Joe Scarborough Hammers Donald Trump For Using John McCain As “Political Punchline”
UPDATED with video: Joe Scarborough pounded President Donald Trump this morning for attacking John McCain over the Arizona senator’s thumbs down on the latest GOP effort to kill Obamacare.
When not attacking NFL players, Trump spent the weekend blasting McCain, who recently was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, via Twitter, in interviews, and at Friday’s campaign rally in Alabama.
“You have no humanity,” Scarborough hissed at Trump in absentia, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “You have a man who is dying and you’re using him for political punch lines on talk radio and…in Alabama?!”
Scarborough had things to say to those who booed McCain on Trump’s cue during that rally:
“For people watching at home: if you’re in the audience and John McCain is getting attacked, and he’s fighting for his life — unless you were raised in a barn, keep your mouths shut!” Scarborough blasted. “Show a little respect. Show a little dignity. Show a little class.”
Booing McCain shows the depths to which the GOP has fallen, the party’s former politician added.
“Who raised these people?” Scarborough railed. “Who have they become that they would boo a man who is fighting for his very life?”
Scarborough then told a tale of two politicians: Trump vs. McCain.
The latter, the MSNBC host informed Trump rally-attending supporters, is a man who “served this country in uniform, who was a prisoner of war” and was told, when his captors realized who he was, “You can be released from prison because your father’s a powerful man. Go home; we will stop beating you.”
“For those of you booing McCain, and too ignorant to read a book, John McCain said, ‘No, I’m not going to go home until all of my men go home with me’,” Scarborough explained.
“You should keep your mouth shut and you should go home and you should talk to your children and tell the story of John McCain to your children – a man who served his country in uniform when he could have done what Donald Trump did, could have avoided the draft,” Scarborough said. “[McCain’s] father was one of the most powerful men in America. He could have stayed home like Donald Trump. He could have chased models.”
But McCain wanted to serve his country, so he flew missions into North Vietnam, where he got shot down, captured, and abused to such a degree he cannot raise his arms as high as his shoulders, the MSNBC morning host informed any Trump fans who happened to be watching his program.
(During his campaign, Trump cited that in explaining why he did not consider McCain a hero, though Scarborough did not mention that this morning.)
“If you still go to church, you need to pray for yourself this Sunday morning in church,” Scarborough continued, lambasting Trump rally-goers. “And then when you get your head screwed on right, and you start putting humanity ahead of politics, against stupidity, against the tribalism that is destroying this country. Go home and tell your children the story of John McCain.”
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtHdhAYqass&w=605&h=340]
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