MSNBC host Joe Scarborough went from zero to one-hundred on Wednesday morning after he became convinced a guest was calling him a Nazi.
The moment came, as many tirades do, in the middle of a debate about the Clintons. Guest and author Joe Conason made the case the Scarbrough, who has spoken several times at the Clinton Global Initiative, was hypocritical for going after the power couple for shady donations and Hillary Clinton’s email server.
“I have a Churchill quote for you,” Conason said,
“Oh great, I love Churchill,” Scarborough said with a smile.
“It’s what he said about the Hun, which is: ‘They’re either at your feet or at your throat,'” Conason said, referencing Churchill’s remarks on Germany’s aggression in the lead up to war and its closeness to Europe afterward.
Scarborough’s smile began to fade.
“So you’re comparing me to Nazis now, that’s great,” he said.
The two talked over each other as Conason tried to explain what he meant by using the quote, but Scarborough cut him off.
“No, no, let me finish. You compared me to a Nazi —”
“No, I didn’t,” Conason said.
“Yes, you did. You brought up a Churchill quote when he was talking about the Nazis.”
“This was after World War I,” Conason interjected. “That’s why I picked that quote. They’re not Nazis.”
“Whatever, Joe,” Scarbrough said, before going on to say his fairness as a host is why his show is so successful. “You can come on here and call us Nazis or do whatever.”
“I didn’t call anyone a Nazi, Joe,” Conason said, exasperated. “If you feel I called you a Nazi, that was far from my intention. I was making a joke about a Churchill quote.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski eventually tried to calm Scarborough down. “Stop it,” she whispered on her co-host’s repeated use of the word “Nazi.”
Scarborough didn’t let the feud die with the segment; he tweeted about the exchange later on Wednesday:
FYI, the Nazi comparison on our set came from a Churchill quote from 1943 when England was at the height of its fight against Hitler.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) May 20, 2015
Watch the clip:
This post has been updated.
Must have touched a nerve.
Dead show walking…
I saw this this morning. Conason is great and had great answers, so Joe was being the faux Republican victim, feigning injury when no comparable shot was taken.
The exchange didn’t seem quite as contentious as portrayed though maybe my brain shutting down after listening to the seventh segment on how Hillary scrubbed her server because she has something to hide and how unaccomplished she is because 12 rubes from Iowa couldn’t tell us what she had done as Secretary of State.
Joe Conason is a fine writer.
Joe Scarborough is a trite whiner.
jw1