MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said on Wednesday’s Morning Joe that one of JD Vance’s answers during his debate against Tim Walz explains exactly why he’s not supporting the Republican ticket in this election.
Scarborough, a former GOP congressman, was speaking about a moment toward the end of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate in which Walz asked Vance point blank whether or not he believed his running mate, Donald Trump, lost the 2020 election. Apparently unwilling to contradict Trump’s false claims about that election being stolen, Vance ducked the question to say he’s “focused on the future.”
Scarborough praised aspects of Vance’s debate performance, but said that particular answer was crucial.
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“He told viewers everywhere that was watching, if you hate American democracy when things don’t go your way, vote for me,” Scarborough said on Morning Joe. “If you hate everything that James Madison put together and Alexander Hamilton put together in the Constitution, if you hate the tradition of peaceful transitions that really, really define and ensure American democracy, if you hate that Donald Trump doesn’t win every election, vote for me.”
“It was one of the most clarifying moments in any presidential or vice presidential debate we could ever see,” he continued, “Because he clearly said he was going to continue the lies of Donald Trump and not even answer the basic question: Did Joe Biden win the 2020 election?”
Dodging that question, Scarborough claimed, would probably go down well with “hard-right people on the Internet and maybe on X and other social media platforms,” but it was nevertheless a defining moment.
“He defined himself, he defined his campaign, and he defined the choice in this election,” Scarborough said. “I am not a Democrat. I doubt I will ever be a Democrat, I am an independent. And I’m one of those people that’s looking at both of these guys and, you know, people ask me: ‘Why don’t you support the Republicans?’ JD did my work for me last night!”
Scarborough said one side of the race is “anti-democratic,” while the other side is “pro-democracy, pro-constitutional republic, pro-James Madison checks and balances, pro-peaceful transfer of power.”
Earlier, Scarborough said Vance had “shown a side of himself that he has not shown before,” in that “he tried to be more likable, he tried to be more agreeable,” during the debate.
“It’s almost as if he got a sense that this election may end, and he doesn’t want to completely tie himself to Donald Trump,” Scarborough said. “He’s 40 years old, he has a future, and while Trump likes going to war non-stop against everybody, you got a sense that JD Vance decided hey, you know what? I’m gonna try to salvage my political career, even if Donald Trump goes up in flames.”
He also ventured that, in light of Vance’s performance, there would no doubt be “consternation in Mar-a-Lago.”
“Everybody’s saying JD Vance should talk for the rest of the campaign and Donald Trump should shut up,” Scarborough said. “Because JD Vance is so much better at this than Donald Trump—it’s not even a close call.”
