Some psyops from the Morning Joe crowd today. When the goal is to undermine the enthusiasm of a candidate's supporters, try to convince them that their guy actually doesn't want to win!
And that's exactly what Joe Scarborough attempted in today's opening segment. With Al Sharpton chipping in, the pair postulated at least six times that President Trump does not want to win re-election. They based their contention on some of the controversial remarks the president has made at recent events, claiming it would hurt the president with key demographic groups.
If there's one thing we know about President Trump, it's that he's highly-competitive and intensely interested in winning. So Scarborough's suggestion makes no sense on its face. But Joe presumably figures it's worth floating, if only to hopefully discourage a few faint-hearted Trump fans.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And I actually looked at the news yesterday, and came to the conclusion: this does not look like a man who wants to win, who wants to be re-elected! . . . Again, time and time again, every day, this guy acts like he doesn't want to get re-elected. He undercuts his aides who are trying to cover up for previous mistakes that he’s making, and the situation just keeps getting worse.
. . .
And getting back to the earlier thing, that this is a guy who doesn't act like he wants to get re-elected, again, this is a guy that is driving his campaign off the cliff every day. And it seems like he is working as hard as he can to boil down his base to 30% . . . Just the politics of it is stupid, and self-defeating. And yet he does this every day! You have known him, like I have known him, for a long time. Does this guy want to win the election?!
AL SHARPTON: It is becoming more and more clear to me that you're right: he really doesn't really want to win this. And he's not doing anything that would demonstrate otherwise.
But there is one thing, according to Mika Brzezinski, that the president does want to do: murder Joe and Mika, given the opportunity!
In the context of discussing whether President Trump was joking when he said at the Tulsa rally that he had asked aides to slow down testing, Mika, in an utterly serious tone, said:
"Honestly, Joe, when you really look at this presidency, he's never joking. And you and I never want to be on Fifth Avenue with him. Because he is never joking."
Mika's mention of Fifth Avenue was an allusion to a statement then-candidate made on the campaign trail in 2016: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"
So Mika was saying that she and Joe would not want to be with President Trump on Fifth Avenue, because given the opportunity, he would shoot them. And she twice emphasized that the president is "never joking."
Trump obviously was joking in 2016. Trump voters are law-respecting folks. Moreover, if you openly shoot someone on a major NYC street, you get locked up [unless you're a member of a de Blasio-favored group], and lose not just some, but all of your voters!
