MSNBC host Joe Scarborough claimed on Wednesday that the upcoming midterm elections were not going to be a referendum on President Joe Biden, the Democrats in control of Congress, or the continuing rise of inflation.
Rather, Scarborough argued — against the backdrop of Holocaust Remembrance Day — that the real referendum was going to be what played out in the Republican primaries as voters determined whether they wanted to move in a “more neofascist direction.”
Wherein Joe Scarborough uses #HolocaustRemembranceDay to claim that the 2022 midterms will not be a referendum on Joe Biden and the Democrats in power, but instead will determine whether Republicans will "move in a more neofascist direction." pic.twitter.com/bEYxH2WJJa
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) April 27, 2022
“Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. And it seems to me, for most of our lives, most of our adult lives, whenever there was Holocaust Remembrance Day, we were looking at black and white photos, trying to figure out how madness spread across Germany and the rest of the continent the way it did that would lead to such grave tragedies,” Scarborough began. “How one man would be responsible for each evil and influence so many others. These pictures are actually historic reminders and unfortunately bring warning still to us today.”
Scarborough then drew a direct comparison to what was happening in Ukraine as Russian occupation forces, directed by dictator Vladimir Putin, continued to wage war against the neighboring nation.
“One man’s evil. Just one man, one man’s evil designs on others bringing unspeakable horrors to an entire nation of Ukraine,” he said, before pivoting to draw a comparison that was much closer to home.
“Domestically, you see the fire hose of falsehoods that the Russians use, the big lie that Hitler used to get to power. You see so many things being employed. You see neo-fascists, viewpoints being deployed by a segment of a political party in America,” he continued.
Scarborough went on to say that he couldn’t yet tell whether the the problem was growing or shrinking — although he did suggest it was limited to Republicans — but he argued that the 2022 midterms were likely to provide some answers.
“We will see how things go in 2022. Because these 2022 elections, they’re not a referendum on Joe Biden. They’re not a referendum on Nancy Pelosi. They’re not a referendum on Chuck Schumer. They’re really a referendum on the Republican Party,” Scarborough claimed.
“And we’re going to see a lot primaries over the next several months that are going to be a referendum of the Republican Party. Where Republican voters have to decide where they want to go. Do they want to move back towards the views of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher? Or do they want to move in a more neofascist direction, a direction they were going that of course culminated on January 6.”