On Monday’s “Morning Joe,” frequent show guest Donny Deutsch and co-host Joe Scarborough viciously attacked Brett Kavanaugh as an attempted rapist and lambasted any Republicans who would still support Trump’s Supreme Court pick as furthering the political destruction of the GOP.
Early into the second hour of the show, Deutsch made his case for why Kavanaugh should be presumed guilty of “attempted rape” based on “gut” feelings [emphasis mine]:
“The Republicans are in a lose-lose…There has to be at least a hearing. If the hearing happens, how would you like to be a Republican male grilling, investigating, putting under pressure a victimwho -- something in your gut tells you, you know, that this is not being made up. So, how do you go at her? Picture women watching at home, and all women on [sic] some form or another…have felt victimized in their life. Now this is a very extreme case, this is attempted rape, but imagine a woman at home watching every one of those male Republicans grill and attack this victim. Boy, I would not like to be one of those questioners and have to answer to women in my district or anywhere.”
Deutsch went on to argue that because “women are taking over this country” and “women’s guts are even better than men’s guts,” Republicans will suffer politically if they fail to take the allegations as unvarnished truth and hold a hearing about the “attempted rape” while being perceived as “attacking this women [sic] in front of the nation.”
Earlier in the broadcast, Scarborough appeared to accept most of Deutsch’s basic assumptions about Kavanaugh’s guilt when he predicted that women voters might abandon Republicans en masse if GOP senators successfully push Kavanaugh through to the Supreme Court:
“This goes even beyond the #MeToo movement. If the #MeToo movement had never happened, Republicans would still be able to read their poll numbers and see how poorly they were doing with women because of Donald Trump. So, again, how does Lisa Murkowski, how does Susan Collins, how does any Republican senator that hopes to get educated, not just college-educated, but any women who care about the issue of choice, how do you cast that vote, and I hate to keep going back to it, but this is where we are right now. They will forever be branded as casting their vote for a man who has a cloud over his head, no matter how fair or unfair that is, and that Supreme Court nominee will be the deciding vote on Roe v. Wade. The consequences for Republicans long-term with women especially could be devastating.”
Deutsch immediately followed up Scarborough’s comments by insisting that Republicans who hide from the accusations against Kavanaugh “are gonna pay for it” and implored the GOP to instead “hear evil” and confront Kavanaugh for his assumed sexual misconduct. Unsurprisingly, Deutsch also proclaimed that regardless of any such hearings, he believed that “Kavanaugh is dead at this point” and professed that he would be “shocked if [Kavanaugh] was ever a Supreme Court justice.”
Returning to his predictions of devastation for the Republican Party in upcoming elections, Scarborough warned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that continuing to try to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court could result in the GOP “possibly los[ing] the Senate.” As an alternative, the MSNBC co-host recommended that Republicans go back to the drawing board to pick a female Supreme Court nominee in consultation with the Federalist Society and start the whole nomination process all over again.
Videos of the above segments can be found at these links (here and here) via Mediaite. A transcript of those segment follows below:
6:42 AM EST
JOE SCARBOROUGH: This goes even beyond the #MeToo movement. If the #MeToo movement had never happened, Republicans would still be able to read their poll numbers and see how poorly they were doing with women because of Donald Trump. So, again, how does Lisa Murkowski, how does Susan Collins, how does any Republican senator that hopes to get educated, not just college-educated, but any women who care about the issue of choice, how do you cast that vote, and I hate to keep going back to it, but this is where we are right now. They will forever be branded as casting their vote for a man who has a cloud over his head, no matter how fair or unfair that is, and that Supreme Court nominee will be the deciding vote on Roe v. Wade. The consequences for Republicans long-term with women especially could be devastating.
DONNY DEUTSCH: This is a moment in time -- Joe you used the word branding, it -- the Republicans, the cowardice of them, if they’re smart, they’re gonna have to kind of pull up their big boy or girl pants at this point and understand -- they will be branded forever. All of the chickens are gonna come to roost, and all of these people who have been quiet, who have stood by, they are gonna pay for it. This is a moment in time, and if they hide at this moment in time, the rest of their political careers will pay. I hope there’s Republicans listening. This is not a grey issue. This is a black and white [issue]. At the very least, you need to say: No, we’re not going to not hear evil. We need to listen. And I believe Kavanaugh is dead at this point. I would be shocked if he was ever a Supreme Court justice.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Whew! Gosh.
SCARBROUGH: Mika, you know, you look at what some Republicans said about Al Franken, for instance, what they said about allegations that Al Franken denied, and you start adding that up and you compare that to what’s going on right now. Again, it seems to me they’re in a very difficult position. And Mitch McConnel’s -- at some point, he may have the votes, but at some point, Mitch McConnel may have to look at the numbers. Brett Kavanaugh was already a historically unpopular pick. You’d have to go back quite some time to find another one that was as unpopular as he was. Mitch McConnel has to start asking himself: Do we want to stand by Brett Kavanaugh, possibly lose the Senate? Or do we just go to the Federalist Society, have them pick another conservative jurist and put him or her, or her ? wouldn’t be a bad idea ? a her, up for nomination to the Supreme Court?
BRZEZINSKI: There are a lot of reasons, perhaps, not to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, but if the Dems play really dirty on this, I don’t think that’s good for politics and for both sides. It’s what we’re dealing with in the White House.
(…)
7:15 AM EST
DEUTSCH: The Republicans are in a lose-lose, because if – there has to be at least a hearing. If the hearing happens, how would you like to be a Republican male grilling, investigating, putting under pressure a victim who -- something in your gut tells you, you know, that this is not being made up. So, how do you go at her? Picture women watching at home, and all women on [sic] some form or another ? Mika, we talk about it on this show ? have felt victimized in their life. Now this is a very extreme case, this is attempted rape, but imagine a woman at home watching every one of those male Republicans grill and attack this victim. Boy, I would not like to be one of those questioners and have to answer to women in my district or anywhere.
We are living through a moment in time, we’re living through a backdrop where right now there are more women graduating college every year than men. Women are taking over this country. It’s a process that’s happening. And I don’t care at this point – uneducated, educated – women have a certain gut – I don’t want to say something sexist, I think women’s guts are even better than men’s guts – and they are going to speak out in waves and my answer if I was advising any Republican is duck, do the right thing, and say: Look, at the very least we’ve gotta hear this through. But I would not want to be one of those men attacking this women [sic] in front of the nation.