News/Commentary

Scarborough: ‘Seems pretty obvious Fox News has left the Trump train’ in favor of ‘DeSantis Express’

July 18, 2022 | | Print Article

(Video: MSNBC)

Citing stories on his Twitter feed, Joe Scarborough declared on Monday that “Fox News has left the Trump train” in favor of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Speaking with MSNBC analyst John Heilemann on “Morning Joe,” Scarborough said former President Donald Trump is “showing signs of weakness” and has “too much hanging over him” to successfully run for re-election in 2024.

“Whenever you talk to people close to Trump during the question of whether he’s going to run for re-election or not after the drubbing in 2018, said, of course he’s going to run for re-election. I mean, that’s his ticket. He has too much hanging over him liability-wise,” said Scarborough.

“But there also is, if we just move this reporting to the side and just look at the rest of it,” he continued, “he’s really showing signs of weakness out there, whether you’re talking about fundraising, whether you look at his candidates — the problems they’re having, not only in Republican primaries but the ones that even do win, the financing problems that they’re having.”

“You know, I saw a clip on Fox last night that was in my Twitter feed, and it seems pretty obvious that Fox News has left the Trump train,” the host stated. “and they are jumping on the DeSantis Express. And he sees all of this happening while he is sitting in Mar-a-Lago. It doesn’t seem like he is going to be able to sit back much longer, does  it?”

The remarks come after a three-minute video from the Arizona rally Trump postponed due to the untimely death of Ivana Trump was posted on Fox News’s website, in which Trump supporter after Trump supporter stated they would prefer a less polarizing candidate — namely Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — for president in 2024.


(Video: Fox News)

In response to Scarborough’s comments, Heilemann called the notion of a third Trump run for the White House a “huge problem for the Republican Party.”

“The Mitch McConnells of the world maybe are starting to make peace with the notion they’ll have to deal with Trump running,” he said. “But the notion of Trump as an active candidate heading into the midterms complicates their picture so much.”

“Look, you know, if he runs, which looks like he is going to, he’s the front runner,” Heilemann stated. “But is he in a weakened state right now? Is he in a weaker place than he was? I would say probably a weaker place than he’s been in the Republican Party in — since, you know, March of 2016 or so. Six years where Trump has been in a stronger position where he is now… but I still think he is the front runner to be the Republican nominee.”

Pointing to a mid-June poll from ABC News and Ipsos in which 21% of surveyed Republicans claimed Trump bears a “great deal” or a “good amount” of responsibility for the now-infamous events of January 6, Mediaite reporter Colby Hall called Scarborough’s observation “banal” but worthy of “some memorialization.”

“We find ourselves in such a uniquely strange political media ecosphere that sometimes the most prominent and banal observation still merits some memorialization, particularly by an outlet that covers that political exosphere,” Hall wrote. “Scarborough’s comment is an example and will only spur a reaction from Trump in his enmity towards Fox News, which is always the sort of bitter intraparty infighting that’s fun to observe.”

Online, people are skeptical.

“Really,” responded one user.

The string of laughing emojis said the rest.

 

Melissa Fine
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