Joe Scarborough takes the wind out of Donald Trump's ugly screed with three words

“Blah, blah, blah.”

That's a pretty good way to describe morning talk shows on cable news networks most days. On Friday, however, that line was a perfect description of Donald Trump and the politics of hate practiced by his acolytes, including failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

And it was uttered by Joe Scarborough, of all people.

Time out.

It’s 2023. I don’t want to be writing about Donald Trump, who hasn’t won an election since 2016, any more than you might want to read about him. His poisonous lies and boasts are best ignored by the media (and everyone else).

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Trump rails on Truth Social all the time. Scarborough had enough

And yet Trump persists, railing about all manner of things on Truth Social. He is still the dominant figure in the Republican Party, even when diminished. Truth Social is a sad little echo chamber of a platform, which makes Trump the equivalent of Old Man Yelling at Cloud on “The Simpsons.”

But every now and then his vitriol curdles up and boils over, and you get sick of it and have to call it out. Enough. Which is exactly what Scarborough did.

Time back in again.

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Trump and Kari Lake don't get to decide how people love their country

On Friday's “Morning Joe," Scarborough — the former Republican congressman turned morning talk-show host — played a portion of a screed that Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday.

“Our greatest threat, but the greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia,” Trump wrote. “It’s probably more than anything else ourselves and some of the horrible USA-hating people that represent us.”

He went on to list the usual grievances any self-respecting MAGA member can recite by heart, tossing out “Marxists” and “godless nation,” “race and gender” and the rest. You know the drill. The real problem he has is with those who dare to disagree.

Only Scarborough didn’t let the clip finish.

“Blah, blah, blah,” he said. “You know what’s boring to me? What’s boring to me is the hatred for America, the hatred for America you hear spewing from Donald Trump’s mouth.”

Can I get an amen? Somehow Trump and Lake and their ilk have managed to convince their followers that they are the great patriots, those who would deny elections and overthrow the tenets of democracy. Stick an American flag on your lapel and your Twitter profile and all of a sudden you’re winning the nonexistent contest to see who is the most patriotic.

Disagreement isn’t hatred. The my-way-or-the-highway attitude is.

Scarborough went on.

“Donald Trump hated America before he became president of the United States,” he said. He talked about how the American dream was dead. Yeah, try telling that to the immigrants, the migrants, the refugees risking their lives to come to the United States of America. Because what do they believe in? The American dream.”

Good for him. Why do Trump and his followers get to decide what the American dream is? Or how to pursue it?

Trump once again puts the media in a difficult spot

There are a lot of ways to love your country, and no one person gets to decide how. Nor do they get to define terms for everyone. Scarborough is at least making those points.

“All Donald Trump does, all other people do is they bash the United States of America,” he said. “They attack the United States military, our men and women in the armed forces. They attack our intel community. They hate America by their own words. And if they hate it so much, why don’t they move to Russia? Russia will take them.”

The media are left in a difficult position. Reporting on every lie Trump tells would be like trying to count grains of sand on a beach. Who has the time? Or the inclination?

The hope was that if you ignored him he would go away. But thanks to Lake and other candidates who carry his election-denying water, he won’t. Maybe Scarborough just had enough. Maybe he was looking for a ratings boost. And no one wants a steady diet of it. Whatever the case, it was the right thing to do.

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Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Joe Scarborough hits Donald Trump where it hurts: His ego