'Crazy doesn't pay': Morning Joe explains why Republicans have 'lost ground' heading into midterms

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough pointed to new polling that shows Republicans are losing their advantage in this year's midterm election.

A new survey shows that Republicans have lost a seven-point lead since February in a generic congressional race matchup with Democrats, who now have a one-point lead, and the "Morning Joe" host said the GOP's extremism is turning away voters.

"Republicans, meanwhile, lost ground on the generic," Scarborough said. "This is fascinating -- 49 percent said [in February] they would pick the candidate from the party of Jewish lasers, they would pick the candidate from the party of QAnon freaks. They would pick from the candidate from the party of stolen elections, like, Chinese conspiracy theories, if the election were held that day, 42 percent would pick the Democrat. Well, maybe my old theory that crazy doesn't pay, maybe that theory is coming back into vogue."

"[Now] 45 percent chose the Republican, 46 percent chose the Democrat," he added. "Republicans held a 10-point advantage last fall."

Scarborough said those numbers don't mean much this far away from the November election, but he said the trend line should be worrisome for Republicans.

"Republicans have lost 1- points because they're crazy, because they've allowed crazy people to talk about Jewish lasers, they've allowed crazy people to take over their primary process, accusing anybody that doesn't believe in them of being pedophiles," Scarborough said. "They have been repeating and parroting conspiracy theories, not just from QAnon but from Chinese religious cults. Every day, that's what they've stood for. Again, look at that number, look at the trend line. They've gone from being 10 points ahead to being one point."

"This crazy may be catching up because, in part, it is exhausting," he added. "One candidate after another, like, J.D. Mandel, take what J.D. Mandel said before, what J.D. Mandel, as Donald Trump calls him, is saying now. It is crazy. He is running around talking about stolen elections. He's the one who said, if you loved Jesus, you wouldn't support Donald Trump in the past. This shift to Democrats the past couple months, not surprising. Also not surprising, it's from self-identified independents."

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