And it would have been fine, too. The first half of his segment Joe Scarborough wasn't on the set, Anand Giridharadas spoke about his Thanksgiving with his foreign-born parents, and how this was the first Thanksgiving where they are afraid. He wasn't afraid of the top levels of government after 9/11, because even George W. Bush called us all Americans.
But then Joe Scarborough who was not on the set for that,...and then he was. Who called in the SOS?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: We don't need to jump out of windows with our hair on fire.
MIKA BREZINSKI: Although how Anand may feel, that's easy for us to say. Your family, thanksgiving, talking about --
ANAND GIRIDHARADAS: Fear is not evenly distributed right now.
SCARBOROUGH: That's fair.
MIKE BARNICLE: Fear is also contagious.
SCARBOROUGH: Fear is contagious. And we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
I want to point out that Joe Scarborough is, without irony or snark or even a sense of his own patronizing tone, quoting Franklin Roosevelt, who put the Japanese in CAMPS during World War II. Moving on...
GIRIDHARADAS: Also, it's a little scary that a month before he even takes over the Presidency, we're already talking about the need for the Supreme Court to prevent --
SCARBOROUGH: (yelling) That's scary to you. That's called the First Amendment. You want the First Amendment to suit you the way you want to suit it. I guarantee you, Anand, there are 50% of Americans at least who believe someone who burns the American flag should be --
GIRIDHARADAS: And the whole point --
SCARBOROUGH: (yelling some more) Hold on a second. The First Amendment also has its limits. I support the ability of people to be able to burn the American flag if they want to. But people have the right in this country to debate it. And it does not mean that the Third Reich is going to march down our streets.
GIRIDHARADAS: I didn't say Third Reich.
SCARBOROUGH: Okay.
GIRIDHARADAS: I don't worry about flag burning.
SCARBOROUGH: We have to go because they're screaming in my ear. Go.
GIRIDHARADAS: I don't worry about the desire to criminalize flag burning. I worry about the punishment included which was the stripping of citizenship, which is outside --
SCARBOROUGH: That's not going to happen! The Supreme Court --
GIRIDHARADAS: The President-elect of the United States -- the fact he proposes it --
SCARBOROUGH: You're not being rational now. I have to say this before we go. You're not being rational if you believe the Supreme Court --
GIRIDHARADAS: I'm not being rational for taking the President-elect of the United States at his word?
You don't think Joe Scarborough is going to ANSWER that question, do you? And this is why Joe has me blocked on Twitter. I have certain not blog-safe words for people who use the "You're not being rational" argument about my constitutional rights.
SCARBOROUGH: Let me finish because you know what I'm going to say and you don't want me to say it because you know I'm right. The Supreme Court of the United States of America will never under any circumstances allow anyone to be stripped of their citizenship because they burned the American flag.
GIRIDHARADAS: If a President --
SCARBOROUGH: If you don't believe that, you haven't been reading constitutional law for the past several years.
Hey Joe! Go tell the President-elect. It's quite obvious you have each other on speed-dial.
GIRIDHARADAS: If a President were merely to propose it for me it would be a tragedy even if it's struck down.
SCARBOROUGH: Then it's a tragedy.
GIRIDHARADAS: Thank you.
SCARBOROUGH: But Hitler is not coming back --
GIRIDHARADAS: No one said Hitler is coming back. But this is how many places that went in dark directions, many places, this is one of the ways in which it started.
Sorry Anand, but those hate crime letters to the mosques in California did say Hitler was coming back in the form of "Sheriff" Trump. So yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: Be careful. And be careful not to spread fear if it's not rationally based.
GIRIDHARADAS: I would never do that. All these fears expressed today are rational.
SCARBOROUGH: It's always wonderful to see you. It is. Isn't this what TV is about? it's not. It's about --
MIKE BARNICLE: I'm afraid to answer that!
SCARBOROUGH: Okay. See, fear is contagious.
It's contagious when you bully your guests and refuse to admit that the brown stains of Trump's racist campaign and pure pig-ignorance about our Constitution (that he is supposed to swear to uphold on January 20) is all over your party's underpants, Joe. But hey, just keep avoiding the question and swoop onto the set whenever things get too real.
