MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has always feared that President Donald Trump would destroy as much as he could before he's brought down, and he's growing increasingly alarmed.
The "Morning Joe" host said the president seems headed toward an election defeat, and one of his guests said that puts Trump's gestures toward right-wing extremists into an even more dangerous light.
"I think the best possible explanation, from Trump's point of view, if you are a Trump apologist, would be that he likes people who like him," said Financial Times national editor Ed Luce. "But then that, of course, begs the question, why is it that these far-right white supremacist, extremist groups, like him?"
"I don't think that explanation serves at all," Luce continued. "You judge somebody by his action. You look at his attitudes and policies on immigration, what he said, probably unrepeatable on this show about African countries, as opposed to the blue-eyed blond immigrants from Norway. My explanation would be he has sympathy with the people who like him, but in a larger political sense, this is entirely self-destructive."
"He is going against every rule of a president or any other person seeking re-election," Luce added, "which is to appeal to more moderate people to add to your demographic coalition. He's on a death wish here. I think he knows he's probably going to lose. He said, you guys, meaning the media and particularly the networks, are going to miss me. I'm sure you saw that tweet yesterday afternoon, and he's saying, if I'm going to go down, I'm going to take you down with me. I think there's a death wish in his approach to this election that is the mark of somebody who's got a very dark mind."
Scarborough agreed, saying he's always been concerned about what Trump would do when he's boxed in.
"It's always been a fear about Donald Trump that, if he was going to go down, he was going to try to take as many Americans with him as he could," Scarborough said. "That is a warning to people around him in the Cabinet, that is a warning to Republicans as we move forward and it becomes more obvious, if it does become more obvious, that Donald Trump cannot win this election, it is going to be responsible for Republicans to do everything they can to limit the damage to this democracy and save the lives of as many Americans as they can."
"Does that sound dark?" he added. "It does. Is that man's mind dark? It is. Are you going to prepare for it? We pray you will."
