‘Morning Joe’ Hits Senators for ‘Shithole’ Defense: ‘They Lied to Cover the President’s Racist Remarks’
Joe Scarborough came out swinging on Tuesday, blasting Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and David Perdue (R-Georgia) for defending Trump’s remarks about “shithole countries.”
Scarborough accused the senators of lying about what they actually heard in order to carry water for the president — who Scarborough added was a bigot.
“Tom Cotton heard the vulgarity. David Perdue heard the vulgarity. They lied on Sunday morning. The lied to the American people. They lied to their constituents in Georgia and Arkansas. They lied to cover the president’s racist remarks. We know that,” said Scarborough.”
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“They were lying to their constituents, they were lying to the American people, they were lying to the press all to cover up the fact that the President of the United States is a bigot.”
Close watchers of Shitholegate may recall that after Trump used the term describe Haiti and several African nations, the two Senators hit the Sunday morning shows to defend Trump — and implicitly suggest those promoting the story like Sen .Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) were making it up.
“I didn’t hear it, and I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was,” said Cotton on ‘Face the Nation’ Sunday. “And I know what Dick Durbin has said about the president’s repeated statements is incorrect.”
Later reporting suggested that this denial was predicated on the Senator’s belief that Trump said “shithouse” and not “shithole”
White House official told me tonight there is debate internally on whether Trump said "shithole" or "shithouse." Perdue and Cotton seem to have heard latter, this person said, and are using to deny.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 15, 2018
“Morning Joe” regular John Heilemann laughed at the idea that, that made anything better.
“The notion that there’s someone in that White House, someone in the president’s orbit, someone in these senator’s orbit, who thinks somehow turning it from S-hole to S-house somehow makes it better,” he said almost unable to speak through his own laugher. “Who could think that would make it better or that somehow is a better context?”
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