Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's Amanpour & Co. to promote his book about President Harry Truman, MSNBC host and disaffected ex-Republican Joe Scarborough laid it on thick in trying distance himself from his former party and even the conservative movement, claiming that he had not felt good about either in 20 years, and even that he "never" cared about the Republican party.
It was the second time this week that the show -- shown on both PBS and CNN International -- has hosted a bitter ex-Republican to bash his former party.
After Scarborough used his new book about Harry Truman to be critical of Republicans for giving so much support to President Donald Trump, interviewer Walter Isaacson asked his guest to predict the future as he followed up: "As somebody who was once a Republican and a conservative and, to some extent, a populist, what is the future? How does conservatism in America regain its footing after Trump?"
Although he later contradicted himself by declaring that he used to be "proud" of being a Republican, the former Florida Congressman immediately put distance between himself and the GOP, and admitted that he had actually been down on his own party for a much longer time than just the last few years of the Trump presidency:
I don't know. I really don't care about the Republican party and I never did. I considered myself a small government conservative. I do care about -- it doesn't hurt me that the Republican party has collapsed and, I believe, are going the way of the Whigs, and deserve to go the way of the Whigs.
After complaining that the GOP has "sullied itself" and is no longer akin to the views of Edmund Burke or President Ronald Reagan, he then trashed the current state of the conservative movement;
I don't know that there is a conservative movement now, if you -- again, I focus a lot on what Russell Kirk wrote in The Conservative Mind. And you look at the fact that conservatism, as defined by Russell Kirk and Bill Buckley, was supposed to be very skeptical of ideologies and rigid approaches towards politics. And I just don't see -- I don't see a conservative movement out there that's worth saving.
Scarborough further lambasted conservatives:
And I was very proud to be a conservative, proud to be a Republican, but, my God, I haven't been proud to be either in about 20 years. So I don't know what the future is for the Republican party. I don't know what the future is for the conservative movement, but, right now, it's not good because it looks a lot more like what's happening in Poland and Hungary than what Edmund Burke or Russell Kirk ever talked about.
This episode of Amanpour & Co. was sponsored by the Anderson Family Fund and the Straus Family Foundation. You can fight back by letting advertisers know how you feel about them sponsoring such content.
Transcript follows:
PBS and CNN International
Amanpour & Co.
December 9, 2020
WALTER ISAACSON: As somebody who was once a Republican and a conservative and, to some extent, a populist, what is the future? How does conservatism in America regain its footing after Trump?
JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: I don't know. I really don't care about the Republican party and I never did. I considered myself a small government conservative. I do care about -- it doesn't hurt me that the Republican party has collapsed and, I believe, are going the way of the Whigs, and deserve to go the way of the Whigs. It does hurt me that the movement of Edmond Burke and Russell Kirk and, yes, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher has sullied itself the way it has.
I really -- I don't know that there is a conservative movement now if you -- again, I focus a lot on what Russell Kirk wrote in The Conservative Mind. And you look at the fact that conservatism, as defined by Russell Kirk and Bill Buckley, was supposed to be very skeptical of ideologies and rigid approaches towards politics. And I just don't see -- I don't see a conservative movement out there that's worth saving.
And I was very proud to be a conservative, proud to be a Republican, but, my God, I haven't been proud to be either in about 20 years. So I don't know what the future is for the Republican party. I don't know what the future is for the conservative movement, but, right now, it's not good because it looks a lot more like what's happening in Poland and Hungary than what Edmund Burke or Russell Kirk ever talked about.
