On Friday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, the show’s panel, which included “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd, National Journal’s Ron Fournier and show host Joe Scarborough, hammered both right and left for comments made within the 2016 Republican presidential field and by the President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry.
Todd raised the point how blame deserved to go all around and called it a “horrendous week for American politics.”
“Let me say something larger about this week – this has been a horrendous week for American politics,” Todd said. “I think it’s been a terrible week for the Republican Party brand. I think watching the way many of the candidates responded to the attack this week – there hasn’t been a lot of great leadership moments.”
“It’s not just Trump in wanting to tag Muslims,” he continued. “You heard the Carson comments. John Kasich wants to start an agency on Judeo-Christian values. It’s not as if the president has been a great leader here. He’s been small and petty, used his forums to go after Republican critics rather than channel the anger and frustration and anxiety and nervousness of the American public. So, this has been – we’re one week removed from the attacks and I feel horrendous about American leadership right now – left and right.”
Scarborough agreed and deemed it “shameful demagoguery.”
“You know Chuck, I’m so glad you said that,” Scarborough said. “We’re hear on a Friday and you look back over this past week and you see the shameful demagoguery on the Republican side of the ledger. You see the shameful lack of focus from the president of the United States. His G20 performance, which was just — as The Washington Post editorial page said – was petulant. Then the next day you see our secretary of state speculating on the Charlie Hebdo attacks and suggesting that they were justified and at least logical then Republicans responses to that. I think this has been a low point in American politics and it shows we have a lot of leaders that aren’t up to the jobs that they’ve been promoted to do. And they need to step up to the task.”
Fournier then weighed it called it “scary” that both sides reacted in a such a manner.
“There’s no false equivalency here,” Fournier said. “There’s no sense of arguing over which party is least-worst. They both have really, really stunk this week and it’s scary.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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