Joe Scarborough Quotes

A distinguished historian has said that one of the most valuable things about history is that it teaches us how things do not happen.

And it was not only calls from friends worried about him, but staffers calling people to call him and say Simmer down. “Who do you have in there?” said Joe Scarborough in a frantic call. “Who’s the person you trust? Jared? Who can talk you through this stuff before you decided to act on it?” “Well,” said the president, “you won’t like the answer, but the answer is me. Me. I talk to myself.

Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, was even more damning in his MSNBC talk show, Morning Joe: But when you preach this kind of hatred, and say that an African American president hates all white people — stay with me — hates all white people, you are playing with fire. And bad things can happen. And if they do happen, not only is Glenn Beck responsible, but conservatives who don’t — call — him — out — are responsible.

On July 26, 1948, Truman issued an executive order desegregating the armed forces: It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.

Spectators of life are not those who will retain their liberties nor are they likely to contribute to their country’s security.

Just as Churchill stood alone against Hitler’s war machine in 1940, it would now be Harry Truman’s government standing alone against Stalin’s designs on Western Europe seven years later.

HARRY TRUMAN FACED more consequential crises in his first years in office than any president in US history, with the notable exceptions of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Truman spent his first few months guiding the United States to victory over Hitler, making the fateful decision to end the Pacific War through the use of two atomic bombs, and working through the details of a postwar world order. Within two years, his administration would have little choice but to confront Stalin and the Soviets,

Most Americans believed that winning two European wars in a single generation was more than should be required of American troops,

Given what we know today about Stalin’s crimes against his own people, it is hard to imagine that as late as 1947, most Americans saw “Uncle Joe’s” USSR as an ally. Since Germany’s invasion of Russia in June 1941, the Soviet Union joined with the Allies and bore the brunt of the fighting.

decision the president would make in 1948 would prove to be equally profound on the shape of world history when Truman decided to recognize Israel’s existence following Britain’s rapid withdrawal in 1948 from Palestine.

The ancient Jewish homeland was then a possession of the Ottoman Empire, and within it lived hundreds of thousands of Arabs scattered in villages throughout the territory. Many Palestinian residents understandably viewed the Jewish influx with alarm.

The British government briefly considered the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Uganda, to avoid antagonizing the Arabs in Palestine.

Jews continued moving into Palestine and their Zionist dream began looking more like a possibility than ever before. On November 29, 1947, amid much controversy, the United Nations announced the “partition” of Palestine into two states, one for Jews and the other for Arabs already living in the country. Truman had lobbied quietly for this partition, despite opposition from the Arab states, the British, and his own State Department. He wrote later of his belief that partition “could open the way to peaceful collaboration between the Arabs and the Jews.” Six months later, the British formally withdrew, and the partition went into effect in May 1948. Jews around the world rejoiced, but Arab leaders were understandably enraged and threatened war. Despite his support for partition and sympathy for the plight of Jews, Truman was cautious about offering public support for Zionism. Given the growing tension in the region, he thought it was in America’s best interest for their president to be seen as an honest broker in the conflict.

Sitting in the Oval Office, he pointed to a small statue of Andrew Jackson, one of Truman’s heroes,

On his desk in the Oval Office was a sign that read, “The Buck Stops Here,” and as Truman would later observe, “The President—whoever he is—has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.

he knew that the horror of the Holocaust cried out for redress, and that only a Jewish homeland could provide safe harbor for Jews seeking shelter and safety around the world. How long would Harry Truman agonize over this fateful decision?

At six p.m., Washington time, the new state was declared in Palestine, and given the name of Israel. It could not survive without the recognition and support of the most powerful country in the world. At 6:11, the White House announced that the United States would do just that by recognizing Israel’s existence. The Israeli nation was born, and America was the first to acknowledge it.

ALMOST IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING the declaration, Israel’s new neighbors attacked in concert: Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan invaded in an attempt to deal Zionism an instantaneous death blow. In a remarkable display of military skill and determination against overwhelming odds, made more impressive given the arms embargo maintained by the United States—the nascent Israeli army repulsed the invading countries. The fighting would continue periodically for another forty years until the 1979 Camp David Accords.

Chaim Weizmann, who not long before had slipped into the White House unseen, was to be the first president of Israel.

The Truman Doctrine was not a declaration of war, but the recognition of a cold war with the Soviet Union that had already begun.

Despite his foreign policy successes, few gave Truman a chance of being reelected. The president went into his White House run deeply unpopular.

By 1948, “to err is Truman” became a popular expression, and a Newsweek poll of fifty political pundits found that every one of them predicted his defeat. His 1948 Republican opponent was the popular Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, who had been the party’s nominee against Roosevelt four years before.

Election Day brought one of the most astonishing political upsets in history: Truman won with 303

To his eternal delight, the Chicago Daily Tribune printed its front page before the polls had closed, with the blazing headline: DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. In one of the most famous photographs in American political history, a beaming Truman holds up the paper in triumph. He had reason to rejoice: Not only had he won a miraculous political victory, but the Democrats had retaken both houses of Congress. The Republican reign on Capitol Hill was over after two short years, and the Democrats reasserted their longstanding dominance in Washington.

Vietnam War threatened to tear that consensus asunder, as the disaster in Southeast Asia consumed the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic Party began questioning the costs of American global leadership

But the eventual triumph of the West vindicated Harry Truman’s vision declared before Congress in 1947. In the decades between Truman’s speech and the collapse of the Iron Curtain, America had, in fact, become Reagan’s “city on a hill” and FDR’s “arsenal of democracy.

Donald Trump’s foreign policy was framed by his hostility to Western democratic leaders and a bizarre attraction to former KGB agent and current Russian president Vladimir Putin. Trump let pass no opportunity to undermine NATO, a bulwark against Russian aggression since its founding. Trump also, in effect, ceded Syria to Putin, giving Russia its first beachhead in the Middle East since 1973. And his constant attacks on America’s most faithful ally during the Cold War, Germany, led to the American president playing into Russia’s hands again by withdrawing troops from the country. While Trump’s “America First” theme initially struck a nerve with voters, his ignorance of history and lack of diplomatic skill prevented

his administration from making progress on any significant foreign policy issue over four years. His open hostility toward democratically elected leaders and his open admiration for autocrats also caused grave damage to America’s reputation on the international stage.

Harry Truman and the United States saved the free world.” Churchill’s declaration that Truman saved civilization itself is perhaps the greatest tribute to the thirty-third president, a historical giant dismissed in his time as a strange, little man.

Less than eleven years before he sat behind the Oval Office desk, Harry Truman had been the presiding judge of Jackson County, concerned with road building and his county’s payroll. Now he would be in charge of bringing the greatest war in history to a successful conclusion, and building a lasting peace out of the ruins of Europe and Japan.

Early on, before getting down to attacking each other, Bannon and Kushner were united in their separate offensives against Priebus. Kushner’s preferred outlet was Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s Morning Joe, one of the president’s certain morning shows. Bannon’s first port of call was the alt-right media (“Bannon’s Breitbart shenanigans,” in Walsh’s view). By the end of the first month in the White House, Bannon and Kushner had each built a network of primary outlets, as well as secondary ones to deflect from the obviousness of the primary ones, creating a White House that simultaneously displayed extreme animosity toward the press and yet great willingness to leak to it. In this, at least, Trump’s administration was achieving a landmark transparency. The constant leaking was often blamed on lower minions and permanent executive branch staff, culminating in late February with an all-hands meeting of staffers called by Sean Spicer—cell phones surrendered at the door—during which the press secretary issued threats of random phone checks and admonitions about the use of encrypted texting apps.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski should be herded into a rocket and shot into space for their brown-nosing of Trump A

Kushner’s preferred outlet was Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s Morning Joe, one of the president’s certain morning shows. Bannon’s first port of call was the alt-right media (“Bannon’s Breitbart shenanigans,” in Walsh’s view). By the end of the first month in the White House, Bannon and Kushner had each built a network of primary outlets, as well as secondary ones to deflect from the obviousness of the primary ones, creating a White House that simultaneously displayed extreme animosity toward the press and yet great willingness to leak to it. In this, at least, Trump’s administration was achieving a landmark transparency.

What’s more, Trump was receiving the censure of his friends, too. And it was not only calls from friends worried about him, but staffers calling people to call him and say Simmer down. “Who do you have in there?” said Joe Scarborough in a frantic call. “Who’s the person you trust? Jared? Who can talk you through this stuff before you decided to act on it?” “Well,” said the president, “you won’t like the answer, but the answer is me. Me. I talk to myself.” Hence, within twenty-four hours of the inauguration, the president had invented a million or so people who did not exist.