Joe Scarborough hit out at Donald Trump’s threats to arrest the likes of Liz Cheney and his own MSNBC producers on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher on Friday night.
The former Republican congressman ranted about the dangers Donald Trump poses to American democracy, while the billionaire Democrat donor Mark Cuban nodded along.
Scarborough, who regularly makes his feelings about Trump known as a co-host on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, directed his warning towards GOP voters.
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“I don’t want people to listen to me, I don’t want them to listen to you, I don’t want them to listen to anybody,” he said. “I want them to listen to what Donald Trump says.”
“This past week, Donald Trump said he was going to use the military and the National Guard to arrest his political opponents. He was asked if he would back off of that, he said no. And in fact, he doubled down.”
“He said he was going to execute the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because he was disloyal to him. He told another Chief of Staff who was a general, ‘I wish my generals were like Hitler’s generals.’”
As Scarborough’s voice grew, Cuban seized on the moment to interrupt him: “It’s like the new season of The Sopranos!”
As laughter from the audience drowned out, the enraged Scarborough continued.
“You tell people this and they go ‘well he didn’t say that.’ You show them the clip and then they go ‘he doesn’t mean that.’ He does mean that.”
Bill Maher, who had prompted Scarborough’s bellows by questioning whether Trump could have “locked up” Hilary Clinton, pointed out that those defending the former president would accuse critics of having “Trump derangement syndrome.”
“I would just like to say to my Republican friends that it’s not deranged to fear this, it’s not deranged to find this alarming,” he said.
“We’re not saying this,” Scarborough added. “We’re not guessing what he’s going to do. He’s saying this is what I’m going to do. He’s saying ‘I’m going to get Liz Cheney in a military tribunal, his people have said they’re going to arrest my producers, he said he was going to shut down CBS because he didn’t like how they edited a package in 60 Minutes.
“He’s out of control!”
Cuban added fuel to the fire by attacking Elon Musk, who has donated $75 million to back Trump.
“Elon is Mr Free Speech, free speech, free speech on Twitter and Donald says he is going to shut down CBS. He’s going to shut down his enemies. Elon? Not a f---ing word.”
