In 2009, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough made racially charged comments about the Republican National Committee’s former black chairman Michael Steele, a striking contrast to his recent criticism of a speaker last week at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference.
During a 2009 episode of “Morning Joe,” Scarborough was reacting to Steele’s backtracking of his previous criticism of conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.
“You know what the Republicans are learning right now, that sometimes, being black isn’t enough. They thought we’re going to get a black guy to run our party,” Scarborough said of Steele.
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Scarborough’s co-host Mika Brzezinski reacted with a pained grimace and stared into the camera as Scarborough continued his attacks on Steele before eventually gesturing at him to stop. The two are expected to marry this spring.
Here’s the video:
Joe Scarborough on Michael Steele in 2009:
“You know what the Republicans are learning right now, that sometimes, being black isn’t enough. They thought we’re going to get a black guy to run our party.” pic.twitter.com/IAXNEXr74N
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 26, 2018
The comments were unearthed this past weekend by The Wrap’s Jon Levine, just days after Scarborough tweeted his outrage over a comment made by a CPAC speaker who claimed Steele was chosen to lead the Republican Party because he is “a black guy.”
“We elected Mike Steele to be the R.N.C. chair because he’s a black guy,” said Ian B. Walters, the communications director for the American Conservative Union. “That was the wrong thing to do.”
Scarborough signaled his disgust with Walters’s remarks on Sunday.
Matt’s team made a racially charged remark about @MichaelSteele, and then Matt had the nerve to attack Michael for making the criticism about race. He also suggested the racist attack was mitigated by the fact Michael criticized Trump. It was insulting, depressing and bizarre. https://t.co/ZIuvUVp2l7
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) February 25, 2018
This report, by Joe Simonson, was cross posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
