Overtime – Episode #717: Joe Scarborough, Marjorie Taylor Greene

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Welcome to Real time. All right, he's the co-host of MS Now's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough, and she's a former Republican congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Green. Okay. Uh okay, what does the panel make of Nicki Minaj bragging about getting a gold card from Trump after declaring herself his number one fan? Are you are you a Nicki Minaj fan? I like her music. You do? Yeah.

Look at that. See, people just didn't know you, Marjorie. They didn't know really. I have no idea. I would think that you would have been listening to country music, which you might also and Nicki Minaj. Sure. She likes all kind of music. Yeah, I do too. Right. Um so what do you think? But I'm I'm wondering if Nikki's fan base is gonna uh be okay.

Yeah. Anyway, uh what's the question? What does the panel make of this? Well, I mean, first of all, I I I think people in the Trump administration said the gold card is not what she thinks the gold card is. So I I I don't even I don't even think she has the real deal. So it's gonna be fascinating. We'll we'll we' watch watch this space. I think it's good whenever people get out of their boxes.

I really do. I I mean I just think it's good when when the message goes out, we don't all have to follow we don't all wear pink on Wednesday, okay? For whatever reason.

Um uh measle cases have reached a thirty year high with a fast growing outbreak in South Carolina. Are anti-vax voices in the government like RFK Jr. responsible? Well yeah. The question answers itself. What it's in it it's it's insanity. I mean, you know i His kids all had the four, five, six, and then we're not going to be able Vaccines. Oh we all had the vaccines. No. I don't uh well I got me

What did w w what were you as a child? Yeah, before the vaccine. No no but I'm I'm just saying just in general, like w our kids all got like, you know, the the the the the vaccines and We did a pretty good job in in getting rid of of measles and getting rid of of uh the the other things. So yeah, I of course it's R FK's fault. Well juniors. I don't I don't think you can blame Secretary Kennedy.

I I I look I totally believe in parents' rights to choose to vaccinate or not vaccinate their children. And I don't think the government should mandate that. And I don't think I think children should be able to go to school or any kind of activity without being forced to take a vaccine.

And I think that's incredibly important. A lot of people care about that. I mean some of the some of the the poorest states in America uh actually wiped out diseases because they had if you look at Mississippi, Alabama, some of the deep South states uh that that I lived in, you know, they they had the most stringent requirements because we used to make fun of people In San Francisco, the anti vaxxers used to be on the left. They used to be the hippies, the old hippies, the freaks.

Have decided they're going to emulate what happens in San Francisco, and you're starting to see these states that are had eradicated these diseases. Now have have have have rise up again like me. Potential links to autism. Not really. That actually a lot of a lot of parents think that it is that it is linked.

And they have been ignored for a very long time. And I think I'm it's such a sad case. This is something that really needs to be studied. Well it has been studied for thirty years and and I will say I would say I was a lawyer. I was an attorney. I talked to RFK Jr. I have a son who's on the spectrum. I had questions with in in the early 2000s about this.

There've been so many studies, there've been one study after another s study after another study that does not link autism to vaccines. It just doesn't. I think there's people that would argue with you. There there are many parents that link it to vaccines and I th I really think it's up to the parents.

If it's not the vaccines, well I'm not saying it is. Well what what it what is the what is your gut as to why the rates went up so high? Why they've spiked so much? Because we all had kids, or at least I did. We all had kids that we went to school with and they were a little off. They were a little different. You know, they they may have been some of the smartest kids, but they didn't know how to relate to us. They were the ones that sat alone in the cafeteria. And what happened by the time

So we get in the the nineties we're going to be. It was always there. We just weren't counting it. Now if su and now if somebody looks at a teacher wrong, they're like, Oh, he's on the spectrum. Right. I mean so maybe there's there's there's been more of a diagnosis over the past twenty, thirty years That have caused those numbers to go up. You look at a state like California where the numbers have gone up higher I think than other places. Right. Probably.

Uh more diagnoses than i in other states. Well it also correlates with the number of vaccines. The amount of vaccines that children have to have now is outrageous. And and thankfully, Secretary Kennedy They changed that. What's outrageous about the vaccines that came to the city? Seventy two vaccines. Seventy two vaccines up to the age of two? That is outrageous. Well, I've got versus when we were kids. I have four we didn't have that many vaccines. I have four kids and I didn't

I didn't give'em seventy two vaccines. But nowadays uh up until two? I don't know. I mean I don't know the number, but I've heard those high numbers. Yeah. And and who knows I mean my thing with vaccines, I wasn't an anti-vaxxer. It just always was Long term. Do we know if there is a long term problem? Like we I'm talking about fifty years down the line.

if you have taken everything that your immune system is supposed to do naturally and made it so that your b because usually when you when you do something with your body and you and you say that your body doesn't have to take care of it itself. It doesn't. Yeah, but you know, we we we have we have a lot of these vaccines that have been around for 30, 40, 50 years. I don't know what the impact of Ozempic is there.

I don't know what the impact of Ozempic's gonna be twenty, thirty years from now. Exactly. That's the point. Right, right. But but but as far as as uh vaccine for measles, a vaccine for for some of these other things, they've been around for decades. Yeah, but we're talking about the uh accumulation of all these vaccines plus all these different

elements that we never had in our body for, like so many different chemicals that we know. Is there some sort of mixing and matching of all these different elements that we never had, electromagnetic energy, cell phone, whatever th I don't know. I don't I don't know. I'm not saying there is. But is that is you know so until I can go to a doctor and have him say, you know what, uh you got cancer, but you know we know exactly what caused it and we know exactly what can fix it.

I'm I'm just gonna be like open-minded about everything. Are are you sympathetic toward RFK Junior's position on vaccines? Uh I'm sympathetic to the idea in general. I think he's a big picture guy, not all very often with where he gets into the weeds. Right. No, he's and I'm right on track. Yeah, you're right on track. I'm not oh I am definitely not on track with everything he says. Um but the idea.

I said, you know, you you made your your bones as a environmental lawyer. You connected our terrible environment with our ill health. This is the you need to transfer this now to this other this is really kind of what you're doing now, but instead of with a river, we're talking about the river of shit that we put in our bodies from the pharmaceutical companies and on down the line. He just goes to I also said to him at one point, is there a conspiracy theory you don't believe? Right.

And his answer was? No. I don't know.

Um okay. Trump announced he was moving a huge armada to the Middle East. And he also said we have something called a discombobulator. Yeah. Heard about that. I think the people in Venezuela found out about that as well. The discombobulator? Apparently they did. Yeah. What what is a discombobulator? Well I don't know. Okay. We we have one and it was used in Venezuela. And and so I put out a post today, I said, Well

Now that files have been released and then deleted, uh I think it increases the odds that we'll be bombing Iran tonight. Um tonight. Well it's a Friday. I mean it's a Absolutely. Sure. You gotta do it on a Friday night. Wag the dog. You've got a White House that has been focused on foreign policy so much, whether you're talking about Venezuela, whether you're talking about Greenland, whether you're talking about Iran, what you know, uh the

We've got a country. Uh well, Republicans mocked and ridiculed Democrats for not focusing on affordability, not focusing on the price of butter. And now They're talking about foreign policy all the time. We've got wars all over the place. They were bombing

You know, they were bombing uh boats coming out of Venezuela for a very long time, and that's in the news. Affordability is not. The cost of health care is not, the cost of rent is not, the cost of groceries, which went up at a faster clip in December than I think any time since twenty two, twenty one or twenty two. You know, they're not talking about that right.

Uh they're talking about a lot of things that are talking. No where's the protesting about what's going on in Iran? You did? I I was so outspoken on No More Foreign Wars uh that was That was part of uh I got in trouble. I I went to the principal's office on that. Thank you. I kinda stuff like the whole MAGA make make America great again. America first. No more no more. You said Amer the weak Republican men. Mm-hmm. You use that term.

And I mean I read a story in the New York Times about the the we're talking about the split in the Republican Party. Apparently it's it's very gender oriented because my Johnson. Johnson. Yeah. Not popular with the lady. No he's not. No, he's not. And he s went on some podcast and said he doesn't think the women have the m something like the mental capacity to com compartmentalize. Did you see that? Wow, yeah. What what what do you make of that? Uh I'd make a lot of that.

I wanna ask you this though, because I think you're go I think you were starting to touch on it. I wanna know how many people The Iranian mulas have to slaughter in the streets before one person, one student on Colombia goes out on their campus grounds and protests. Or do they only protest? when it's Jews who were fighting the war. Correct. Because it's outrageous. It is. It's up to thirty thousand. And it only proves

It only proves what supporters of Israel said at the time, and a lot of times they were focused on me. They go, Why are you focused so much on Gaza? Why are you focusing why don't you focus more on in the middle of all these other things? Well, I will tell you, Colombia. Other universities are proving them right because thirty thousand Iranians have been slaughtered, not one campus protest, nobody's talking about it. You know, Trump tweeted some horrible things about Elon Omar, which is wrong.

Despicable, but he's not. But you know, one thing he's called me a murderer thirteen times. I mean we can all go to that party. It's a big club. Yeah. I mean I I still get the test. Yelling at me. Of course. Dialogue's great. Dialogue's great. Um but the uh But th th there is a a a a stunning lack of perspective often on the left on these kind of issues. Now he said something terrible among his things he said about Ilan Omar.

And I don't I'm not gonna I don't have the quote in front of me, but basically what it was is she comes here and all she does is complain and bit. Okay, there is something uh there is a kernel of truth in that, that somebody comes from a country like Somalia, and then it just seems like she n does not have any perspective on the country that she joined here.

and never seems to have anything good to say about America. The second she came here my family she's allowed. My family's probably been here for four hundred years. The day she came to America and raised her hand and took the oath. every bit as much of an American as you are or me. And I would say this is a very American have some perspective. She has just as much right as Donald Trump or any of the billionaires in his administration.

I'm saying have some perspective about this country versus a country like Somalia. Right. It it just it just. I didn't say that. You're saying that No, I'm trying to figure out what you're saying. What I'm saying is Have some perspective about this country, not just her, but yes, I mean if she's from a country like Somalia, which is a country you wouldn't live in. Right. Right. Okay.

Well, just be honest about it. Instead of j it just seems like it's always completely negative about this country. It also sometimes seems like we have I agree. Say something positive. Well I could say the same thing about about Republicans over the past decade. All they've done is bitched and moaned about how horrible this country was.

when we're the most powerful country on the planet. Uh we we have the most powerful military, the most powerful power. No, but here's the thing as soon as they take office we're the perfect country. But when they're but but when they're out of tower What do they do? Donald Trump talks about how the American dream is dead. No it's not. That's bullshit. The American dream's not dead.

We're stronger militarily, we're stronger economically, we're stronger culturally, we're stronger with soft power, we're stronger in every single way. I don't know about that. Ask Gen Z. Yeah. They're not feeling so good. I don't see. Okay, so now you now you're talking about America. How dare you do that? I think it's a great country. No, I said ask Gen Z. Well would Gen Z rather live in America or Somalia? I'm just saying the American dream is

harder to realize. The value of the dollar has gone down so much. They don't see the ability to ever own a home possibly. Right. It's it's a much bigger hill to climb than it was for all of us. You're right to say. You're trying to turn this into a bullshit argument. And turn it into a bullshit argument. It is a bullshit argument. No, it isn't. You're basically saying if you're from But I didn't say you can't. Strawman didn't come to the show. Strawman. No, no, I didn't say that either. Okay.

It's like having a fight with your wife, which I don't even know. I said have some perspective. So it's if I and I would say it to anybody. I I would say that to the Republican Party that says the Americans I would too. Good for the disagree about this. So why are you yelling? Because why not? Because I don't like when people put words in my mouth. That's why. I did not I did not do that. You did it over and over again. I could show the tape. Show me the tape. Show it to me.

Can't believe this guy is his own show. By the way, uh what are the chances Congress averts another government shutdown shutdown? Uh so where are we with the you would know that? Government shutdown. It's like every news I mean you have to talk about it every morning and then you talk about it once a week and I lived in it and I just thought the word CR, I'm like, why can we not fund the government? Why is this so complicated? Why can't we have a balanced budget? Why is it always overspending?

But it i are they going to fund the government? No, they're gonna fight on TV so they can make all of you at home mad and and to the point where we all have just outrage fatigue. Just constant outrage. is we're we're we're we're Crashing the game board over. And we're not playing anymore. Right.

It can't be Again and b and both both sides do it. I mean they didn't do it when you were in Congress. We shut down the government to balance the budget. We told Bill Clinton we were going to keep fighting. But they didn't do it all the time, right? No, we balanced the budget four years in a row, so we were happy. So you're saying it's a good thing? Well i I mean it's a g it it's sometimes it has to be used, but the problem with

What's happening now compared to when I was there? Total definitely have all of our appropriation bills, they would all go through. Usually the president would sign'em, and then at some point about fifteen years ago. They say, okay, you know what, we're gonna stop having what's called sort of like regular order.

And we're just gonna get the three Republican leaders and the three Democratic leaders together. They're gonna do these huge omnibus bills. Right. And then they're gonna tell everybody with like twenty-four hours left, here's a bill vote on. And it's over a thousand pages or more. And so there's not buy-in from the members, so that's why you're you're more likely to have government shutdowns now. Oh my god, yes.

When you were there. No, when I was there, you know, I was again, I know it's hard to believe, but I was considered like one of the most right wing members. I would come in and what did I do? I would go sit and talk to Ron Dell. Who's a Black Panther in the 60s? He's from Berkeley. And you hugged I yeah, and I did. I went over there. Who did you hug? Oh, Maxine Waters. And that was the beginning of the Me Too movement. Maxim Waters, of course. Thank you so much. Please.

Please don't put words in my mouth. What is the story baby? But you know, what I found was when I go over there, you know, you you you talk to somebody for five, ten, fifteen minutes. And you're like, wow, this guy has lived this extraordinary life, and we became lifelong friends. Most of my friends that that I met, I and uh, you know, I knew how Republicans felt and what they believed because But we were able to do that then. And I will tell you

Chairman of the committees, most of them were chairman of the committees. They did not put up with you trashing the ranking member. Like I remember one time Floyd Spence from South Carolina I started to say something about whoever the ranking member was and he cut me off. He goes, No, don't talk about him. He's a great guy. We disagree, but we we work together. And y the longer you're here, you're gonna

But I have a lot of friends that were there who said it's miserable there now that this doesn't happen. I call it the political industrial complex. It's now the two parties, it's an entire industry. where so much money is made on both sides of the aisle. You've got the political consultants, email, fundraising, all types of people that generate income based on creating this hate among the two parties.

And the Democrat Party and the Republican Party message on it and they message at home to the people at home because if they can build hate and fear to the other side, they drive people to donate and vote. And and I think that is what has completely destroyed the ability work in Congress and work across the aisle is because of this political industrial complex that feeds off of hate and fear. And it's just destroy Because

People have seen me setting up straw men and then knocking them down and setting next to you knocking them down. I wanted to tell everybody here as you're talking about dealing with people who think differently than you. I was telling Marjorie the story about when we first met. And I'd I'd love since they saw that last little thing that I did, I'd love to just say for those Everybody here probably doesn't know it, but I was here what ninety s maybe ninety six, ninety seven? Well the old show.

And, you know, I was from the South, I was a conservative, I was a Southern Baptist, and somebody on your show called me a a racist and a bigot. And of course, And it that time ninety nine point nine percent of your audience was really left wing. There would always be one guy with a NASCAR shirt that would be the one guy that cheered for me. But you stood up for me. And I have never forgotten it. And you said you said, hold on a sec.

The only bigot I see here is and you pointed to the comedian who was trying to get a cheap laugh. I mean, I I and I've never forgotten that thirty four thirty-five years later. And that's the sort of thing you don't see in Congress. You don't see people getting out of their comfort zone. You know, and it makes a difference, you know. Let's hug it out, bitch. Come on, that's it. Thank you, Joe. On to HBO.