Morning Joe claims Trump is trying to get Mitch McConnell killed

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough explained what Donald Trump thinks he has to gain from issuing a death threat against Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.

The former president raged that McConnell had a "death wish" and racially slurred his "China loving wife" Elaine Chao in a Friday night Truth Social rant, and the "Morning Joe" host said Trump clearly sees the Kentucky Republican as an obstacle that needs to be removed.

"It's interesting, Donald Trump goes after the Republican leader of the United States Senate at a time Republicans desperately want to take control of the Senate," Scarborough said. "You've talked about a political death wish, it seems that he did this in Georgia, he's now doing it when Republicans need his support more than ever. It really does seem like he doesn't want any Republican to succeed except for himself, and he's probably really angry at Mitch McConnell for agreeing to reform the Electoral Count Act that will stop Jan. 6 from happening again."

Trump sees political violence as his only path back to the White House, according to Scarborough, and believes that he lost power in 2021 because there wasn't enough of it.

"There's a through line here," Scarborough said. "If you look at what Donald Trump said in the past, you look at the fact that his approval numbers are going down, it's becoming obvious to him he cannot win. He knows. He knew he could win in 2016 when everybody else didn't think he could win, and he now knows he can't. He understands, and I've talked to people around him, he can't get back those suburban voters in Atlanta. He can't get back the suburban voters in the Philly suburbs."

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Trump 'will be convicted of multiple felonies': George Conway on the bumpy road ahead

"He understands he can't win, so what is he doing now?" Scarborough continued. "His rhetoric is becoming more violent, he's embracing QAnon conspiracy theories, he's actually boiling down his supporters, not doing what any politician who would want to win would be doing. He's boiling down support to find people that will support him for an overthrow of the federal government. That's my belief, and oh, wait -- that's what he tried to do on Jan. 6, just a couple of years ago. Just look and see what he's doing and ask yourself, why would he come out and try to get the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate killed? Why would he talk about a death wish in all caps? Why would he make a racist slur against a former member of his Cabinet who happens to be Mitch McConnell's wife? Why would he embrace QAnon conspiracy theories? Why would he keep, again, getting more and more radical when he knows it will only drive down the support?"

"The clear answer, as he supports the election deniers, is he wants to succeed in 2024 in the way he failed in 2020," Scarborough concluded, "and he's obviously ready to use violence to do that."

10 03 2022 06 54 19www.youtube.com