and and repeat whatever the lie is because they’re so afraid of Donald Trump.”
