MSNBC's Joe Scarborough accused J.D. Vance of using emotionally abusive language to attack Donald Trump's political opponents in the wake of another apparent assassination attempt.
The Secret Service thwarted a gunman who had apparently been stalking the former president Sunday in West Palm Beach, Florida, two months after agents shot and killed a man who fired shots at Trump, killed one of his supporters and wounded two others. Vance claimed Democrats were responsible for the threats against his running mate.
“The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months," Vance said. "I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the Left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out.”
The "Morning Joe" host could barely conceal his contempt for Vance and his message.
"This is what you would call gaslighting," Scarborough said. "I'm not even going to respond to the hypocrisy."
Scarborough instead read from a report by the New York Times' Peter Baker, who catalogued some of the threats and violent actions taken by various individuals on behalf of Trump.
"At the heart of today’s eruption of political violence is Mr. Trump, a figure who seems to inspire people to make threats or take actions both for him and against him," Baker wrote.
"He has long favored the language of violence in his political discourse, encouraging supporters to beat up hecklers, threatening to shoot looters and undocumented migrants, mocking a near-fatal attack on the husband of the Democratic House speaker and suggesting that a general he deemed disloyal be executed."
"While Mr. Trump insists his fiery speech to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, was not responsible for the subsequent ransacking of the Capitol, he resisted pleas from advisers and his own daughter that day to do more to stop the assault," Baker added. "He even suggested that the mob might be right to want to hang his vice president and has since embraced the attackers as patriots whom he may pardon if elected again."
Scarborough recounted his own personal experience with threats from Trump, whom he once counted as a friend.
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"It's barely even worth responding to, and I can say that on a personal level," Scarborough said. "You know, him suggesting that I should be executed after he was angry at my Covid reporting — which basically was just reading his quotes over six months' time — agreeing that Liz Cheney should be sent before a military tribunal because she endorsed Kamala Harris, suggesting that violence should be done to others, and his supporters suggesting that the hosts of the ABC debate should be imprisoned."
"He welcomes to Mar-a-Lago people who have racist beliefs, among other things, who are not democratic in their values," added co-host Mika Brzezinski.
"We're talking about violence here," Scarborough concluded. "Again, the real introduction to violent rhetoric in America, in presidential campaigns, has been unprecedented since Trump first came onto the scene in 2016."
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