Morning Joe devoted a segment to the national security risk Trump has posed from the beginning, talking about how he replaced professionals in the U.S. government with those who placed loyalty to him above loyalty to the country.
"Now, this is all known. This is all on the public record. He was a threat to national security long before he stole those classified materials and went to great lengths to illegally retain them. and Claire McCaskill, add on top of that, on top of all of those crimes against -- political crimes against our national security interests, add on top of that he, after Congress approved weapons for Ukraine, he blackmailed Zelenskyy and said, you're not going to get these weapons until you give me dirt on Joe Biden and Joe Biden's family," Joe Scarborough said.
"Add on top of that, that Marco Rubio's-led intel community in the United States Senate said, let's underline this, 'Donald Trump's 2016 campaign posed a direct threat to America's national security.' That's just what we know, Claire. These people suggesting that he didn't have malicious intent in mind, they're ignoring a very, very long paper trail."
"He is so dangerous, he is so dangerous to our national security, and it is just fascinating to me that people in Congress who understand the consequences of what he has done and how he has done it, continue to defend him," Scarborough said.
"I mean, you know, we've talked about what he would do with these documents. One of the things is that he could use them to continue to curry favor with Saudi Arabia. and what could Saudi Arabia do for Donald Trump right now? They could cut production of oil and raise gas prices. Nothing could hurt Joe Biden more than raising gas prices next year, three, four months from the election. and Trump knows that," Claire McCaskill said.
"He is willing to do anything to do two things: promote himself and make money, country be damned."
Scarborough noted that the Saudi crown prince threatened major economic pain on the U.S. amid oil feuds. He said Trump was 'enraged' that Jared Kushner got 2 billion for his fund from the Saudis and he didn't get a cut of it.
"And let me just say one other thing, too. Talking to my sources in the Middle East, and I asked them, after the Saudis cut production to raise oil prices, I asked them all, what were you doing? What were you thinking? President Biden goes over, he brings -- with political damage done to his political brand in America, he gets the crown prince out of the corner, goes over, gives him a fist bump. and the crown prince turns around a couple of weeks later, stabs Biden in the back, forgive the -- that description, undermines Joe Biden. Why would he do that?
"And you talk to oil ministers, talk to other people in the Middle East. They were counselling him not to do it. They said it made no sense. And he cut production, prices went down anyway. Everything they were warning him about came to fruition. So why in the world would the Saudi crown prince cut oil production when everybody in OPEC was telling him not to do it? Everybody else in OPEC was saying, this made no sense. Everybody else said that this is not the time.
"Well, you all think about it. I think many questions may answer themselves," Scarborough concluded.
