MSNBC host Joe Scarborough compares Trump administration to a TV show’s Nazi characters
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was quick to clarify that he was not calling Trump and his administration Nazis, only Nazis from the old television show ‘Hogan’s Heroes.’
President Trump's supporters urged a form of ethnic cleansing when they called for him to send Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., back to Somalia, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough argued Friday.
During his show "Morning Joe," Scarborough noted that he was frequently optimistic about politics but indicated that the rally chants changed his perspective.
"When thousands of Americans and the audience chant ‘send her back’ to a member of Congress because of her color, because she’s a Muslim, or, just as frightening, [Sen.] Lindsey Graham, [R-S.C.] says, ‘Oh, well it’s because she doesn’t support Donald Trump,’ we are now talking about an ethnic cleansing politically ... of people who do not support our side,” he said.
Scarborough's comments piled onto the criticism surrounding the president and his supporters, whom Scarborough suggested conjured images of Nazi rallies before World War II.
“If somebody that is critical of you or critical of me for suggesting that this sounded like a rally in Germany in the early 1930s, where people were chanting, ‘Send them back, send them back,’ when they were actually citizens of Germany, and in this case, citizens of the United States of America. If there is a better analogy for those who want to be critical today, I would love to hear it,” he said.
Guest Donny Deutsch praised Scarborough for his "courage" in using the term "ethnic cleansing," a word often used to describe the Holocaust and horrific genocides in Africa. "I'm glad you did because we need to start talking that way," Deutsch said.
Scarborough responded by acknowledging that no one was getting killed but argued that the president and his supporters balked at the idea that black Muslim women would tell a "white nation" what's best for it.
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Trump, on Thursday, distanced himself from the audience's chants. "I was not happy with it, I disagree with it, but again I didn't say that, they did,” he previously said.
He's also stood by his original tweets that effectively told the freshman congresswomen to go back to their home countries -- statements that were widely panned as racist. Trump, however, has denied his tweets were racist. "Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!" he said.
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