Former Republican House speaker Paul Ryan said he won’t attend the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) if former president Donald Trump is the party nominee. On Monday, the “Morning Joe” team wondered aloud why more Republicans can’t do the same.
“It just looks so easy,” Mika Brzezinski said. “Just looks so easy, it doesn’t seem hard. He was able to just say what he doesn’t think is good for the party. He just said it!”
Praising Ryan, co-host Joe Scarborough also slammed what he called “establishment Republicans” for saying that they don’t like Trump but still backing him if he’s winning, regardless of what he’s said or done.
“If you get behind Donald Trump, and I know a lot of Republicans—establishment Republicans—who hate Donald Trump but they say if he’s the party nominee, ‘I’m going to get behind him.’ You would be saying that about Mussolini? I don’t know. If the guy said ‘I’m the new Hitler?’”
He continued: “Donald Trump has already said that he trusts an ex-KGB agent who is a war criminal who sees the United States as his sworn enemy, more than he trusts men and women in the intelligence community who risk their lives everyday to keep us safe. He’s already called the worst invasion in Europe since World War II ‘genius.’”
Scarborogh went on to criticize those who are seemingly supporting Trump blindly.
“What Paul Ryan said should be saluted, but I just wonder, all these ‘respectable Republicans’ [saying], ‘I don’t like him, but I’ll get behind him if he’s [representing] the party.’ What does that mean? What does that mean when you got a guy who’s more sympathetic to Vladimir Putin than a rank-and-file FBI agent who’s risking her life every day and every night?”
Political analyst Jen Psaki reminded the co-hosts that regardless, Trump’s “election-denying agenda” lost in the November elections, and those who continue to support him regardless hold a “fear of the base.”
“It reminds me a lot of the NRA and how the NRA still has this huge power over a range of elected officials in Washington despite the fact that gun reform legislation is supported by 70, 80, 90 percent of the public,” Psaki said. “It is this fear of the base. But yes, Paul Ryan, good for him. He has no more you-know-whats to give, and maybe he will be a person who helps lead some to say the same thing.”
Watch the full “Morning Joe”segment in the video above.
