Joe Scarborough Mocks Trump Over His Softening Immigration Stance, Labels Him #AmnestyDon
Oh, how the times have changed.
It wasn’t all that long ago when critics were deriding Morning Joe for its blatant cheerleading of Donald Trump. During the GOP primary, hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were excoriated for the loads of positive and uncritical coverage they provided the real estate mogul. There was the softball-laden Trump Town Hall, the near-daily call-ins, the targeting of his Republican opponents for mockery, the visit to Trump’s hotel room on the night of the New Hampshire primary…there was a reason many called the program Morning Trump.
Well, things changed after Trump won the primary, with both Joe and Mika no longer providing him endless praise and actually tossing criticism his way. This rubbed The Donald the wrong way and he immediately started a feud with the show which has (mostly) lasted until now. Throughout, he’s called Mika “neurotic” and “crazy,” threatened to spill the beans on the duo’s relationship and constantly ridiculed the show’s ratings. (Which, to be fair, are at their highest level in years.) On Sunday, Trump released a statement complaining about the program’s biased coverage and demanded a public apology from Mika over her treatment of one of his surrogates.
During Monday morning’s broadcast, Scarborough decided to turn the tables on Trump and give him his own nickname — #AmnestyDon. Joe, who took Friday off, spent a minute and a half jamming the phrase into a pretty amusing little rant about Trump’s attempts to soften his immigration policy. While highlighting that the former reality TV star’s surrogates and staffers are having a tough time figuring out just what his policy is, leading to clumsy interviews, he noted that “many people” are now calling him #AmnestyDon, stealing Trump’s favorite line.
.@JoeNBC: Nobody in #AmnestyDon‘s own campaign can tell you what #AmnestyDon‘s position is on immigration https://t.co/3ElGN4x0E0
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 29, 2016
Immediately after the segment, #AmnestyDon began trending on Twitter. The show’s Twitter feed even noted when it was the top trending topic.
#AmnestyDon is the #1 trending topic on Twitter right now. pic.twitter.com/hLWyXvNNsj
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 29, 2016
As of publication, Trump had yet to respond on Twitter regarding the new nickname, instead focusing on Crooked Hillary’s bar exams and how Latinos and blacks will vote for him because he’ll single-handedly stop crime in the inner-cities. (Remember, he believes all black and brown people live exclusively in ghettos.)
While I’m sure Trump will respond — he has to — this is such a trollishly good insult that it will be hard for him to provide a good comeback. This is something that will stick.
