Should Ron DeSantis be elected president, he has promised to start “slitting throats” on the first day of his term. And “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough was outright floored at that language on Friday morning, calling it part of a “calculated campaign” to foment another civil war.
DeSantis made his graphic promise at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Sunday, saying “We’re going to have all these deep state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on day one.” On Friday, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough had trouble wrapping his head around how his former party “has become such a violent party with such violent rhetoric.”
“I can’t even imagine how our party got to a point where a frontrunner — guy in second place — would say ‘I’m going after the deep state and I’m going to start slitting throats on my first day in office,’” Scarborough marveled. “This is fascism, is it not?”
But panelist Charlie Sykes had a theory as to how the party has devolved to this point:
“There is this contest now among Republicans — it’s not just the cruelty is the point,” Sykes said. “It’s, the brutality is the point. You listen to the rhetoric, and it is [as] if there is a contest of who can be the toughest? Who can be the most savage?”
He added that, in reality, DeSantis might just be trying to outdo Donald Trump when it comes to being mean.
“You know, Donald Trump wants to put spikes on the top of the border wall, Ron DeSantis comes in, says, you know, ‘Hold my beer. I will actually slit throats on my first day in office,’” Sykes said.
Scarborough eventually admitted that these increasingly violent statements have been happening for quite some time, and worried about what the Republican party’s endgame is.
“This is all a calculated campaign and, my God, it sounds like it’s a calculated campaign to whip up civil war!” he said. “To create! To create a civil war where no civil war exists.”
You can watch the full conversation from “Morning Joe” in the video above.
