MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski reacted with shock and dismay to Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, asking on Monday’s Morning Joe how the country had come to this point.
Her comments came the morning after the former president’s Manhattan rally, which attracted a furious backlash—including from Republicans—over comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist jokes targeting Latinos and Black people, and disparaging Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” Trump’s campaign subsequently tried to distance itself from Hinchcliffe, saying in a statement after the event that his remarks do not “reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Other speakers at the rally compared Vice President Kamala Harris to a sex worker with “pimp handlers” and branded her “the Antichrist.” Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, used some of his time at the event to mock Harris’ racial identity.
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“It’s discouraging that so many people would gather and rally to hate—to hate speech—in America,” Brzezinski said on Morning Joe. “It’s discouraging and it hurts. People who have family in Puerto Rico, who are Puerto Rican Americans, who are American citizens, are hearing hate like that. It’s discouraging.”
She went on to say that it’s important to look at the rally in the context not just of the 2024 presidential election.
“It’s not just, ‘Oh my gosh’ about the race, it’s ‘Oh my gosh—how did we get here?’” Brzezinski said. “How did we get here, where a stadium of people come to hate? That’s a different country, a different time.”
Brzezinski’s husband and co-host, Joe Scarborough, said the way to “get past that” is to “work harder, vote, and win.” He also followed up by reading a passage from Ronald Reagan’s last speech as president in January 1989.
“‘This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness: We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people—our strength—from every country and every corner of the world,’” Scarborough read, quoting Reagan. “‘And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams.’”
“You had Hitler talking about [Germany] for the Germans, and last night you had speakers talking about America for Americans,” Scarborough said of the Trump rally. “And here in Ronald Reagan’s final speech, he says we are new, we are forever renewed, forever strong, because we open our doors to the rest of the world. He says if we ever closed that door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”
“That, my Republican friends,” Scarborough added, “That is a closing statement.”
