Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) loss in a Republican primary this week caught most political observers off guard, but Joe Scarborough saw the warning signs long before the upset.
The MSNBC host chastised the freshly ousted House majority leader again on Thursday for losing touch with his Virginia constituents.
Cantor insisted during a post-defeat press conference on Wednesday that he had visited the commonwealth’s 7th congressional district frequently, but Scarborough said the evidence says otherwise. After all, didn’t Cantor’s campaign drop more money at steakhouses than tea party challenger Dave Brat spent on the entire race?
“I would suggest any political candidate that spends more money at Washington, D.C. steakhouses than his opponent spends in an entire campaign would probably meet the definition of disconnected in most districts across America,” Scarborough said. “He was disconnected! He had become a creature of Washington, D.C.”
Scarborough said he saw first-hand just how detached Cantor had become with the common folk when the congressman paid the “Morning Joe” crew a visit.
“We don’t judge him one way or the other and we don’t know, perhaps he got death threats. But he showed up on our set — didn’t he show up with a security entourage larger than most governors?” Scarborough asked his co-host Mika Brzezinski.
Brzezinski confirmed the size of Cantor’s security entourage.
Scarborough said he actually wasn’t going to bring it up until New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters, a panelist on Thursday’s edition of “Morning Joe,” had cited it as an example of Cantor alienating voters back home.
“He had like three security guys, I think,” Scarborough recalled. “We were talking about this off-set yesterday and weren’t going to say it, but Jeremy brought it up and we looked at him when he came in, and I like Eric a lot, but saw the security people there and sort of the sense of importance. And it was fine with us, we didn’t even say anything at the time. But if you’re going around your district acting that way? Not good.”
Scarborough made the same point about Cantor on Wednesday, the day after Brat’s stunning victory in the primary.
“Sometimes, guys like Eric Cantor are just radically out of touch with their district in ways that have nothing to do with politics,” Scarborough observed.
Because I don’t give a shit about Scar’s opinion on anything…
John McCain is on the floor blaming Obama for Iraq’s slide into a terrorist state.
Who ever would have imagined that.
Remember when a stray bullet from a gun fired in the air from god knows where but possibly a mile away broke a window in one of his offices? He ran out in front of the media claiming it was some sort of terrorist attack against him, despite the obvious fact that it wasn’t. Despite breaking the glass the bullet didn’t even make it through the venetian blinds, clearly indicating the bullet wasn’t fired at the window and the police quickly dismissed the issue. It was very similar to Lou Dobbs’ claim around the same time that someone tried to assassinate him when a hunters stray bullet hit the upper corner of his house and was from so far away that it didn’t even pierce the vinyl siding. My pint is, there seems to be a real martyr/paranoid side to some of these folks.
joe
" and I like Eric a lot" says everything you need to know about Morning Joke.
Like most Tea Party Republicans, Eric Cantor is a paranoid, delusional sociopath … hence the excess of body guards.
As for McCain’s insane BS rant regarding Obama causing Iraq to be a terrorist state, I say that’s further proof that Republicans, like their Tea Party brethren, are paranoid, delusional sociopaths.