A political ad that features President Donald Trump warning, “This is the final battle,” and ends with the disclaimer “Paid for by the US Government,” was a massive misstep that called unwanted attention to the president’s largest blunder.
That was the panel's collective opinion on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Monday after the ad premiered over the weekend.
After sharing portions of the grim ad, the hosts played a clip of Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) harshly criticizing it, calling it “probably illegal” on CBS and then adding, “I think there ought to be a rule that you can’t – well, there probably is a rule – you can’t spend public money to promote yourself.”
According to MS NOW host Joe Scarborough, Trump’s mention of wars as part of the voiceover was disastrous.
After repeatedly observing that taxpayers funded the ad (”stealing taxpayer dollars”), he drilled down on part of Trump’s message.
“When he says, I'm keeping you out of foreign wars, what he's saying is, 'Hey everybody, I've got you in a foreign war. I put you in a foreign war.’ That is a reminder: look what I have done!” he exclaimed.
Co-host Jonathan Lemire added, “His signature promises: staying out of foreign wars, lower prices. He has not fulfilled either. He's reminding those at home — again, who paid for that ad — that he failed on those promises.”
Scarborough later said the ad also has implications for a reeling Republican Party.
“This is bad. It's bad for America,” he pointed out. “But if you don't care about that, and there's a lot of evidence right now that you don't, it's not only bad for America, it's really bad for the Republican Party. You need to make him stop.”
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