During Thursday’s episode of Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough decided to chime in on the recent verbal altercation between Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Attorney General Eric Holder. After the tense exchange between Gohmert and Holder on Tuesday, Holder spoke at an event held by the National Action Network on Wednesday. Holder went off-script from his prepared remarks at the event and spoke about the level of unprecedented disrespect that’s been shown to him as the nation’s Attorney General:
“The last five years have been defined by significant strides and by lasting reforms even in the face, even in the face of unprecedented, unwarranted, ugly and divisive adversity. If you don’t believe that, you look at the way — forget about me, forget about me. You look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee — has nothing to do with me, forget that. What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?”
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Tal Kopan from Politico was on Morning Joe to discuss Holder’s remarks and his most recent flare-up with Rep. Gohmert. After playing clips from Tuesday’s exchange as well as Holder’s remarks on Wednesday, Scarborough jumped into the conversation. Below is video of the segment:
As you can see in the video above, Scarborough mocked the idea that racism is at play with the treatment of Holder. Scarborough defended Gohmert, saying that he believes that Gohmert would be just as tough on Janet Reno 20 years ago as he is now on Holder. Scarborough, who will use any opportunity to bring up his Congressional career, brought up the 1990s and said that Janet Reno and Bill Clinton had it just as bad, if not worse, than Holder and Obama.
Essentially, Joe Scarborough stated that he feels that Holder and President Obama are too sensitive and play the ‘race card’ too often. His feeling is that is just the atmosphere in Washington, and that Obama and Holder just need to toughen up and realize it. In Scarborough’s mind, Holder and Obama have not dealt with anymore adversity, disrespect or divisiveness than others in the past, such as Clinton, Richard Nixon or Robert Bork.
There was an extremely interesting visual going on while Scarborough explained how there wasn’t any racism directed towards the President or Attorney General in Washington. The entire panel comprised of middle-aged white people discussing the issue of whether or not a black man has experienced bigotry and prejudice while doing his job. Worse, Scarborough brushes this issue aside with snide remarks and arrogantly points out that he, and his other white colleagues on the panel, have been in Washington a long time and they know best.
All in all, we got to see Scarborough whitesplain to Holder about how Holder and Obama aren’t experiencing racism in Washington. Per good ol’ Morning Joe, Holder just needs to accept that Washington is a tough place to work.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
