Joe Scarborough: 'Everybody Saw This Coming in January' (De Blasio Didn't)

Mark Finkelstein
April 1st, 2020 10:00 AM

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There's not just a coronavirus epidemic. There's apparently also an outbreak of amnesia—and we're not only talking about Joe Biden.

On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, criticizing President Trump, said: 

"We've heard, Zeke Emanuel, that nobody could have seen this coming. The fact is, everybody saw this coming. Everybody saw this coming in early January."

What? Did Scarborough forget what NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Scarborough's own show on March 10th: March 10th! Here was de Blasio speaking to Morning Joe's Willie Geist:

 

 

Here's the transcript of both days: 

MSNBC
Morning Joe
3/10/20
7:06 am ET

BILL DE BLASIO: Willie, 8.6 million people here. We have 25 cases as of this morning. We care deeply about each of those individuals, but against the backdrop of 8.6 million people, and for the vast majority of New Yorkers, life is going on pretty normally right now, and we want to encourage that . . . If you’re under 50, and you’re healthy, which is most New Yorkers, there’s very little threat here. This disease, even if you were to get it, basically acts like a common cold or flu . . . Our schools are running. We’ve said, even if, God forbid, we found a case in a school, we’re not shutting down all our schools. We’re not even shutting down that school long term. We’re going to go in, clean that school. Isolate individuals who had that really direct contact, and then get up and running . . . We cannot shut down because of undue fear. That’s my concern.

. . . 

We are better off keeping our society together, our economy together, our schools open. We're better off not closing larger events. Because from what we're seeing, you don’t get this disease by walking into an arena where someone else in that arena has it . . . So I think there's an overreaction. 

 

Morning Joe
4/1/20
6:05 am EDT

JOE SCARBOROUGH: We've heard, Zeke Emanuel, that nobody could have seen this coming. The fact is, everybody saw this coming. Everybody saw this coming in early January. So I know you, like me, have wanted the president to give this sobering press conference for weeks. And what happened in a strange way yesterday was a bit of a relief, because it was the first time, actually, the president allowed his scientists and doctors to say the sort of things that you've been saying all along. 

To summarize de Blasio from March: 

  • For the vast majority of New Yorkers, life is going on pretty normally right now, and we want to encourage that.
  • If you’re under 50, and you’re healthy, which is most New Yorkers, there’s very little threat here.
  • This disease, even if you were to get it, basically acts like a common cold or flu.
  • Even if, God forbid, we found a case in a school, we’re not shutting down all our schools. We’re not even shutting down that school long term.
  • We cannot shut down because of undue fear. 
  • We're better off not closing larger events.
  • We cannot shut down because of undue fear. That’s my concern.

So according to Scarborough, it's Trump's fault for not acting sooner. But de Blasio, on Morning Joe, scoffing at the risks a full two months after the early-January date when Scarborough claims "everybody saw this coming?" Crickets.

Note: whereas Scarborough claims that "everybody saw this coming" in early January, the earliest mention we can find Scarborough making of the disease was in his tweet of February 24th.