MSNBC's Joe Scarborough warned Republicans they would one day pay a price for turning a blind eye to President Donald Trump's bigotry, instability and abuses of constitutional norms.
The "Morning Joe" host opened a segment asking how Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) could "split the difference" on Trump's bigotry, and he warned conservatives like New York Times columnist David Brooks not to ignore obvious warning signs about the president.
"Mark it down: Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, the bill will come due on Republicans who think this is all worth it," Scarborough said. "If you think America trading in their values in all the way Donald Trump has traded in his values for a couple of points reduction in the corporate tax, or regulatory reform around the margins, understand there's no such thing as a free lunch. You and your party are going to pay for it."
Brooks argued in Tuesday's column that anti-Trump conservatives should preserve their moral authority with the president's supporters to prepare for a crisis on the horizon, and Scarborough said that was overly optimistic.
"The crisis is here, that's the difference -- I think that's the difference," Scarborough said. "That's a great point. He says the crisis is coming. That's what separates David Brooks and me right now -- I think the crisis is here."
Scarborough and MSNBC contributor Eugene Robinson, a Washington Post columnist, disagreed on another crucial point with Brooks, who argued that Trump served only as a distraction from consequential activity inside the executive branch.
"I think this idea that you can have a presidency separate from the president is just not the way our system works, and i think inevitably, that just doesn't work," Robinson said. "You might think it's working for a week or for a month, but ultimately we give enormous responsibility and enormous power to one person, to the president of the United States, and if the president of the United States is not fit to hold the office, that's -- that's not a sustainable thing."
