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Little did they know a Trump victory was incoming, MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough joined contributor Michael Beschloss in fretting early on Election Day without any evidence that a Donald Trump win would result in less freedom of speech.

Scarborough also falsely asserted that Trump  “said he was going to execute Liz Cheney,” and put down MAGA Republicans, declaring that they “apparently didn’t go to civics class.”

At 6:37 a.m. Scarborough started fretting about, whether Trump wins or loses, how to deal with the 70 million or so people who will vote for the Republican nominee:

Even in that best case scenario for the Harris people and for what you’re talking about here, we still have an electorate — 70 million plus that will be voting for a man who said he was going to assassinate for treason the chairman of the Joint Chiefs because he didn’t support him on January 6th — who said just in recent days he was going to execute Liz Cheney with that firing squad — nine guns pointed and shooting at her face…

After listing a few other remarks by Trump, Scarborough recalled conversations with MAGA supporters who refuse to believe anti-Trump warnings, with the MSNBC host then adding:

There’s a sort of Russian embrace of disinformation, a radical disvaluing — devaluing of truth over the last nine to 10 years, and a complete ignorance on civics and what the term “Madisonian democracy” even means, what checks and balances even means, what judicial review even means, what the rule of law even means. How do we, as a nation, even post-Trump, how do we reach those Americans who apparently didn’t go to civics class — apparently didn’t learn the basics of this Constitution, and have just been overwhelmed with disinformation over the past nine years?

A bit later, as MSNBC contributor Michael Beschloss declared that freedom of speech was on the line:

… if historians in the future are allowed to write books — and, by the way, that question is open this morning. And if people are allowed to go on television and say what they think in the future — which, again, that question is open this morning, in the future, historians are going to look back on this day and say this is the day that America made a choice between freedom and democracy on one side and authoritarianism and dictatorship on the other.

Scarborough jumped in to speculate that billionaires may censor speech by liberals as he fretted over the recent decision by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to block the paper from printing an endorsement of Democrat Kamala Harris.

Beschloss predictably brought up Germany Nazis and Italian fascists from the 1930’s: “It is, and that’s what happens when strongmen come to power. That happened in Italy in the 1920’s and 1930’s, Germany in the 1930’s.”

Transcript follows:

MSNBC’s Morning Joe
November 5, 2024
6:37 a.m. Eastern

JOE SCARBOROUGH: But what happens, though, Jon, as a historian, tell us, and then we’ll get to Michael, what happens if Donald Trump loses tonight? And let’s say he even loses convincingly — and there’s no evidence that he will do that — not at all — but let’s say he does. Even in that best case scenario for the Harris people and for what you’re talking about here, we still have an electorate — 70 million plus that will be voting for a man who said he was going to assassinate for treason the chairman of the Joint Chiefs because he didn’t support him on January 6th — who said just in recent days he was going to execute Liz Cheney with that firing squad — nine guns pointed and shooting at her face — a man who has said that he is going to shut down CBS because he didn’t like how they edited an interview — a man who said he was going to be a dictator from day one — a man who said he was going to terminate the Constitution — a man who said he was going to use the Army and he was going to use the National Guard on his political opponents. I literally could go on all day, and yet, you talk to Trump voters, and they’ll go, “He didn’t say that. Wait, no, I didn’t hear him –”  And then you say, “Well, here’s the quote.” And they’ll go, “He didn’t mean that.” So there is a — there’s something far, far more long-lasting than just Donald Trump the candidate. There’s a sort of Russian embrace of disinformation, a radical disvaluing — devaluing of truth over the last nine to 10 years, and a complete ignorance on civics and what the term “Madisonian democracy” even means, what checks and balances even means, what judicial review even means, what the rule of law even means. How do we, as a nation, even post-Trump, how do we reach those Americans who apparently didn’t go to civics class — apparently didn’t learn the basics of this Constitution, and have just been overwhelmed with disinformation over the past nine years?

JON MEACHAM: We are on trial. Donald Trump is not the only person on the ballot. We are. The American citizenry is on the ballot.

(…)

6:42 a.m.

WILLIE GEIST: Michael, you and Jon and other great historians often talk about hinge days in history — hinge moments in history — and we could go through them all over the last 250 years in this country. This does feel in many ways like a hinge day, which is to say we’re going down one of two very different paths by perhaps tomorrow morning.

MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Yes, and that’s what — if historians in the future are allowed to write books — and, by the way, that question is open this morning. And if people are allowed to go on television and say what they think in the future — which, again, that question is open this morning, in the future, historians are going to look back on this day and say this is the day that America made a choice between freedom and democracy on one side and authoritarianism and dictatorship on the other.

SCARBOROUGH: Michael, can I restate something — can I restate something for you?

BESCHLOSS: Sure, please.

SCARBOROUGH: It’s not that historians won’t be able to write those books. It may be that the billionaires and the corporations that own the publishing houses will refuse to print those books.

BESCHLOSS: Absolutely.

SCARBOROUGH: And we’ve seen that with the L.A. Times — we have seen that with the Washington Post — I will not get into details. We have even seen that with other countries. Liberal democracies who so fear Donald Trump that they are already preparing — already preparing for the worst. We see billionaires on Wall Street who six months ago expressed contempt for Donald Trump. People that walked away from him after January the 6th saying that he was bad for American democracy who are now preemptively kowtowing to — someone they fear will be an authoritarian leader. So this is not high drama. This is the reality we live in. Who would have ever believed three weeks ago that the Washington Post who rewrote the rules of journalistic history with Woodward and Bernstein by keeping politicians accountable — who would ever have believed a few weeks ago that the Washington Post would have written an opinion endorsing Kamala Harris and their billionaire owner would scuttle it a few days before the election because he was so fearful that a vengeful Donald Trump would go after his business? Not just the Post, but Amazon, his AI business. Who would have believed that? But now, that’s the world we live in.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yes.

BESCHLOSS: It is, and that’s what happens when strongmen come to power. That happened in Italy in the 1920’s and 1930’s, Germany in the 1930’s. Certainly it’s happened in Hungary, and Viktor Orban, of course, is one of Donald Trump’s most notorious heroes. He said we should follow that model, and so it may be. And this is what happens when America begins to go toward dictatorship. And I think all of us, you know, talking right now, we would have all said — I’ll speak for all of us, and if I’m wrong, correct me. If we had discussed this 20 years ago and we had said one of the two major party nominees is promising — just as Joe was saying, suspend the Constitution, pit the Justice Department, the Defense Department against political enemies and run this country out of the White House telling businesses what to do — small businesses, labor unions — it’s all done by one leader in the White House giving orders. We would have said that person could not get 50 percent of the vote. As we speak this morning, the polls that you all are talking about say that a presidential nominee — you have to give Donald Trump credit for this. He’s been very straightforward. He has said, “If you elect me, you’re going to get violence, you’re going to get dictatorship for at least a day.” He has made very clear what’s going to happen. That’s a campaign promise. And what I cannot understand is that half the country seems to think that that’s fine.