Joe Scarborough’s Anti-Bannon Obsession

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough appears to have taken sides in the civil war over influence escalating inside the White House. The “Morning Joe” host has repeatedly targeted President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and played up rumors of his fall from power.

“This is part of a death spiral that we’re watching,” said Scarborough after it was announced Bannon would be leaving the National Security Council.

“Jared Kushner being in the White House is critical. As was said of FDR, Jared has a first-rate temperament.”

Reportedly a personal friend to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and Bannon’s rival for influence, the cable TV host has been an advocate for Kushner, while repeatedly bashing Bannon.

“He’s been attacking Jared Kushner, quietly to third parties for some time, that never ends well,” Scarborough said. “This is one step closer to running a SuperPAC for the Mercers on the outside of the White House,” Scarborough said longingly.

While mounting reports indicate that Kushner wanted Bannon’s role diminished over fundamental differences in vision, Scarborough would have his audience believe the decision to remove Bannon from the NSC had something to do with the former Breitbart CEO’s public image.

Trump “didn’t like ‘President Bannon’ being mentioned all the time,” insisted Scarborough. “Trump sees polls that put him at 34, 35, 39 percent and he understands that Steve Bannon’s view of how to run a White House … [creates] a lot of that chaos.”

Interestingly, Scarborough appeared to contradict himself immediately after making that statement. “Bannon himself has been extraordinarily frustrated in the White House, saying that, ‘if my talents aren’t needed here, I can take them somewhere else.”

But if chaos in the White House is a result of Bannon’s power and influence, as Scarborough asserts, why then would Bannon be “extraordinarily frustrated” over a lack of power and influence and threaten to quit?

Scarborough has long pushed the value of Kushner and has done everything in his power to attack the very populist nationalism that propelled Trump to power in the first place — the ideology most understood in the White House by Bannon.

“Jared Kushner being in the White House is critical. As was said of FDR, Jared has a first-rate temperament,” Scarborough said in December 2016.

Indeed, in a comment made just over a week ago, Scarborough said Bannon had to be removed. “If [Trump] wants to get his 36 [percent] to 56 [percent], he’s going to have to fire Steve Bannon,” said Scarborough.

Only a day before, Scarborough had embarked on a particularly unhinged anti-Bannon rant after the Republicans’ failure to move on health care. The MSNBC host called Bannon a “hack” who should “go back to running [his] website.”

[lz_related_box id=”289816″]

“I will call Steve Bannon a hack,” said Scarborough. “When you go in and you threaten members, you’re not only a hack, you’re stupid at your game,” he said. “Bannon failed miserably. He is the biggest loser.”

On Tuesday — only a day before Bannon’s dismissal from the NSC — longtime Trump associate Roger Stone accused Kushner of directly conspiring with Scarborough to help push Bannon out. “Jared Kushner, perhaps the one presidential aide who cannot be fired, is now in regular text-message communications with Joe Scarborough,” Stone asserted.

“Many of the anti-Steve Bannon stories that you see, the themes that you see on Morning Joe, are being dictated by Kushner,” said Stone.