Joe Scarborough Lashes Out At The Media, Defends Trump's Refusal To Say Whether He'd Accept Election Results

Scarborough: “It's Just Another Example Of The Media Having To Find A Little Phrase And Freak Out” 

From the October 20 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe

Video file

JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST): What was [Trump's] exact quote? 

MIKA BRZEZINSKI (CO-HOST): He said I will leave you in suspense. 

WILLIE GEIST (CO-HOST): He said I will look at it at the time and keep you in suspense. 

HAROLD FORD JR.: So that means he is not willing to say I will accept the outcome. 

SCARBOROUGH: No, what that means is he will look at it at the time. I love everybody saying -- I woke up to these screaming headlines saying, “Donald Trump will not respect election results.” He actually said I will look at it at the time. I'll see. 

FORD JR.: Has there ever been a presidential candidate to say that? 

SCARBOROUGH: If there are voting irregularities, then any presidential candidate, anybody -- 

MIKE BARNICLE: What would you have said? What would your response be to that question? 

SCARBOROUGH: I'd say yeah, I'll certainly respect the outcome of the election. I of course would want to make sure that's fair. I will want to make sure that it's fair, it's on the up and up.

BARNICLE: Well, he didn't say that. 

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah but you know what? This is an example the media got something they can absolutely freak out about and claim that he is an agent of Vladimir Putin and destroying democracy in America. And it's just another example of the media having to find a little phrase and freak out. When as a Republican I have listened to Democrats talk about the only two times we won the White House in like 800 years that we stole both elections. I had to sit through Fahrenheit 911 and a lady was sobbing violently behind me on the Upper West Side about the election being stolen from George Bush and I patted her halfway through. I go, it's all right, it's all right, ma'am. It's all right. It's all a lie anyway. Democrats have been whining for 16 years, they are still writing articles about how Bush stole the elections in 2000 and 2004. So this holier than though attitude about, “this is the first time anyone has suggested that the election is not a sacrosanct process,” it's a joke. So you guys bathe in that hypocrisy if you want to, I'd just like to hear how the debate went. Go ahead, bathe. 

Previously

MSNBC's Presidential Historian Calls Trump Not Accepting The Results Of The Election “Absolutely Horrifying” 

NBC’s Nicolle Wallace: Trump Put The Nail In His Own Coffin By Refusing To Say He’d Accept Election Results

CNN's Jake Tapper: Trump's Suggestion “He Might Not Accept The Results Of The Election” Was “Staggering”

CBS' Bob Schieffer Excoriates Trump For Refusing To Accept Election Results: “This Is Not The Way We Do It In The United States Of America”