Morning Joe pinpoints when Donald Trump did ‘more damage to his campaign than any Democrat ever could’

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough identified the moment where President Donald Trump may have irreparably harmed his re-election chances.

The "Morning Joe" host has been saying that elections are often won in the spring, when candidates establish their identities with voters, or have one established for them by their opponent.

"Elections used to be won after Labor Day, and they did when I was younger, growing up," Scarborough said. "Traditionally, you had the campaign starting date the day after Labor Day. Now, elections seem to be won or lost, if you look back at history, except for 2016, in May, in April, in May, in June."

Scarborough believes the president still has a path to re-election, but he said his response to the coronavirus crisis would define his first term.

"I'm believing more and more that he is blocking himself out of a White House victory right now in May," Scarborough said. "I think historians may look back, and if he loses the election, they'll say, 'You know what, he lost it in April and May, when he was talking about disinfectants, when he was talking about sticking lights inside of stomachs, when he was talking about hydroxychloroquine, talking about taking it, when he was at war with the Health and Human Services Department that he was in charge of, when he was at war with the Centers for Disease Control that he's in charge of, when he was at war with the Food and Drug Administration that he is in charge of, when he is at war with the Veterans Affairs Administration that he is in charge of, when he was at war with Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, who works in his administration, when he put himself at war with every doctor or every scientist or every person who had spent their entire life planning for this moment when it came to vaccines.'"

"The president decided to reassign that person during the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic that will kill 100,000 Americans in the coming weeks," Scarborough added. "We'll cross that 100,000 threshold. Americans are going to -- I think historians, Americans are going to look back to these months and decide, this is when Donald Trump did more damage to his campaign than any Democrat ever could."