Scarborough On Bannon: 'A Southern Man Don't Need Him Around Anyhow'

Know your audience and your subject is basic advice for any public speaker. Violating that rule led to an embarrassing gaffe for Steve Bannon as he stumped for Roy Moore in Midland City, Ala yesterday. During his speech, Bannon decided to riff on Trump critic, Joe Scarborough, with embarrassing results. A tweet by Jonathan Allen of NBC News tells what happened next.

In Midland City, Alabama, Steve Bannon goes after @JoeNBC, saying he got into better schools than Joe could have—Georgetown and Harvard. This might be the wrong place for that attack: Joe went to the University of Alabama.

— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) December 12, 2017

Before attacking Scarborough, Bannon should have doublechecked where the MSNBC host went to school. What are the odds that a talk show host that Bannon decided to vilify in Alabama was a graduate of the University of Alabama? In the case of Joe Scarborough, the odds were 100 percent to Bannon’s dismay.

Scarborough quickly responded with a series of tweets, beginning with a simple school slogan.

ROLL. DAMN. TIDE. https://t.co/AUj9U3CihU

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) December 12, 2017

A second tweet mocked Bannon’s brag about attending Georgetown and Harvard. Ivy League schools are not well respected by Southern voters. The resentment of carpetbagging Yankees is deeply ingrained in Alabama as well as many other parts of the South. Attending Harvard won’t necessarily hurt your reputation, but bragging about it certainly will.

Hey Bannon, you only went to Harvard because you couldn't get into Alabama. #RollDamnTide https://t.co/AUj9U3CihU

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) December 12, 2017

Scarborough delivered a body blow by paying homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s classic Southern anthem, “Sweet Home Alabama.”  The song was written in 1974 as a response to Neil Young’s “Southern Man” and includes a line that describes just how much importance Southerners attach to Yankee opinions about their culture. While Bannon, a native Virginian, isn’t technically a Yankee by birth, he is closely associated with New York these days.

A Southern Man don't need him around anyhow. #SweetHomeAlabama https://t.co/AUj9U3CihU

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) December 12, 2017

In a final tweet, Scarborough drove home the point that Bannon, the pseudopopulist, is in reality a New York banker who worked for Goldman Sachs. The investment banking firm has long been a bogeyman for many on the right. While many politicians, from Ted Cruz to Hillary Clinton, were criticized for ties to Goldman Sachs, Donald Trump and Steve Bannon’s ties to the company have received little attention. Scarborough’s use of the colloquialism, “reckon,” just twists the knife.

I reckon if I'd gotten into one of Steve's fancy schools outside of Alabama, I could've been one of them Goldman Sachs populists too. 🎩 https://t.co/wMNdvKWPSM

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) December 12, 2017

While Steve Bannon’s case of foot-in-mouth disease won’t make or break Roy Moore, it is characteristic of the unforced errors and poor vetting that plague Bannon-backed candidates. Roy Moore’s background was replete with red flags that he would be a poor candidate in the general election. In Arizona, Bannon supports Kelli Ward, a state legislator widely mocked for her association with conspiracy theories. Paul Nehlen, another Bannon protégé who lost in a landslide to Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), was recently seen on Twitter telling John Podhoretz to “eat a bullet.” Stay classy, Nehlen.

Bannon’s Alabama gaffe is just one more example of poor research and planning by the Breitbart publisher and former White House strategist. Bannon’s picks, while often popular in GOP circles, are often poison at the ballot box in general elections. If Republicans follow Bannon, the party is likely to find itself on the way to electoral oblivion.

Originally published on The Resurgent

Scarborough: White House Insiders Say Trump Has Dementia

Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said on Thursday that White House insiders have told him that President Trump is in “the early stages of dementia.” Scarborough said on his show that Trump is “completely detached from reality.”

“You have somebody inside the White House that the New York Daily News says is mentally unfit,” Scarborough said. “That people close to him say is mentally unfit, that people close to him during the campaign told me had early stages of dementia.”

Scarborough also said that he believes the US is closer to war with North Korea than the Administration admits. “We heard this months ago,” he said, “that we are going to have a ground war in Korea, they believed that inside the White House for a very long time.”

“If this is not what the 25th Amendment was drafted for,” Scarborough added.

“Then what is it for?” cohost Mika Brzezinski finished.

The 25^th Amendment addresses presidential succession. The fourth section of the amendment allows the vice president to assume the presidency if the vice president and a majority of either cabinet officials or Congress decide that the president is “unable to discharge” his duties.

There are seven stages of dementia that range from mild cognitive decline, such as normal forgetfulness associated with aging, to very severe cognitive decline in which people cannot communicate and must be assisted with even basic activities such as eating and using the toilet. It isn’t clear to which stage Scarborough is referring, but “early stage dementia,” characterized by moderate cognitive decline, includes difficulty concentrating, decreased memory of recent events, trouble completing complex tasks and withdrawing from family and friends.

Scarborough’s tirade comes a day after a tweet by Trump that called for MSNBC to “investigate” an “’unsolved mystery’ that took place in Florida years ago.”

The tweet alludes to the death of Lori Klausutis, an intern in Scarborough’s office when he was a Florida congressman. There was no sign of foul play or suicide and the medical examiner ruled that Klausutis had died after hitting her head in a fall caused by heart problems.

Scarborough is not the only person to suggest that President Trump is mentally ill. Jennifer Rubin, a conservative columnist in the Washington Post, also suggested on Wednesday that a 25^th amendment solution might be necessary, citing Trump’s recent alleged claims that the “Access Hollywood” tape was faked and that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Scarborough and Donald Trump have engaged in a long-running feud even though Scarborough initially supported Trump. The “Morning Joe” hosts broke with Trump and called him a racist for his comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel in June 2016. The feud reached a boiling point in June 2017 when Trump launched a vicious twitter attack on both Scarborough and Brzezinski, his “Morning Joe” cohost and fiancé.

Originally published on The Resurgent