Joe Scarborough: ‘History has chosen’ Democrats, deemed them guardians of the rule of law

Joe Scarborough said Tuesday history has “chosen” the Democratic Party to be guardians of the rule of law.

One of President Trump’s most vocal critics on cable news turned his ire toward the Republican Party as a whole.

The “Morning Joe” host is livid at the Republican Party’s reaction to stories involving Attorney General William P. Barr and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.

“There has become over the past several weeks a sustained and an increasingly quickening assault on the rule of law,” said Mr. Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida. “Whether you look at what Barr did in his testimony, whether you look at the fact that he committed perjury in the House and probably the Senate. … You have [the] secretary of the Treasury coming out saying, ’Oh, no, we understand there’s a statute that says that the chairman of the Ways and Means has the right to see any American’s tax returns, but we’re just not going to comply with the law of the land.’ “

“The Republicans don’t care,” he continued, the media watchdog NewsBusters reported. “So it is, history has chosen the Democratic Party, at this point in time, to be the only party in America who will stand up and defend the rule of law. The only party. There is no one else there. And as a former Republican and as a guy with a lot of Republican friends, it makes me sad. But this moment in history has provided us only one political party that can stand up and defend the rule of law, and that’s on the Democrats. Whether it’s the smart political calculation or not, the Constitution requires it.”

Mr. Scarborough’s latest commentary echoes an op-ed he wrote for The Washington Post on Sept. 11, which claimed Mr. Trump “has done more damage to the dream of America than any foreign adversary ever could.”

The host later backtracked on his rhetoric after negative feedback by saying he “should have shown more care on the tweet’s wording and the column’s conclusion.”