Former Republican congressman turned MSNBC host Joe Scarborough thinks Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, JD Vance, is “one of the dumbest picks ever.” Granted, Scarborough will oppose and criticize anything tied to Trump.
On “Morning Joe,” Scarborough had this to say:
I’ve never got a good answer in my own mind figuring this out. I can usually figure some things out in politics, not all, but I’ve never figured out this JD Vance pick.
It just strikes me as one of the dumbest picks ever; It adds nothing. It accentuates [Trump’s] weaknesses, accentuates his weaknesses on abortion, accentuates his weaknesses on women.
So, Scarborough can usually figure some things out in politics but can’t figure out why Vance was selected as Trump’s VP pick? Let’s start with Vance’s life story, which is the epitome of the American dream. His grandparents raised him, or as Vance called them, Mamaw and Papaw. He grew up in the struggle, attended The Ohio State University, and Yale Law School, served in the Marines, entered the venture capital industry, became a U.S. Senator, and now is inching closer to becoming the next vice president of the United States.
All this to say: Vance will be able to relate to working-class folks who feel like both major political parties have failed them; he will appeal to the voters in Rust Belt states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and, of course, Ohio.
Scarborough continued:
If you go back and look at voting patterns over the past two, three years, I would say it’s sort of the biggest political earthquake as far as an issue goes since Prop 13 in 1978 in California,” Scarborough said, referring to the state’s massive property tax reform vote. It has changed the landscape of American politics,” he said of abortion rights. “Why get somebody that doubles down in that area?”
It sounds like Scarborough has a personal vendetta against Vance because when Vance wrote his famous book, Hillbilly Elegy, Scarborough had this to say about it back then:
Read JD Vance’s book if you don’t understand what’s going on.
But when he was running in the Ohio Senate race, Scarborough’s tone changed:
That sounds familiar. When Trump first ran for president, those who had previously praised him and were supposedly friends with him started trashing him any chance they got because he dared to run as a Republican, was not part of the D.C. cabal, and challenged Hillary Clinton.
If Scarbrough truly believes Vance brings nothing to the table, why does he sound so worried, and why is he so focused on Vance? He knows deep down that Vance will help Trump in key swing states, and that frightens him and MSNBC.
For whatever reason, MSNBC as a whole seems to have a vendetta against Vance. Contributor, Alex Wagner, had this bizarre take on Vance’s RNC speech:
… This plot in Eastern Kentucky, where six generations of his family are buried, and his hope is that his wife and he are eventually laid to rest there, and their kids follow them. … It reveals someone who believes the history that the families should inherit and indeed the history that should be determinative in the story of the Vance family … I just think the construction of this notion reveals a lot about someone who fundamentally believes in supremacy of whiteness and masculinity.
According to MSNBC, family traditions are now racist and white supremacy. They will go unchecked by other networks instead of being called out for their egregious claims.
These people will do and say anything that will rile up their viewership base, which has dropped, to vote for whichever Democrat ticket the mega-donors select to take on the Trump-Vance ticket.