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Morning Joe Crew Slimes 'Dark Underbelly of MAGA' Republicans
The extremely poor choices made by a few bad apples gave MSNBC what it had been waiting for: a feeble excuse to lament the entire right. Tuesday’s Morning Joe brought on a few guests who were more than willing to censure Republican leadership for somehow allowing the inexcusable behavior to occur, and in the process suggest it was the future of the party.
This came the morning after Politico reported on racially-charged text messages written by special counsel nominee Paul Ingrassia, which included a comment from him about holding a “Nazi streak.” Senate Republicans subsequently disapproved of Ingrassia’s nomination.
The Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer leapt at the opportunity to paint the revelation as an example of Republicans’ dirty open secret, speculating that “… surely this is the dark underbelly of MAGA that all the responsible people within who are — who have clung to the Republican establishment, to MAGA knows is there. And, you know, they will only blanch when they see these quotes.”
Ignoring the fact that Ingrassia may have his nomination pulled then sure, Republicans will only “blanch.” The GOP must be associated with jerks even after they've disassociated themselves. Meanwhile, Democrats refuse to back away from Jay "Two Bullets to the Republican" Jones in Virginia.
After a lead-in from co-host Jonathan Lemire, New York Times opinion writer Mara Gay further pushed narrative by connecting it to the New York Young Republicans who were recently under scrutiny: “You know, and there are some local Republican leaders, state Republican leaders who have condemned this. But that's a good look at the future of Republican leadership.”
A natural separation of the wheat and the chaff was occurring. Those who ran to darkness and ignored wisdom’s calls were having their sins found out. That didn’t mean the entire next generation of Republicans would be led astray by fringe extremists. Meanwhile, some of MSNBC's favorites are wearing "I Am Antifa" T-shirts to protests.
Of course, no condemnation was complete without a rebuke against the President or his administration: “But I think — you know, speaking as a black American, you know, there's no surprise here. I mean, we see these views expressed from the White House, from officials consistently about non-white Americans, but maybe through more polite language.”
No clear example was provided to prove her point. Maybe she was referring to ICE?
Unlike his fellow guests, Axios CEO Jim Vandehei was not willing to demonize the Republican Party as a whole. But he was willing minimize death-wishing by equating it with racism:
And you can't just say, “Oh, look at that Democratic Attorney General over there. He said something even crazier.” He did say something that was crazy, and it probably makes him unelectable. But what was said in that text chain is equally crazy, equally wrong.
This was in reference to Virginia Attorney General candidate Jay Jones, a Democrat who recently came under a firestorm for fantasizing about murdering a Republican and his kids. If it was "equally wrong," why can't Democrats denounce him and force him out of the race?
Co-host Joe Scarborough then went on a bizarre tangential rant about his upbringing. He claimed to have lived in a markedly anti-racist “new South,” where prejudice only really existed on the outskirts:
I have lived the majority of my life in the deep South. […] Perhaps somewhere else, the darkness on the edge of town, there were racists and bigots talking this way. I never once — well, actually I did one time, I heard one time, one time. But other than this one time, I never heard this sort of talk. I never heard, and I grew up — not in a bubble. I was very — we lived in a very middle class family, went to Southern Baptist churches. I never once heard this kind of talk growing up.
Scarborough was born in the early ‘60s, you know, the climax of the Civil Rights movement. Hard to believe nearly everyone in his childhood locale steered clear of racist talk.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" read:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
October 21, 2025
6:27:10 a.m. EST
(…)
FRANKLIN FOER: Okay. I mean — so, they're nominating a guy who as a self-proclaimed “Nazi streak” to the office of special prosecutor where he's supposed to be in charge, somehow, of protecting the ethics of the United States. You don't need a deepfake version of the video that we're seeing of the demolition of the White House. I mean, this is — I mean, it's amazing that a guy like this is able to find place ensconced in the inner circle of this administration.
And, I mean, surely this is the dark underbelly of MAGA that all the responsible people within who are — who have clung to the Republican establishment, to MAGA knows is there. And, you know, they will only blanch when they see these quotes. And it's not even clear that this is enough to derail the guy yet.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Yeah, I mean, we heard it from Senate Majority Leader Thune. But it is, as Mika noted, so rare that Republicans stand up to Trump. I don't think we should take it as a guarantee that this does get pulled. We'll have to see.
Mara, of course, it comes on the heels of other text messages that were revealed from those Young Republicans, those threads Politico doing good work on that as well. There's praise of Hitler in there, as well as other just extraordinarily offensive and racist comments. And we should note that those were defended by the Vice President of the United States, who— JD Vance taking to Twitter and saying, “Oh, these people were young and they made — we shouldn't cancel everyone for foolish indiscretions.” Mind you, a lot of those people were in their 20s and 30s, some of them office holders. Paul Ingrassia here, also 30 years old.
MARA GAY: Yeah, these were not college group chats, just to be clear. You know, and there are some local Republican leaders, state Republican leaders who have condemned this. But that's a good look at the future of Republican leadership. And now we have someone, Ingrassia, who could be in a key role in the White House.
You know, I think it's a good sign that Republicans are at least signaling through Thune a willingness to hold the line on this. It's a rare bright spot. But I think — you know, speaking as a black American, you know, there's no surprise here. I mean, we see these views expressed from the White House, from officials consistently about non-white Americans, but maybe through more polite language. So, this is just open bigotry, which in some ways is actually easier to go up against and to refute than just hatred overall and xenophobia and racism. So there's no surprise here.
But we have to hold the line somewhere. And I think the question for Republicans is, where is the line? Is it Martin Luther king Jr. is — I think he was likened in this group chat to George Floyd, which I don't even want to go there, I mean, the disgusting, twisted nature of these text messages. It also just raises the question, you know, what does motivate these people? I mean, what kind of sick minds and sick individuals are going to be in this White House? I mean, racism is a sickness and these are public servants. I mean, it's horrendous. It's not surprising. And it's chilling. It's chilling.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know what is surprising, Savannah high is, though, it seems like the Vice President of the United States, Jim, is — he's out there. He's the defender-in-chief of like the most shocking, outrageous things. And remember, I mean, this is the same guy — you just can't remind people of this enough — because this is the same guy who wrote a book, Hillbilly Elegy, came on all of our shows, was the darling of the east coast, like, cosmopolitan elite set, which remains one of my favorite — I don't know if Steve Bannon coined that term or not, but somebody should trademark “cosmopolitan elite.” I like that a lot. I think of a guy like in the 1950s and a hat smoking a cigar, about to go to the country club. Cosmopolitan elites. But that's who JD Vance was.
JD Vance was also the guy lecturing Republicans that Jesus Christ expected more of us than to vote for Donald Trump. He was also the guy that said that, you know, Donald Trump, you know, vaguely reminded him of Hitler. I don't know the exact words. But you go down the list now and he was most definitely in a far different space than he is right now.
And now I get — maybe it's because he wants to be the next not-Republican nominee, but it seems like he's the guy out there defending the indefensible every day. Especially online.
JIM VANDEHEI: And again, this isn't who we are. Like, I don't think —
SCARBOROUGH: No.
VANDEHEI: — we live in a racist nation. I don't think most members of MAGA —
SCARBOROUGH: No!
VANDEHEI: — or people who voted for Donald Trump are racist. I think a lot of these —
SCARBOROUGH: No.
VANDEHEI: — racist people end up getting amplified on social media. Some of them end up in the White House.
And there's only one response. This is where I worry we're just losing our marbles. If someone says something mean, if someone says something moronic, if someone says something racist, I don't care if it's in your party or the other party, you just say it's wrong. “We're intolerant of it. You're fired. You can't be around us. You can't be in a position of public power because you have nonsensical, ludicrous, and immoral views.”
And you can't just say, “Oh, look at that Democratic Attorney General over there. He said something even crazier.” He did say something that was crazy, and it probably makes him unelectable. But what was said in that text chain is equally crazy, equally wrong. And when you don't condone it, it tells this group of kids, this group of men that it's okay.
Like, step back. Why was there a large string of men in their 20s and 30s who went to college, who were in the professional class, who were clearly highly educated, thinking it's okay to praise Nazism. It's okay to say the most hurtful, ludicrous things about their fellow black citizens. It's just wrong. And it doesn't represent the bulk of the Republican Party, I don't think, and doesn't reflect America. And so the only thing you could say —
SCARBOROUGH: It doesn’t.
VANDEHEI: — is what I would say is an employer, “You're fired. You can’t say that. I don’t —”
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
VANDEHEI: “— care what our rivals are saying. I don’t care what other people are saying. It’s just plain wrong.”
(…)
6:34:37 a.m. EST
SCARBOROUGH: And I just want to say — Jim said we don't live in a racist nation. I can only speak to my experience. I've lived in Georgia growing up. I lived in Alabama. I lived in Mississippi. I lived in northwest Florida, which is the deep South. I have lived the majority of my life in the deep South.
And I will tell you through elementary school, middle school, high school, college. Perhaps somewhere else, the darkness on the edge of town, there were racists and bigots talking this way. I never once — well, actually I did one time, I heard one time, one time. But other than this one time, I never heard this sort of talk. I never heard, and I grew up — not in a bubble. I was very — we lived in a very middle class family, went to Southern Baptist churches. I never once heard this kind of talk growing up. This is not normal. Maybe it's been normalized over the past few years, but this is not normal. And I grew up in the deep, deep south.
And I'll just say, I've told this story before, I'll say it again, Mika, because it explains the remarkable change that the south went through and how we took great pride at one time in being part of the new South. I was in first grade, and Mississippi, 1969, got integrated. That was just a few years after the civil rights killings in Philadelphia, Mississippi, which was just right down the road from where I went to elementary school.
We were standing in line, we were about to get lunch, and this young kid said it — made a racist slur against a young black girl. I still remember all these years later, a student teacher — she probably went to Mississippi State or Ole Miss and was probably, you know, in her first year at Northeast Elementary School. She went over and she grabbed this kid by the ear and said, “Well, you might smell too if you didn't have indoor plumbing.” And I remember her grabbing his ear — probably couldn't do that today — dragging him out screaming, taking him to the principal's office, and we didn't see him in class again for three days. That was the example that was set in first grade.
You don't — even in the midst of the integration fights in 1969, in rural Mississippi, that was the message that was being sent to first grade. “No! We live in a new south. We live in a new nation.” And that was the message that I received in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, northwest Florida, whether I was in class, whether I was on — playing baseball, whether I was in the locker room, playing football. You just didn't do it.
And now for our leaders to be nodding and winking, saying, “Oh, kids will be kids.” No, no, kids won't be kids. Not in this realm. We teach our children better than that. We deserve — our children deserve better than that. So just a shrug and say, “Oh, kids will be kids. They're young. They're in their 20s and their 30s” No. These are far more than youthful indiscretions. This is a lurch back 70 years into a racist past that most Americans, most Republicans, most independents, most Democrats don’t want to go back to, Mika.
(…)
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