Scarborough Admits Making ‘Several Factual Errors’ in Mocking Trump’s Parade

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said Thursday he regretted making “several factual errors” on Wednesday when he claimed the U.S. does not hold big military parades, as President Donald Trump wants to do

“I made several factual errors yesterday, which is certainly not a surprise, regarding these parades,” the “Morning Joe” co-host admitted. “[President] Eisenhower actually did have military parades and he had big military parades, complete with tanks, to celebrate his inauguration at the height of the Cold War.”

Former President Dwight Eisenhower held a military parade on Inauguration Day in 1953 that featured tanks, an 85-ton atomic cannon, and other pieces of military equipment, along with more than 70 bands and over 50 floats during the middle of the Cold War. Eisenhower held another military parade for his second inauguration in 1957, which included tanks and the Redstone, an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Former President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration during the Cold War included dozens of missiles plus towed Navy boats. Former President George H.W. Bush held a military parade in Washington, D.C., in 1991 after the Gulf War ended. It included missiles and armored vehicles while aircraft flew overhead. Other military parades took place in major U.S. cities after the endings of both World World I and World War II.

“So there is, 50-60 years ago — this did happen after World War II, World War I. But it just doesn’t happen much anymore,” Scarborough said. “And outside of the Cold War era, it does seem to be a bit frightening.”

The Washington Post first reported that Trump told Department of Defense officials in January that he wanted to hold a large military parade in the U.S. after witnessing France’s Bastille Day parade. Although Scarborough admitted “factual errors” because a “precedent” for U.S. military parades actually existed, he still didn’t approve of Trump’s request.

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“It does seem to be deeply un-American, certainly in 2018,” Scarborough warned. “Also, it’s hard to listen to the Pentagon and Republicans on Capitol Hill whining about money as much as they do, that we don’t have enough money for defense, we don’t have enough money to take care of our troops, to do this, to do that. Yet they’re talking about spending money on a parade for Donald Trump’s vanity.”

On Wednesday, Scarborough, co-host Mika Brzezinski and the show’s panelists mocked Trump for wanting to hold a military parade. Scarborough joked that the U.S. “ordered up a military parade” after “difficult times,” such as when the Boston Red Sox baseball team won.

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Brzezinski said that “different countries do that.”

“Oh, wait. That’s the Soviet Union and North Korea, isn’t it?” Scarborough said.

Brzezinski replied, “Something like that. They have the marches and the leader watches it and looks at them.”

Scarborough blasted Trump for his “very autocratic” request, saying, “Who would ever guess this president would be prone to autocratic tendencies?”

“We just don’t do military parades in this country,” Scarborough concluded.

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.