Senate candidate Kari Lake became the latest Republican to invoke the specter of political violence, and the co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" expressed their disgust toward this alarming trend.
The failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate urged supporters to "put on the armor of God" and "strap on a Glock" ahead of the 2024 election, and host Joe Scarborough placed those comments into the same context as numerous calls for violence from Donald Trump and recent remarks by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggesting that protesters should be tossed from the Golden Gate Bridge for blocking traffic.
"You just ask yourself, why does a politician think that's the road to popularity?" Scarborough said. "Kari Lake talks about the armor of God and carrying a Glock, and for some reason with that audience, the Glock gets a bigger cheer than the armor of God. Back when I was running, at least for people in most audiences, armor of God would probably do better than strapping on a Glock."
Scarborough noted that Trump draws laughs and cheers during his rallies by mocking Paul Pelosi, who was brutally attacked in his home by a hammer-wielding right-wing conspiracy theorist.
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"They still celebrate, and I say they, not just Donald Trump, you can all say, how sick Donald Trump is," Scarborough said. "Look at the audience, the audience is cheering. They're laughing that a man in his 80s got bludgeoned almost to the point of death by a guy that went in, I don't know, screaming, you know, MAGA chant, 'Where's Nancy, where's Nancy?' So this is, again, this is just the glorification of violence and the big question is why does this glorification of violence sell so well in Donald Trump's Republican Party? It's sick, it's sad, it's un-American."
The former president's gleeful embrace of political violence, which erupted into plain view during the Jan. 6 insurrection, has infected the entire Republican Party, agreed co-host Mika Brzezinski.
"It's scary, and once again we have to look at this for what it is or what it appears to be like," Brzezinski said, "and it's almost cult-like behavior, mimicking him, taking on his positions, even if some of them are evil and cruel and violent."
Co-host Willie Geist said GOP candidates seem to believe that voters want to hear violent rhetoric, and so they imitate the party's standard bearer.
"Everyone is doing a poor man's version of Donald Trump," Geist said. "That's what you saw from Kari Lake at that rally. To Joe's point, she didn't get the response by armor of God, better throw the Glock in the conversation, so she did. They know what works with their base, and they're going to keep pushing on that. When people in the media call them out and question it, there's value to double down on it."
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