Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” moderate a town hall with Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in Charleston, South Carolina on Feb. 17, 2016 (Photo: Mark Peterson/Redux / Redux for NBC News File)
Before there was Donald Trump the politician, there was Donald Trump the TV personality. Before there was Joe Scarborough the TV personality, there was Joe Scarborough the politician.
Their paths crossed often. On this episode, Scarborough reflects on Trump’s rise to the White House, the role that the media played in that and how the former president – and his supporters – have changed the face of the party that Scarborough represented in the House from 1995 to 2001.
Subscribe to In Trump's Shadow: The Battle for 2024 in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
wut
Why?
The guy that found the Gruber videos, Rich Weinstein, cut a whole bunch of videos of him saying all kinds of libertarian stuff on the floor of Congress. What a joke. $$$$$
Because while the country is falling apart under the neo-Marxists in the White House, what we need to hear is more criticism of Trump and his supporters. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
At one point I remember that Joe Scarborough was essentially the frontrunner to becoming Trump’s vice presidential candidate as no one had any idea who Trump might pick, and he seemed to get along well with Joe — before Trump accused him of murder or something.
Trump’s one supporter was Jeff Sessions who Trump now hates more than just about anyone, and Alabama isn’t a place to find swing state vice presidential candidates.
I think that the recent Pew Research Report is relevant here. Of Republicans, 44% want Trump to be important and be renominated, 22% want Trump to be important but not be renominated, and 32% say they would not like Trump to remain a national political figure for many years to come. That 32% is a veto on Trump. If a quarter of this 32% of them (or 8% of all Republicans) refuse to vote for Trump in 2024 (like I did in 2020) Trump cannot be re-elected. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/10/06/two-thirds-of-republicans-want-trump-to-retain-major-political-role-44-want-him-to-run-again-in-2024/
The obvious compromise is to nominate someone other than Trump, who relates to him like Glenn Youngkin is doing in Virginia, with respect, but who is his or her own person. It can’t be a NT like me, but should be someone who voted from Trump in the past, but now wants to chart their own path.
Do any of those people have an opinion about what is a good policy and how terrible all of our institutions are?
For starters, the poll question is flawed in that “many years to come” is subject to interpretation. It clearly could be interpreted as going well beyond ‘24. Also, you misrepresented the sample as including only Republicans, when in fact it includes “Republican leaning independents,” a goodly number of whom may not have supported Trump in ‘20.
Maybe. It could have been a bit more precise.
Reagan’s rule, I think, was to support the nominee of the party even if you would have preferred someone else. And, of course, to not speak ill of thy fellow Republican.
Your rule, Gary, seems to be that 8% of Republicans get a veto over the choice of nominee.
Am I mischaracterizing your position? I think that this is a fair description. If so, then I don’t think that it reflects very well on your choices, or the choices of those who agree with you. But then, I don’t think that compromise is a bad word, which makes a great many people here at Ricochet annoyed with me from time to time.
Actually, I think that 32% of the party is ready to veto Trump. Many would do that by not showing up, or by leaving the vote blank. In Wisconsin, in 2020, Senator Ron Johnson has noted that the Republican Candidates for the State Assembly won statewide by 50,000 votes, but Trump lost by 20,000 votes. Usually the candidate at the top of the ticket has coat tails; Trump has negative coat tails.
In the ordinary course of events, I will accept the nominee of my party. However, just as pandemics blast through maybe once a century, there are those people who are so bad, that I simply refuse to vote for them. I would have accepted any of the other 16 candidates in 2016, but I could not, and would not accept Trump. A veto should not be wielded liberally, however, while I would be willing to vote for a Trumpy Ron DeSantis, I am not willing for vote for Donald John Trump.
In 1991, the Louisiana Republican Party nominated David Duke for Governor. President George H.W. Bush refused to endorse him. That year I would have voted for the Democrat, Edwin Edwards. A popular bumper sticker was “Vote for the Crook, it’s important.”
In Illinois CD-3 the candidates were a very rare Pro-Life Democrat Dan Lipinski, and the Republican was Arthur Jones, literally a former member of the National Socialists White People’s Party for 8 years. Wouldn’t you have voted for Dan Lipinski?
Next episode:
In Trumps Shadow #5: Rachel Maddow.
No, that’s probably episode six. The order appears to be pro-Trump then anti-Trump.
Wasn’t last week Liz Cheney?
Next week is Jason Miller, after that Rich Lowry.
No, she was episode #2. It’s been Pompeo, Cheney, Cotton, and Scarborough. An inverse of the Star Trek Movie Rule of only the even ones being good.
Well, so much for Ricochet’s record on not promoting conspiracy theorists.