Thursday’s Morning Joe continued MS NOW’s celebration of Democrat Scott Colom’s declared victory in Mississippi, with Joe Scarborough proclaiming the victory was a result of an “assault on civil rights and voting rights of Black Americans” by both the Supreme Court and the Republican Party. In the process, Scarborough called arguments against the Voting Rights Act alike to what “bigots” said in the 1960s when they opposed the passing of the bill.
To celebrate Colom’s victory, who was also praised by all of the broadcast morning shows, Scbarorihg was joined by MS NOW regulars, including Rev. Al Sharpton.
But eventually, Scarborough took the floor to give his reasoning for Colom’s win:
Thursday’s Morning Joe was also filled with celebration for Scott Colom, as Joe Scarborough claimed Colom’s win in MS and Keisha Lance Bottoms's win in GA were “because of the assault on civil rights and voting rights of Black Americans” by Republicans and the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/irM5mopu3O
— Nick (@nspin310) November 12, 2026
This man was elected, Keisha was elected, other Black leaders were elected in part because of the assault on civil rights and voting rights of Black Americans.
Scarborough then turned to go after the Supreme Court and its overturning of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and also called Republicans “bigots” in the process:
Were it not for the Supreme Court aggressively assaulting the Civil Rights Act, and a lot of Republicans actually saying openly what bigots, what segregationists said in the 1960s, “it should have never been passed.
"The fact that that became mainstream thought for a lot of Republicans, that caused what we saw, not only in Mississippi and Georgia, but South Carolina and North Carolina and Texas and across America, that it was actually the aggression against civil rights and voting rights for Black Americans,” he added.
Scarbrough then revived talk of gerrymandering, and declared if Republican destricted in more states, the House would have eleven more elected Democrats.
He concluded, in more of a victorious tone, “These very things the White House was doing to try to rig the system politically blew up in their face and caused a landslide unlike any other we have seen for most of our lifetimes. It's an extraordinary story. When you start talking about the laws of unintended consequences.”
Co-host Jonathan Lemire joined in to bash the Supreme Court and Republicans:
When the Supreme Court decision came down, there was a rush from southern states. Who could be first to take advantage of this and to redraw things? And then you take that, which was such an animating thing for so many voters, add to that some of the other redistricting that was already happening at Trump's behest, started in Texas, moved to other places. And there were Americans, particularly black Americans, who felt like they were being disenfranchised, and they were so motivated to come out to vote.
Scarborough and Lemire omitted gerrymandering in Democrat states, like California, that theoretically disenfranchised Republican voters. An amendment also passed in Maryland on Election Day that will likely lead to the state’s only Republican district being redrawn, disenfranchising the state’s Republican voters.
The transcripts are below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
November 12, 2026
6:12:07 AM Eastern
(...)
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, the Rev. brings up such an important point, Jonathan Lemire, one that Mika and I were talking about earlier. This man was elected, Keisha was elected, other Black leaders were elected in part because of the assault on civil rights and voting rights of Black Americans.
Were it not for the Supreme Court aggressively assaulting the Civil Rights Act, and a lot of Republicans actually saying openly what bigots, what segregationists said in the 1960s, “it should have never been passed.” The fact that that became mainstream thought for a lot of Republicans, that caused what we saw, not only in Mississippi and Georgia, but South Carolina and North Carolina and Texas and across America, that it was actually the aggression against civil rights and voting rights for Black Americans.
That actually led to the reaction that got Scott elected, that got Keisha elected. We could go through that. It's just like what people are starting to call dummy-mandering now. If Donald Trump had succeeded in his dummy-mandering in Indiana and South Carolina, Democrats would have picked up, what, ten more seats? So these very things Republicans were doing. These very things the Supreme Court was doing. These very things the White House was doing to try to rig the system politically blew up in their face and caused a landslide unlike any other we have seen for most of our lifetimes. It's an extraordinary story. When you start talking about the laws of unintended consequences.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: You could not be more right. When the Supreme Court decision came down, there was a rush from southern states. Who could be first to take advantage of this and to redraw things? And then you take that, which was such an animating thing for so many voters, add to that some of the other redistricting that was already happening at Trump's behest, started in Texas, moved to other places. And there were Americans, particularly black Americans, who felt like they were being disenfranchized, and they were so motivated to come out to vote. And that led to all these historic results, including yesterday, we finally got in Mississippi, Elise, a state you know very well.
And I can't help but note this: The county that is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, Forrest county. He's the first Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, Scott Colom won the county named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. Scott Colom won by about 70 percent.
(...)
