MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough backpedaled on Tuesday after calling President Trump a bigger threat to the American dream than “any foreign adversary.”
The host of “Morning Joe” told angry readers this week that he would rethink his Sept. 11 anti-Trump piece in The Washington Post, which framed the president as more dangerous than terrorists who killed 2,977 victims in the infamous 2001 attack.
“For those of us still believing that Islamic extremists hate America because of the freedoms we guarantee to all people, the gravest threat Trump poses to our national security is the damage done daily to America’s image,” Mr. Scarborough wrote in an op-ed released Monday evening. “As the New York Times’s Roger Cohen wrote the month after Trump’s election, ’America is an idea. Strip freedom, human rights, democracy and the rule of law from what the United States represents to the world and America itself is gutted.’”
“The question for voters this fall is whether their country will move beyond this troubled chapter in history or whether they will continue supporting a politician who has done more damage to the dream of America than any foreign adversary ever could,” he concluded.
Jeryl, you’re a great example for all of us—especially me today. Many have been offended by a tweet I sent out earlier re: my @washingtonpost article. Even if they did not read the article, I should have shown more care on the tweet’s wording and the column’s conclusion. https://t.co/A7zJR38JiC
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) September 11, 2018
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Backlash flooded in for the MSNBC host as Mr. Trump spoke to the families of the victims of the doomed United Airlines Flight 93.
“A piece of America’s heart is buried on these grounds,” Mr. Trump said at a memorial service in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. “This field is now a monument to American defiance. This memorial is a message to the world: America will never, ever, submit to tyranny.”
Mr. Scarborough eventually responded to critics, including writer Jeryl Bier, who called the op-ed’s premise “repugnant.”
“Jeryl, you’re a great example for all of us — especially me today,” the host replied on Twitter. “Many have been offended by a tweet I sent out earlier re: my @washingtonpost article. Even if they did not read the article, I should have shown more care on the tweet’s wording and the column’s conclusion.”
“On September 11th, I’ll read the column again and think about whether I could have said the same thing in a way less offensive to Trump supporters on September 11th,” he added shortly afterward.
On September 11th, I’ll read the column again and think about whether I could have said the same thing in a way less offensive to Trump supporters on September 11th.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) September 11, 2018
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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