MSNBC host Joe Scarborough pushed back against guest hosts’ claims that racism “is who we are” as a country during Wednesday’s “Morning Joe.”
Guest host Mike Barnicle said there will be another Buffalo shooting in the future and the cycle of racially motivated attacks will continue on because racism “is who we are.” Co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed, saying racist ideas have “evaded our politics” as they are, she claimed, being spread by Republican leaders.
Scarborough pushed back that racial attacks define the U.S. arguing extremists will lose in the midterm elections, pointing to Republican North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn‘s loss in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
“I don’t believe this is who America is, I do believe this is who a large segment of her society is,” he said. “I do believe that Donald Trump gave a lot of people permission in their minds to behave the way they behaved in Charlottesville, behave the way they behaved in Pittsburgh, the way they behaved in San Antonio, the way they behaved by sending the wrong messages. Not understanding the power of those words that lead to the guardrails being taken down that lead to the violence.”
“I will say, I’m probably the minority here, I do want to offer people hope watching today, I believe just like how Donald Trump lost in 2020, just like Republicans in the House lost in 2020, just like how some extremists lost yesterday in North Carolina, some extremists lost in Idaho in the Republican primary … I do believe that these people will lost in the fall. These extremists like the governor, the Republican gubernatorial candidate.”
The host said the American people can take action to increase voter turnout to elect candidates that will stand up to extremism, he said the future is up to the public’s action. (RELATED: ‘Morning Joe’s’ Mika Brzezinski Claims Fox News Is Open For Business To White Nationalists)
Guest host Eddie Glaude Jr. then argued with Scarborough’s “hesitancy” to agree with Barnicle’s claim that racism is “who we are.”
“Joe, I want to say that we have to admit that this is who we are as a country,” he said. “I understand your impulse, I think we have to admit it because I think once we admit it, it’s like admitting we’re all sinners. To admit that one is a sinner doesn’t mean you condemn yourselves to the gallows. It sets to precondition, it sets the condition for you to be otherwise.”
“I think, Joe, that if we admit this is who we are, that racism, that white supremacy, this ugliness is baked into us from the very beginning, now we set the stage not for hope to be absolution of our sins but hope for us to be born again. That admission is actually at the heart of us being different because we don’t want to admit it because if we admit it, we admit who we actually are. We have to confront ourselves, and that’s what I want us to do.”
Scarborough said over 80 million Americans voted for President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump and gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi leadership in Congress. He expressed hope that the country has made tremendous strides to become “a more perfect Union” by fixing injustices.
“We weren’t even in that ballpark until 1965,” he said. “We as a nation have made extraordinary gains since 1965. To say we’ve made no progress is ahistorical, is misleading and I think sends the wrong message to Americans who may become hopeless and not realize our republic is on the line again this Fall. It’d be like teachers telling students that America is so racist that if you go back, all white people in the 17th, 18th, 19th century were racists. That’s just not the case.”
He cited a hymn of the Bible saying “just as I am and waiting not clings my soul of one dark blot,” calling racism the blot America has to get rid of.