This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 30 episode of “Morning Joe.”
With just over a month to go until the election, Donald Trump is escalating his personal attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris.
On Saturday during a rally in Wisconsin, the former president went after Harris’ mental fitness, telling the crowd, “Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it: Only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”
It should go without saying, but it’s worth stating: There is no truth to Trump’s claims. Also, if Harris was so “mentally impaired” or “mentally disabled,” how did she manage to destroy the former president in a debate for 90 minutes — humiliating him so badly that he refuses to even debate her on Fox News? And if she’s had a mental condition from birth, then why did Trump donate thousands of dollars to her 2014 California attorney general campaign?
Trump’s attacks against Harris were so baseless and so offensive, that it forced Republicans to do something they rarely ever do: criticize him.
Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland and current Senate candidate, told CBS News that Trump’s comments were “insulting not only to the vice president but to people that actually do have mental disabilities.” Hogan then said Trump’s divisive rhetoric “is something we can do without.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was also critical of the former president’s statements, offering this advice to the Trump campaign: “I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country.” Even Rep. Tom Emmer, who’s helping Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, prepare for Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, is trying to distance himself from Trump’s comments. He told ABC News that Republicans “should stick to the issues.”
These are the kind of comments Republicans usually whisper behind the scenes but now they’re going on the record. It shows the party is obviously concerned about the consequences of Trump’s attacks — and for good reason.
Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of MS NOW's "Morning Joe" alongside Mika Brzezinski — a show that Time magazine calls "revolutionary." In addition to his career in television, Joe is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His most recent book is "The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics — and Can Again."
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.