Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough (Photo: Screen capture)
"Morning Joe's" opening discussion focused on the GOP's failure to understand the American public as the election approaches.
Wednesday marks 20 days until the Nov. 3 election and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has been on a tour to help his members as the GOP holds on for dear life. One stop was in Texas, where the GOP-led legislature redrew district lines, shifting Democratic votes to more Republican-leaning areas. While the hope was that the Republicans could win at least 18 seats, that number looks a little closer to five, Axios reported last week.
While Johnson remains optimistic in public, saying his party is "on offense," he was hammered by a Fox News host who questioned why he would be in Texas, a traditionally red state, if they truly were on offense.
CBS News asked Johnson, "What do you say to voters,republicans who say they likeyou, your values, your policies?But Republicans are in controlof everything in Washington,and they're not happy with thiseconomy."
Johnson didn't have a great answer there either. He said he's frustrated too; everyone is. "But that's not related to policies. It's notrelated to the Republicans in office."
Even the CBS reporter wasn't buying it. "To make that case, though,to a voter who knows, Republicans are running the House and the Senate and the White House...?"
The "Morning Joe" crew had a collective eye-roll, but Joe Scarborough said he was grateful that at least Johnson was smart enough to know not to pivot to talking about the sexuality of Rep. James Talarico (R-Texas). The GOP has lately moved on from talking about the economy, food and fuel prices and instead focused on what constitutes a "real man."
"He just lied and said it's not Republican issues. It is thewar and it is tariffs. And thathas driven up the prices ofjust about everything," said Scarborough. "And bythe way, Donald Trump hadwarnings from every economist.He had warnings from people atthe Fed (Federal Reserve). J. Powell tried totell him tariffs areinflationary and you knowthey're inflationary. So Donald Trump tried to get him arrested.But tariffs are inflationary.The war is inflationary. And sohe's (Johnson) lying and said we don'thave anything to do with this. Americans just aren't that dumb."
Willie Geist pointed out that the redistricting that Johnson mentioned was also a problem of the GOP's own making.
"They did a lot of this," Geist said. "The seats is now having to fight for, perhaps he didn't anticipate that. But you're right — it is policy. The war with Iran was a choice that closed the Strait of Hormuz that he just referenced. The speaker did and has driven up oil and gas prices."
Meanwhile, he continued, "President Trump yesterday, even in Alaska, was saying still — almost two full years in now — Biden, it's Biden's fault. It's Joe Biden's fault. Nobody believes that oil prices are lower now than they were under Biden. That's objectively untrue, publicly searchable on Google. So they're just flailing desperately on the core issue, which is the cost of living."