Former MSNBC host Donny Deutsch said Friday that if former President Donald Trump wins in 2024, “Morning Joe” might cease to exist.
Host Joe Scarborough and Deutsch were discussing Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to suspend Soros-backed prosecutor Monique Worrell for allegedly failing to impose mandatory sentences for gun and drug crimes and allowing convicted minors to avoid jail time. Worrell was an elected state attorney in Orange and Osceola counties.
“And like I said yesterday — this is what I don’t get about Republicans — so maybe she’s a little too progressive on crime issues for maybe my taste or your taste or the rev’s taste or some — I don’t know, maybe she is, but that’s irrelevant,” Scarborough said. “That’s what she campaigned on and got 67%. What makes these people think that there’s not going to be a Democrat or an independent in the future that fires people who are conservative because they don’t like their politics? The — the fact that these Republicans think they can do all of these things that damage constitutional norms and political norms and it’s not going to come back and haunt them later really shows how ignorant they are,” he continued.
“The ignorance comes down to a simple thought. I think the vice president’s answer about what she wakes up in the morning and thinks about, democracy is the thing we all should be thinking about,” Deutsch said. (RELATED: Soros-Backed Prosecutor Suspended By DeSantis Blows Gasket At Presser)
“And by the way, that wasn’t supposed to be a big issue in ‘22. It ended up being a big issue in ‘22.”
“Make no mistake about it. This is what I get so enraged with not the far-right fringe, but the Republican — the establishment Republicans. Do you not understand that if Donald Trump wins, nothing else matters because it’s over? ‘Morning Joe’ — just to take a little example, ‘Morning Joe’ might not exist anymore because Donald Trump has said, as all autocrats say what they will do, and he has said, ‘If I’m elected, I want the FCC reporting directly to me,’ and he will cancel this show,” Deutsch said.
“I mean, you need to think that — that extreme. It’s over! Freedom is over if Donald Trump gets elected. It’s that simple. No other issue matters. Every other issue sprinkles down from that. However you feel about the economy, however you feel about whatever issue you’re dealing with, we turn into an autocracy. What our forefathers fought for 250 years ago is over. That’s what’s at stake in this election. Everything else is a subtext to that.”
Trump has remained ahead in the GOP primary polls along with polls stacked against President Joe Biden. Trump touted his lead, saying during a Saturday speech in Columbia, South Carolina that “we’re kicking Biden’s ass” in the polls. Polling data suggests Trump is running within the margin of error of Biden.