Ep. 425 — Joe Scarborough
The Axe Files with David Axelrod
CNN
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2021
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joe Scarborough had his first media experience hosting a call-in show on public access television to raise his political profile during a run for Congress. He won that 1994 Congressional race and held the Florida seat until 2001 before returning to television full-time. Now the co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, he joined David to discuss the violence at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, his hot and cold relationship with Donald Trump, what happens next for the Republican Party, and his new book, Saving Freedom: Truman, the Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Music |
| 0:06.0 | And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Ax Files with your host, David Axelrod. |
| 0:20.0 | I had a long scheduled sit down yesterday with Joe Scarborough, the host of the Remorning Joe program on MSNBC, |
| 0:28.0 | former Republican representative from the state of Florida. |
| 0:32.0 | The occasion for this was the publication of his book, Saving Freedom, Truman the Cold War, |
| 0:38.0 | and the fight for Western civilization, but it turned out to be a really propitious time to sit down with Joe, |
| 0:44.0 | given all the events going on in our country. Here's that conversation. |
| 0:48.0 | Music |
| 0:55.0 | Joe Scarborough, good to see you brother. It's a difficult time for people who love democracy and believe in it. |
| 1:06.0 | Tell me how you're feeling this morning because we're meeting as your former colleagues are debating the impeachment resolution. |
| 1:13.0 | I think it's a bit of a, you know, my feelings are mixed obviously as horrified, like everybody else at what happened last week. |
| 1:22.0 | Couldn't believe that what I was seeing on television, but at the same time, like so many other things in Donald Trump's America, it's shocking without being surprising. |
| 1:34.0 | This is where the Republican party's been going for four and a half years. |
| 1:37.0 | I think Democrats would say it's probably where the Republican party's been going for the past 40 years. |
| 1:43.0 | I would take exception with that, but when you have a president who in 2016 said in August of 2016 that if people didn't want Hillary Clinton to appoint federal judges, |
| 1:55.0 | they could implement the second amendment solution, telling people to shoot Hillary Clinton. |
| 2:01.0 | And Republicans stood by Donald Trump. Republicans stood by Donald Trump when a Republican congressman beat up a reporter for asking a question about health care. |
| 2:11.0 | And they stood by Donald Trump when he was praising that he fascist language when he used fascist language against women of color who were American citizens, members of Congress, |
| 2:22.0 | telling they needed to go back to where they came from. |
| 2:25.0 | Time and time again, you and I could both come up with 100 examples of where Donald Trump repeatedly said something that was horrific, acted like a fascist dictator, and Republican congressman, Republican senators, and Republican commentators, what along with him? |
| 2:44.0 | You're well qualified as a former practitioner, as a former candidate, as a politician to explain why. |
| 2:54.0 | Why do you think that they've been so silent? Why did 147 members of the Republican caucus vote to overturn the electoral college? |
... |
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